PNG Transparency for Internet Explorer

Ever wanted to allow your users to see transparent PNG images using Internet Explorer? Now you can!

[high]Note:[/high] I did NOT create this script, it remains the sole property of it's author.


Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Ignored as a comment in other browsers, so no browser-sniffing code is required
• Works with (X)HTML Strict & Transitional Doctypes
• Does not break W3C validation
• Lightweight and very easily deployed
• Works with existing in-line or external CSS rules based on class or ID selectors
• Works with old-style img align="left" or align="right" attributes
• Adds itself to the end of any existing Body Onload code
• Works with imagemaps and input images using a special version

Cons:

• Doesn't work in IE versions earlier than 5.5
• Requires JavaScript to be enabled - the estimations for how many people choose not to use JS vary wildly.
• CSS backround PNGs not supported - experimentation revealed I could traverse the Stylesheets collection and use the AlphaImageLoader trick to replace all background-image attributes containing PNGs, but then background-repeat would not work, and anchors placed over non-transparent parts of the image were not clickable :-(
• CSS rules for the PNG images based on the img selector are lost, but this is easily rectified by adding a class selector to your img rule such that img{..} becomes img,.png{..} - then add the attribute class="png" to each of your PNGs.

To install, simply upload the attached .js file to your /forums/clientscript/ directory.

Then edit your headinclude template, and add the following:

<!--[if lt IE 7.]>
<script defer type="text/javascript" src="clientscript/vbulletin_pngfix.js?v=$vboptions[simpleversion]"></script>
<![endif]-->

You're all set.!
Note: Updated to reflect changes by the author, and 3.5.x javascript handling changes. This template modification works fine with 3.6.x as it is, and therefore won't be posted in the 3.6.x forum!

[Darat]

Hi - wondering if this could be made to work with a "runtime generated" png? We've just installed LaTex onto our forum and we output that as a transparent PNG, which looks fine on all browsers bar IE of course.

[bashy]

Absolutely brilliant...
I can now use the smiley maker

Thanks m8 your a star installed

[Pcparts]

Thanks.


*installs*

[BaselineAce]

Anyone figure out a way to use background-image?

[crash resistant]

One of the most under-rated and under-used hacks/mods in existance.

THANK YOU

Shame on you developers for not using PNG, regardless of IE support. Remember the whole firefox shebang?

[wizardan]

Perfect.
It addressed a concern I had for one of my skins.
Very much installed!

[reismarktq2]

This hack works perfectly for me except for one major problem: Avatars.

I thought the problem was that height and width weren't specified, but I spent two hours trying to figure out how to add that and it still wouldn't work. Anyone?

[Lost_Prophet]

Fantastic
*install*

[magicktrick]

wow, I was looking for something like this for my main site, and Viola! It works there too. Many thanks...installed and then some.

[Oblivion Knight]

Originally Posted by reismarktq2

This hack works perfectly for me except for one major problem: Avatars.

I thought the problem was that height and width weren't specified, but I spent two hours trying to figure out how to add that and it still wouldn't work. Anyone?

Avatars should work if you use the file system storage option instead of database..