Has any one noticed if you make an image (lets say 50px by 50px) one solid color (lets say #3A3A3A) and put it on a web page with the same background color (#3A3A3A) the image is darker than the backround in IE?

Theoretically you shouldnt be able to see the image if its the exact same color as the background. You cant tell the difference between the image and the background in firefox. but you can tell in IE (6 anyways).

Ive tried .png .jpg and .gif... does anyone know what the deal is?

Im trying to make a site with some small icons (obviously not square) so i make the background of the image the same hex code as the background (since a lot of browsers/versions cant handle transparant images) and its frustrating cause you can see the square background of the image...

#3A3A3A is not a "websafe" colour so will not be rendered exactly the same in all browsers.

All the browsers can handle transparent images in one format or another. IE6 and below can't handle a transparent PNG w/o help (script or filter) but it does work.
Easy way to do this.. put the icon on the background and cut the icon out with a couple of pixels of the BG color. You could also make a very tiny solid-color background tile of the same color.

Originally Posted by LadynRed

You could also make a very tiny solid-color background tile of the same color.

thats what im trying to do but the background color turns out a slightly different shade than the background, and its really noticable when you have a bunch of them.

I thought all hex colors were web safe?

If you want "web-safe" colors, try this

Very helpful, Thank you.