Drop shadow on Fireworks turns opaque

Tiff Looks ok until exported to gif

[Lorel]

Hi All,

I've made multiple images with drop shadows but have run into a problem with current image. It is a simple photo in thumbnail size, in Tiff format. When I apply a transparent background and then the drop shadow it looks fine until I export it and then when I select "gif" format so I can get a transparent background again the shadow looks opaque. I've tried saving the tiff file as a gif and then applying the drop shadow (in various settings including the default) and still the same opaque shadow.

Is there something I'm missing? I would appreciate any advice.

lori

[bunltd]

tif supports alpha transparency, gif doesn't.

The gif 'transparency' just sets a particular color to transparent, but the shadow is applied to that color, so that's probably why it looks opaque. (especially if your image background color is different than the color you're using on your page) You might try to set the background of the image to the same color as the background of the page where you'll be using the gif.

Just guessing, since it's a tif, is it a photo-type image? You might want to specify a background color that matches your page color and export as a jpg - since gif's are limited in the number of colors they display.

LisaB

[Lorel]

Hi Bundtl

Thanks. I hadn't considered the background being a problem. I tested it on a white background and it still looks opaque instead of faded.

I'll do as you suggest however.

Lori

[Robin_reala]

PNG supports alpha transparency as well.

In every browser apart from IE >_< There are hacks to get it to work there though.