BGs and watermarks

[LilPixieryn]

Why does it matter? >>;
The BGs aren;t going to be transparent any time soon anyway <<

[Nick]

Huh? I'm participating in this thread to evaluate different options for offering transparency.

[Solfeggio]

Why does it matter? >>;
The BGs aren;t going to be transparent any time soon anyway <<

Forgive me for jumping in too! xD
I'm sure eventually we will have an option when one is found that best presents the art.
Personally I've also hoped for transparent backgrounds, but I'm willing to wait it out, given how well CS develops over time

[Blue Icebox]

I know this transparency thingy that you can use but it usually is not that great if you're making smooth edged pictures with lots of white. Unlike the things you're talking about, it doesn't really let the colors blend in with the ones your bg color is using because making smooth edged/soft edged have extra colors.. that's how it makes it blend... so I recomend your thingy than mine if you're not doing "pixels"

http://benetonsoftware.com/Beneton_Movie_GIF.php

I know it's animation thingy but it has a thing you click "transparent" and it makes the backround transparent!

[Nick]

The options I presented are all the options we have, and are really all the options that are possible with the technology available. There is no other "magic" way of getting a transparent background. What we used to do is put a coloured outline around the edge of the pet: The pet blends smoothly into the border, and the border has a sharp transparent edge to it. However, we didn't like to have to modify the images in this way.

[Sorren Fey]

If we really have to choose a transparent file, I would choose the png. I know, IE 6 doesn't show it transparent... But the outlines looks best with this format.
So people, whose want to have them transparent have to get something better than IE 6. XD

(No way for gif... It looks really ugly.)

[Nick]

Hm, only 11% of our visitors use IE6. If we can control the colour that appears in the background for IE6 it could be doable.

[Nick]

We support transparency now! This code:

Code: Select all

[img]http://www.chickensmoothie.com/pet/696046&bg=ff0000&trans=1.jpg[/img]

Produces this image in your browser:



Just tack "&trans=1" onto the end of the URL for your pet image (but before the ".jpg"), and it'll render as a nice soft-edged transparent PNG on IE 7 and upwards, and all other browsers. On IE 6 and older, the background won't be transparent, like always it will fill with the background colour that you selected in your URL. So you can be lazy and not set a background colour that matches the place where you're putting your pets, and it'll only look bad for those 10% of visitors on IE 6.. . Here I've set the background for IE 6 users to be bright red.. .

[Solfeggio]

*tries it on her pup in her sig*

WOO! IT WORKS! And looks so pretty!
Thanks Nick! I *knew* you guys would find a way...you always do ^______^

[Nick]

But notice that you did choose bright red as your background colour for IE 6 users, that's a little harsh.. . You might want to pick a colour similar to the background colour of the posts - that way your pet's background will perfectly match the background of the posts on good browsers, even though the background colour changes for every second post. On IE 6, your background colour will still be a pretty good match.

(or you could be lazy and leave out the &bg= part, the default background colour is white)