Fixing PNG transparency for Internet Explorer 6

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Last updated: May 1, 2025

PNG image files are great. They support full transparency unlike GIFs which tend to look blocky. The only problem is IE 6 doesn\’t support PNG transparency, and with about 30% of people still using IE 6 this is a real problem.

On a recent project I needed to use PNGs because of their transparencies, GIFs just wouldn\’t cut it. I racked my brains trying to think of a solution, and finally I decided to Google it and see if anyone has found a solution.

They have!

On this site the developer found a way of getting full transparency using a bit of Javascript. It works great, but does take a few milliseconds to load. I guess the only real problem is if someone is using IE 6 and have Javascript disabled. I reckon this would be a tiny fraction of a percent.