Interactive Media Center - Transparent Images GIfs and PNGs

Transparent GIF Images Compared to Transparent PNG Images
Traditional GIF images with transparent backgrounds have proven to be unacceptable when certain types of features appear in the image. In particular, drop shadows and most fades do not work well. The solution is to use a relative new, the transparent PNG. This page illustrates the difference. What you are seeing here: This portion of the page has a colored background to better illustrate the differences between the GIF and PNG images. The images are the same except for their format. Notes accompany each example.

	The image on the left is a standard GIF with a transparent background. Notice that the drop shadow creates a several problem, the most noticeable of which is the white background behind the drop shadow. The white is also shows aliasing, the "jaggies" around the white edges, especially around the curves.

	The image on the left is a PNG with a transparent background. Note that the drop shadows looks very good with clean fades. The shadows are also nicely anti-aliases, which means that they do not have the jaggies.