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.

[Bucky Katt]

It is exactly what I'm trying to do on my forum, but I don't know where to chance the extentions in the code.

[Dygear]

And with the current image development set it takes ages to save out new background colors, having to open 30 something psd files and then resize them. It's silly! I think I might make a one PSD for all 'phpBB style'. It would be a Style Development Kit, and I would think I could release it here a modification.

[jinscoe]

Any news on this? Trying to do the same thing. TIA

[Marco van Herwaarden]

I am not sure what news you are expecting, but i doubt there will be anything coming here. If the OP wanted to ask this to the developers, then he has posted on the wrong site. He will need to post on vB.com to get a response.

PS You can simply rename the .png to .gif.

[Sean S]

there are ways to get around the .PNG transparency issues in IE 6 and most major browsers.

As far as the latest browsers go, most do support PNG-24 now with no problem, as for older browsers, there is work arounds and also javascript codes that will get rid of the problem.

It really all comes down to how many version of each browser you would like to support. Changing or recreating the files and saving them as PNG should not take that long if you want to do it yourself.

As far as the file size concern goes, if the background images mentioned are repeating, then there is no need for the image to exceed a 1px height or width (depending if it is vertical / horizontal pattern), and because of that it shouldn't really be much more than a .GIF file the same size.