Comments on: The Secret to Transparency with PNG8′s and IE6

By: Jim Jordan

Jim Jordan — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:18:07 +0000

Bringing some relevance to the post IE6 world… This is still an important issue as PNG8 with alpha saves bytes wasted in PNG24. We still need Fireworks, even if IE6 is passed. Photoshop CS6 still cannot do this.

By: MooCow

MooCow — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:33:18 +0000

@Jon and Greg: if you compare the file size, there is no noticeable size difference because both were made with Adobe software which creates over-bloated PNGs.

Use ImageOptim (http://imageoptim.pornel.net/) on your PNGs, you’ll be shocked. I usually see a 25 to 50% compression on Adobe-made PNGs.

By: IE6: Everything You Need to Know

IE6: Everything You Need to Know — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 06:05:25 +0000

[...] The Secret to Transparency with PNG8′s and IE6 [...]

By: Greg

Greg — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 07:47:12 +0000

@Jon, you are correct that FW does add some metadata for future edibility – however, PS adds metadata as well. If you compare the file size, you should see that there is no noticeable size difference between the two.

By: Jon

Jon — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 03:20:48 +0000

Tom, unfortunately you can’t just save from Fireworks.

Although the file extension is ‘PNG’, it is an Adobe PNG. When the file is saved, Fireworks embeds all sorts of additional data into the file to maintain edibility.

The file will still display normally in the browser, however the image will be larger in filesize than a normal PNG-24.

This is why you must (or at least, should) always choose the export function from Fireworks or Photoshop.

Jon

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:31:21 +0000

Greg is so right; cannot believe I am actually saying that. So many folks in the US government still use IE 6, and a few large corporations too, that often many of their web pages and sites just don’t look all that attractive; with a few exceptions.

I agree with Michel that folks using IE6 should upgrade their browsers. I believe PNG is the native file format for Fireworks, so no need to export just save.

Fireworks – ROCKS!
Greg – He Adult Contemporaries!

By: Michel

Michel — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:59:33 +0000

The fact that Fireworks can export PNGs in so smart a way is one of the reasons I enjoy this program so much in my daily design life! :)

Sometimes I pick up another approach: I create a PNG32 alpha image for all browsers, and serve to IE6 a simple GIF+index transparency. This works, too.

So it depends on the specific task at hand…

Btw, there are a lot of ways to “trick” IE6 to support Alpha transparency in PNG files, but none of them is 100% bullet-proof. So I prefer to serve to IE6 normal PNGs or GIFs or JPGs. I think also that it’s time for IE6 users to make the switch:)