Since people here know more about these formats than I do:

I was just wondering if you had an answer as to why IE is the only browser that doesnt' support alpha transparencies on PNG images. It's quite annoying as I was really looking forward to using PNG's on my new site. I think they're great! But I can't use any for transparencies because I and most people I know use IE (as much as some people here might enjoy it, I and everyone I know aren't going to switch OS's or browsers overnight ).

I haven't been able to find the explanation anywhere. As far as I've read on the PNG homepage, IE and NS both began support of the format at the same time, but IE is the last browser not to support this feature. Why? Are there any announcements that future versions will?

So you're asking why MS does a half-assed job of supporting open standards.

All I can say is look at their history.

I knew I'd get that response.

I would disagree, though. Netscape always sucked at following W3C standards and rendered everything like ass. I have no sympathy for that company.

I'm not talking solely about browsers.

True. No real arguments.

I'd still love to know if they plan on implementing it any time soon. I won't cross my fingers, though, and for the time being I suppose I'll have to settle for putting borders around those images. PNG is still great, though. I'm saving so much space.

If you'd like some evidence that people prefer broken implementations of whizz-bang features to sound implementations of more pedestrian ones, there's any number of "Why can't we get 3.0 builds yet?" threads on this BBS for you to look at...

Peter

This profanity-laden howto doc doesn't really answer your question, but it does provide a workaround.

FWIW, The IE I have access to shows image 1 at the bottom without alpha, and images 2,3, and 4 correctly. My Mozilla 1.4 shows images 1,3, and 4 correctly, but image 2 is blank, though it did leave a space for it.

There has been little discussion about 3.0 from people that are using it, so most people on the board do not know that the whiz-bang features may be broken. Although, it is labeled alpha for a reason.

He He He