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VISION
PHOTOGRAPHY AND GRAPHICS BY JAY BOERSMA
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 Transparent Images |
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Another advantage of the GIF format is that it allows one of the colors in its palette to be set to transparent. Although any color can be set to transparent, the one usually selected is white since this will view properly on browsers that don't support transparency and use a white background window color.
 GIF |
 Same GIF with transparent background |
Against white. |
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GIF |
Same GIF with transparent background |
Against black. |
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GIF |
Same GIF with transparent background |
Against gray. |
Transparency allows you to create a number of visual effects including drop shadows, embossed text and diagonal or non-rectangular images. (Be careful with anti-aliasing when creating images for use with transparent backgrounds or you may inadvertently create images with light-colored fringes.)
To create interlaced and/or transparent GIFs, you need an application such as Adobe ImageReady or Macromedia Fireworks. There are also shareware apps available such as Clip-2-GIF (Mac) or L-View Pro (Windows).
Sources of free or inexpensive web clip art: 
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