# Transparent Images

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transparent-images/143404>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 17, 2002, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transparent-images/143404 "2002-12-17T20:35:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![skaterboarder87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@skaterboarder87](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skaterboarder87)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transparent-images/143404/1 "2002-12-17T20:35:18Z")

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Are there any formats other than Gif that support transparent portions of the image?

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**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transparent-images/143404/2 "2002-12-17T20:56:43Z")

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If you’re talking about on the web, the only alternative to GIF is PNG. Unfortunately, transparency isn’t supported very well by IE, so you’re mostly SOL.

Not that it’ll do any good, but here’s a petition for MS to include proper PNG support:

[http://www.petitiononline.com/msiepng/petition.html](http://www.petitiononline.com/msiepng/petition.html)

As for other formats, there’s loads. Most decent graphics programs have their own native format with some form of alpha transparency: PSD for Photoshop, XCF for the Gimp, &c.