City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

New Forums: Transparency in GIF Avatar files

Beef_Cake

By Beef_Cake,
Posted on: 2009-08-01 07:51 in Player Questions

 

Posted

For some reason, the new forums do not see the transparency in the GIF image I wanted to use for my Avatar.

I know that vBulletin can do it, as the forum I normally frequent uses it as well, and it works perfectly there.


Is there something I can do, or is this a small hick-up in the code?

Thank you.

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Posted

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried using a PNG file? They're much superior to GIFs in that it includes a full alpha channel, not just a transparency mask, plus it supports 32-bit color versus the indexed 256-color palette of a GIF. The only downside is that people with ancient versions of IE see transparency as a gray block, barring a javascript tweak.

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Posted

People using ancient versions of IE deserve a grey block! :P

 

Posted

.PNG transparency is browser specific. Some browsers, ie 7 and up support it, I'm not sure if firefox and chrome do or not.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inokis View Post
.PNG transparency is browser specific. Some browsers, ie 7 and up support it, I'm not sure if firefox and chrome do or not.
They most definitely do. I think Firefox has supported it since version 0.1, and I know that Chrome has since it started, since it's based on WebKit. (As is Safari, so Mac users have had PNG support for a very long time also.) Opera has supported it for years also. Really, the only browser that hasn't supported it is IE 6.0 and previous browsers.

Oh, there is one thing that GIFs can do that PNGs can't--animate. Of course, that might not be a good thing, depending on who you ask...

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyV View Post
Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried using a PNG file? They're much superior to GIFs in that it includes a full alpha channel, not just a transparency mask, plus it supports 32-bit color versus the indexed 256-color palette of a GIF. The only downside is that people with ancient versions of IE see transparency as a gray block, barring a javascript tweak.
I'm currently using a png transparent file for my avatar, as you can see the block still exists. I've tried a few different formats and they are still showing the grey block behind your transparent avatar. I've used both IE7 and IE8, they both yield the same thing.


Quote:
Originally Posted by SunGryphon View Post
People using ancient versions of IE deserve a grey block! :P
It has nothing to do with the browser, but I know whatcha mean. Its a setting on the forums that is causing the grey block. Because in my avatar settigns, the image shows properly and looks great, but on the actual forums, its shadowed by the grey block (background)

Hopefully they can fix this, otherwise transparent avatars will look nasty as they do now

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Beef_Cake View Post
I'm currently using a png transparent file for my avatar, as you can see the block still exists. I've tried a few different formats and they are still showing the grey block behind your transparent avatar. I've used both IE7 and IE8, they both yield the same thing.
The forums put avatars on top of another image. In the villain skin, it's a gray block. In the hero skin, it's a gray block with a transparent rectangle on the right side.

The villain skin's thing looks pretty good for square images (gray border around the image). The hero skin looks decent for avatars with irregular shapes (ie: not square/rectangle), giving the avatar a layered look.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleeting_Whisper View Post
The forums put avatars on top of another image. In the villain skin, it's a gray block. In the hero skin, it's a gray block with a transparent rectangle on the right side.

The villain skin's thing looks pretty good for square images (gray border around the image). The hero skin looks decent for avatars with irregular shapes (ie: not square/rectangle), giving the avatar a layered look.
Well for square avatars such as yours, it looks ok. But for transparent avatars, it makes them look like crap. There is still a setting that will eliminate the square background. My forums had the same thing, I just had to turn it off, this forum should have it too.

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Posted

I'm using png's with transparency on my avatar and sig image. I didn't notice any problems.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Commander_NA View Post
I'm using png's with transparency on my avatar and sig image. I didn't notice any problems.
I still see the grey block around your image. So yeah, its still a issue for me. Besides your image, isn't transparent like most, at least your image takes up most of the area. For those who use transparent images, that do not take up the full square, it looks like crap.

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Beef_Cake View Post
I still see the grey block around your image. So yeah, its still a issue for me. Besides your image, isn't transparent like most, at least your image takes up most of the area. For those who use transparent images, that do not take up the full square, it looks like crap.
It's very much a matter of opinion. I think it looks bad for square avatars on the hero skin, and good on the villain skin. I think it looks good for some irregular avatars on the hero skin (I really like how MrCaptainMan's Tigger avatar turned out), and bad on the villain skin.

http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Beef_Cake View Post
I still see the grey block around your image. So yeah, its still a issue for me. Besides your image, isn't transparent like most, at least your image takes up most of the area. For those who use transparent images, that do not take up the full square, it looks like crap.
Check out this post here. If you got Firefox, or a browser with a capability to alter style sheets, you can fix it yourself.

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