MSIE PNG Alpha Transparency

In usual form, MSIE doesn’t directly implement Alpha-Transparency on PNG images. Typically this feature is used to allow for anti-aliased gradients on images so that they can be used to support a variety of backgrounds.

There are a variety of solutions online for this problem, however I take issue with most, here’s why:

  • .htc files – this is a proprietary Microsoft solution, to add support on most web servers the MIME type must also be added.
  • filter: progid: – this too is utilizing a standard in Microsoft’s own particular way.

While neither of these is perfect, the ‘filter:’ is obviously the best of two evils. Surround it with the “Conditional If” comments (previously documented) and you’re at least safe for most other browsers.

Here’s my example code:

<!–[if gte IE 5.5000]>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
function correctPNG() // correctly handle PNG transparency in Win IE 5.5 or higher.
{
for(var i=0; i<document.images.length; i++)
{
var img = document.images[i]
var imgName = img.src.toUpperCase()
if (imgName.substring(imgName.length-3, imgName.length) == “PNG”)
{
var imgID = (img.id) ? “id='” + img.id + “‘ ” : “”;
var imgClass = (img.className) ? “class='” + img.className + “‘ ” : “”;
var imgTitle = (img.title) ? “title='” + img.title + “‘ ” : “title='” + img.alt + “‘ “;
var imgStyle = “display:inline-block;” + img.style.cssText;
if (img.align == “left”) imgStyle = “float:left;” + imgStyle;
if (img.align == “right”) imgStyle = “float:right;” + imgStyle;
if (img.parentElement.href) imgStyle = “cursor:hand;” + imgStyle;
var strNewHTML = “<span ” + imgID + imgClass + imgTitle
+ ” style=\”” + “width:” + img.width + “px;height:” + img.height + “px;” + imgStyle + “;”
+ “filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader”
+ “(src=\'” + img.src + “\’, sizingMethod=’scale’);\”></span>”;
img.outerHTML = strNewHTML;
i = i-1;
}
}
}
window.attachEvent(“onload”, correctPNG);
</script>
<![endif]–>

References:

Good luck out there!