png-24 and Browser Support

Question

Should I use png-8 or png-24 in my website? Do most websites still use png-8 or is browser support good enough that I can safely use png-24? I have some jquery sliders, I don't know if that makes any difference or not.

Enharmonic

But as minitech told in his answer I would also recommend to use png24. You just have to be aware not use the alpha channel if you want to target ie6 – Whitesmith

Answer 1

Browser support is good enough that you can use PNG-24. IE6 even supports PNG-24.

If you're using the images for sliders, though, you'll probably want transparency and PNG-32 is supported by every modern browser as well. IE6 can display them, albeit without the proper transparency (unless you use hacks.)

Allene

Huh? png24 supports transparency and ie6 didn't support this. There is no full support for png24. Trnsparency will be ignored. – Whitesmith

24-bit PNGs (which I thought "PNG-24" meant, maybe not) don't support actual transparency... – Allene

You can store a alpha channel in a png24. And if you want to show this in ie 6 you need a js hack. But for sure the ie6 can display png24, but not all channels. – Whitesmith

That's what I said about PNG-32, but are you sure PNG-24's transparency is not just keyed? Can you use multiple levels of alpha, not just transparent and fully opaque? – Allene

Sorry if I don't make it clear: you are right about this, but the ie6 didn't support this one alpha channel and use grey instead. So the ie6 has no full support for png24. That's all what I want say. – Whitesmith