Tonto and transparency support

[z.mash]

I am having trouble getting transparency to work. I have a PNG image that I want to use. I want to make the background white, and then have that be a transparent color. Here is the exact image I am trying to use:

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3fgvv/linked_images/7_test.png

However, when I set the transparency color in Tonto to white, it doesn't work. Does anyone know how I make this happen? Or is this what "true alpha transparency" will do?

I know this is similar to another post by QuickCarl, but it's probably good to have this as a separate thread for subsequent users.

Thanks,
Zak

[mrallen]

ah. ok. there are two things going on here. first, all buttons and panels have a background color. if that color matches the system 'transparent' color then it is not drawn. that allows for floating text.

second, gif and png images can have transparent and alpha-blended pixels. netremote supports transparent pixels, but not alpha-blended. your gif needs to have 'real' transparent pixels. icon pixels are not matched to the system 'transparent' color. also, the button or frame's background needs to be set to the system transparent color so that you do not see the background color through the gif/png's transparent pixels.

is that clearer?

[z.mash]

Yep, now I've got it! I can get it working in Tonto. Now, this is the "alpha transparency", which is not supported in NetRemote yet, right? So we have two kinds of transparency:
Tonto Button Transparency: Remove all pictures from a button and make the button background color the same as the Transparency color set in the CCF properties dialog. (Supported by NetRemote v.982)
PNG/GIF Alpha Transparency: Using a graphics program, set the alpha channel transparency for each image. No additional setting are necessary in Tonto. (NOT YET supported by NetRemote as of v.982)

Have I represented that accurately?

Thanks for the clarification!
-Zak

[z.mash]

Great, can't wait! In the interim, I will probably just create all of my panels without an image on the background frame.

It can't be said often enough, but thanks for the hard work and excellent results!

-Zak

[Ben S]

Your summary is 100% accurate, Zak.

Once 1.0 is out the door, I will rewrite the rendering to support image alpha support.

-Ben

[Ben S]

This is a very old message, but Alpha support is 100% implemented in Win32 (the released version) and is now working in my development environment on PPC, which will be available in the next release.