browser support for PNGs

Question

What web browsers do not support the png image type, and what is a better alternative for those browsers?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 13 '11 at 14:45

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Essentially all browsers. PNG support has been in Internet Explorer since version 4, and Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, and Safari have supported it since their initial releases.

24-bit transparency is the one issue, it doesn't work in IE6 or lower. There are workarounds you can use that fix it, though. The other common image types, GIF and JPEG, don't support 24-bit transparency at all, so there's no alternative other than the workarounds.

The only modern browsers it won't work in are screen readers / text browsers for visually impaired folks and command-line enthusiasts. The proper alternative is providing an alt attribute on your img tags.

answered Apr 13 '11 at 14:45

ceejayoz

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K, Thanks! What workarounds are there for displaying an html element with a partially transparent background? – Web_Designer Apr 13 '11 at 14:50
There are a lot, including plugins for most javascript libraries like jQuery. Google for "pngfix" and you'll find dozens. – ceejayoz Apr 13 '11 at 15:00
Just remember that the filter-based PNG alpha-channel transparency fix is a performance hog and is certainly not something that you want to do with tens or hundreds of images. – Arc Apr 13 '11 at 15:14
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@Archimedix Not necessarily a bad thing - if everyone's IE6 runs slow, maybe they'll upgrade (or buy a faster computer that comes with IE7+ pre-installed)... – ceejayoz Apr 13 '11 at 15:15

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:33

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A good alternative for IE6, to support PNG transparency, is CSS3 PIE (javascript). It has many other interesting features as well of IE support.

As well this SO thread may help: How to get PNG transparency working in browsers that don't natively support it?

edited May 23 '17 at 10:33

Community

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answered Apr 13 '11 at 14:51

Maxime Pacary

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 13 '11 at 14:48

All common browsers(Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Chrome) support the png image format. However, some old versions have problems displaying transparent PNG pictures (e.g. Internet Explorer 6.x and lower). There are several alternatives depending on what you are trying to do.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 13 '11 at 14:48

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The majority of user agents support PNGs. Older versions, and non-graphical browsers e.g. Lynx don't.

answered Apr 13 '11 at 14:48

trickwallett

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browser support for PNGs

4 Answers4