Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 12:03:58 -0500
From: "Stephen.E.Blake" <Stephen DOT E DOT Blake AT email DOT moore DOT com>
Message-Id: <LOTUS NOTES */PRMD=MOORE/ADMD=MCI/C=US/@MHS>
Subject: Re: 16bpp pixels (now: 32bpp pixels)
To: xmerm05 AT vse DOT cz
Cc: Djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Precedence: bulk

The alpha does not have to be supported in hardware necessarilly.
Actually, many software packages support alpha.  Photoshop and most other high 
end image manip programs use alpha channels to create pretty cool effects.  If 
you can learn and understand alpha channels, you can do some pretty 
sophistocated stuff.  Think of layering two images together that have smoothly 
varying alpha channels.  The effect is that one picture blends into the other 
gradually.

HTH

Stephen Blake
stephen DOT e DOT blake AT email DOT moore DOT com
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>
>Paul Derbyshire wrote:
> 
>>8 Alpha, 8R, 8G, 8B...huh? Alpha? What the heck is that, infrared? The
>>human eye only sees three wavelengths, red, green, and blue. There is no
>>fourth I am aware of. (That's cones; rod cells only return brightness, no
>>color info at all.) What good is it, making your computer control your TV and
>>VCR? :)
> 
>AFAIK Alpha channel means some kind of transparency info and is not 
>suppported by any PC graphics card I know so this byte acts only like 
>padding then.
>Michal 'MiMe' Mertl
>e-mail:XMERM05 AT vse DOT cz