What’s a transparent GIF?
GIF images are restricted to 256 colours (called 8 bit paletted). By default they’re not transparent, but you can choose one colour within the image to be transparent, meaning that if you import it onto a coloured or patterned background of a web page, you will see through bits of it. If it wasn’t transparent, you’d see a rectangular background, usually in white. In an ideal world, this makes it great for logos where you probably don’t want a white background. But they don’t work so well when you have text, or an intricate design in your logo – you end up with a halo effect around the elements, e.g. each letter. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work making the background colour to your logo the same as your web page, as you’re not guaranteed that the colours will match – even if they look like they should.
