Why transparency is shown as a chessboard pattern?

2

1

From Wikipedia

A suitable raster graphics editor shows transparency by a special pattern, e.g. a chessboard pattern.

  1. I wonder why complete transparency is shown as chessboard pattern? Is it chosen deliberately by people, or just a natural appearance of transparency under some circumstances?
  2. How shall one distinguish an image which is actually a chessboard from an image with complete transparency?

Thanks!

Tim

Posted 2012-07-24T11:41:17.760

Reputation: 12 647

Answers

6

  1. it's tradition.

  2. by inspecting the pixel values or superimposing the image over a background or by zooming in and observing that the chequerboard spacing is unaffected.

RedGrittyBrick

Posted 2012-07-24T11:41:17.760

Reputation: 70 632

Why is it a tradition? – Tim – 2012-07-24T11:48:31.653

4@Tim: for the same reasons that the Utah Teapot is a tradition. – RedGrittyBrick – 2012-07-24T11:59:37.007

3You can. Viewers with zoom functionality (e.g. mostly all) will not zoom into the chessboard pattern, while enlarging the image. – Jonas Schäfer – 2012-07-24T12:11:54.980

@JonasWielicki: thanks, answer updated accordingly. – RedGrittyBrick – 2012-07-24T12:17:46.343

Asked: 2012-07-24T11:41:17.760

Viewed: 144 times

Active: 2012-07-24T12:17:13.070