PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Images

[Dygear]

For the default style the current image format is GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) who has a limit of 256 colors (8-Bit) with alpha transparency of a Boolean (on or off) type (1-Bit). This has the unfortunate side effect of giving objects or letters 'halos' of pixels that are somewhat transparent but have a color value forcing the image library to save these bits with a color background even if there is very little color data associated with that pixel causing the pixel to primarily appear white, and effecting overall image quality on black text with an anti-aliased font.

An example of the Anti-aliased object issue can be found on my own website: Wantagh-Levittown VAC Cadet's Forum (Notice the white edges around the images?).

What I'm proposing is the use of PNG (Portable Network Graphics) for all images that make use of any anti-aliasing inside of the default vB style. PNG files allows for Truecolor or 16.7 Millions Colors (24-Bit) along with up to 256 levels of Alpha Transparency (8-Bit) allowing for a much more precise representation of the image. This would allow for a much easier modification of the default style as people could change the background color of the vB style and not have to worry about re-editing the images file.

There are trade offs, file size and the now non issue of Internet Explorer 6 support of the PNG alpha Transparency. With with IE 7 being out and fully supporting the PNG file format, and now IE8 out IE6 is now two generations old. The second issue lies with the file size of these images. PNG files can be smaller then GIF files depending on the complexity of the image, however in most cases of the vB image set the files would be bigger. I fell that this is an acceptable trade off if your using a child style of the main default style and using the images from the main style where the child style has a different background color. PNG files provide the most robust outlook for all uses of the style system.

In a sentence, I would like the default image format for all images within the vB namespace to be of the file format PNG.

Thank you for your time,
Mark 'Dygear' Tomlin.