Topic: IE and png 24 color oddities

I have tried searching, but all the results are in regard to transparency problems, with javascript fixes
My problem is that IE displays the grey in my PNG images darker than it actually is -

observe: http://ctcdk.com

There is no transparency. I have tried with and without setting a matte color. They are png 24, not 8 bit.

Can anyone tell me what is going on here, and how I can fix it?
any help greatly appreciated...

I can tell you what's NOT going on here...

I've put up with this pain-inmy-ass for years now. IE simply renders any colour that is, or contains shades of grey. It would appear to be a system palette rendering issue with the browser.

I've done comparisons with FF, Opera, Netscape and they ALL render my greys in the same shade... but IE ALways makes them darker. And it's a royal pain sometimes. I have noticed too though that extreme ends of the greyscale spectrum are not effected as much: i.e. dark or fairly light grey tones.

Nowadays i just try to stick to using those or none at all.

Sorry i have no 'fix' for you, just a make-shift work(and i do mean WORK)-around.
I haven't addressed this issue for some time, perhaps IE7 is'nt effected by this snafu. Might be an idea to scour MS's site for some answers.

BEGIN EDIT::::
OK sorry DL i just noticed your link. I checked you specific situation and actually you are experiencing what i mentioned above. But be aware also that what you're seeing there can also be caused by the sans-transparency limitations of IE: i.e. if you made that drop shaodw fade to transparency.
::::END EDIT

(Edited by theGuest on 01-06-2007 04:42)

I was afraid of that.

There is no transparency involved - it's all solid color. I avoided transparency in order to avoid this very issue...

I guess I can play with extending the body background image vertically...but that only works to a point. I played around with a great deal of color options before settling on this...so changing the color is really not a very likely option

thanks for the response!

It is still happening in IE 7 on vista from what I am seeing...


What about changing that #808080 background to #818080 or #7f8080 to trick it into thinking it's not a shade of gray?

A way around it: Make a small image (like 8x8 or something) of the color you want in the same format (PNG24) and tile it as the backround. That's what I'd do.

Transparency should actually work in IE7.

The problem is not the transparency but the difference of color. This 'bug' has been mentionned here in the past. IIRC I even posted some comparative screenshots.

Here is a new one comparing the 256 shades of gray using a PNG8:

/!\ the differences are multiplied by 21 to be more visible.

Netscape 4 do not alter the colors.
Opera 9 and Firefox 2 have an error of 1 shade on most shades.
Internet Explorer 6 have an error of up to 12 shades!

Also I don't have any color profile/correction or gamma adjustments.



(Edited by poi on 01-06-2007 20:12)

But it doesn't affect anything but 'pure' gray tones, right?

Nope it affect every color components. Here comes a similar comparative image using a PNG24:



/!\ again, the differences are multiplied by 21 to be more visible.

Netscape 4 and Firefox do not alter the colors.
Opera 9 have an error of 1 shade on most shades.
Internet Explorer 6 still have an error of up to 12 shades!

png can be awesome
png can be a pain in the ass
This has some helpful background info:
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/png-gamma/

Wow!, Steve, Great article. That's the first time I've seen an explanation of gamma that made any sense. The rest of the article is well written too.

.



-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.

Wow, thanks for all the repsonses.

Looks like, all things considered, my best option is still to extend the body background vertically. Particularly long pages will look somewhat off in IE....but I think I can accept that - there shouldn't be too many long pages...

Great article steve, thanks.

quote:

---

poi said:

The problem is not the transparency but the difference of color.

---

I meant to suggest that he could use alpha trans PNG shadow images, instead of shadows flattened onto a gray color.