XnView Software

<-- Moderator's note: This topic has been split off from “XnView Shell extension”. -->

When I use the shell extension to convert a transparent PNG to GIF, it loses the transparency and gets a black background. Any ideas?

anonymous_user wrote:When I use the shell extension to convert a transparent PNG to GIF, it loses the transparency and gets a black background. Any ideas?

Loading GIF, removing transparency, saving JPG

Sorry for mentioning earlier, but I dont want to change the background color. I want it to stay transparent. Last I checked GIF does support transparency.

Converting truecolor PNG images to GIFs will inevitably result in loss of transparency, because the color depth has to be reduced to 8-bit in the process.

When an 8-bit PNG is converted to GIF format on the other hand, the transparency index of the source image's palette is maintained.

Paint.NET lets me save PNGs as GIF without losing transparency. I guess XnView doesnt?

anonymous_user wrote:Paint.NET lets me save PNGs as GIF without losing transparency. I guess XnView doesnt?

It's impossible to keep 24bits with alpha in gif format, you don't choose a transparency index?

Programs like Photoshop/ImageReady and Fireworks are capable of reducing an images bit depth from truecolor to indexed color without loss of transparency.
But these are full-fledged image editors.