Tranparent Properties of a GIF

The image below is the same image as on the previous page. This GIF uses a transparent backgroud to hide the color of black that is around the "F". The GIF format permits one color to be selected as the transparent color.

Transparent backgrounds are useful if your web page has a background image, and you wish to have a separate graphic over the top of the background. Yellow bar on side of screen is a background image. The school house has a transparent background (white is transparent).

The image below does not have a transparent background. The white background in the image blocks out the page background.