i've been messing with all the label modules out there and most have a transparent function to allow only the background and most have a truetransparency function to all all things behind the label to shine through.
None of them seem to work with the truetransparency function. They all say use pink (RGB 255,0,255) to denote transparent areas. Well, my code looks like this
LeftTaskTransparent true
LeftTaskTrueTransparency false
if I remove the LeftTaskTransparent part, and change the truetransparency part to true, then I get a pretty pink and light gray label, but not a transparent one. But if I use the above code as is, the label is transparent but only to the back ground.
I've tried using the xLabel 2.2.1 model and xLabel 2.2 and Label 1.99 and Label 1.98 and Label 1.97
Anyone got a Label module that actually works fully transparent?
just as an update, i'm running WindowsXP Home SP2
First, you're using a really old version of xlabel. Use 3.4.2.
Second, are you trying to make an image have a transparent area, or make a whole label transparent? If it's an image, you don't need to add the settings above. By default, just create the image and use the "magic pink" for areas you want transparent. If you're wanting to make a label transparent, still, don't use the settings above, just set (label)AlphaTransparency value (value is 0 - 255). This sentence is confusing: "the label is transparent but only to the back ground." The background of what?
Btw, doing a quick forum search for "magic pink" revealed this sentence "that's label, and it's a known bug. It's fixed in xlabel (was actually, util 2.8)" which is probably related to your problem.
There are five kinds of transparency for LS modules, and maybe even more:
1. Magic pink, fake. #ff00ff (rgb 255,0,255) is transparent. This is bilevel. Any magic pink pixel will be completely gone. However, it will create a background to fit the rest of the space, as Win9x (apparently 98SE and ME can do a bit better) had trouble with real transparency. So, if you have a circle, with magic pink outside, it will fill in the full square with the background.
2. Magic pink, true. This will not create a background to fill the space. In the circle example, it will look and act just like the circle was not actually a rectangular thing.
3. Alpha, fake. This will make the module's display translucent to some degree, but create the background from the screen below. If you move it, it will either have to be smart enough to redraw, or it will look out of place.
4. Alpha, true. The module will be made translucent, and not have its background created from what is below, but actually be translucent. This uses Windows itself to do the job. It has the benefit of looking nicer than the fake version, and often being much faster, as a fair portion of the drawing can be done in video hardware.
5. Alphamap. Here, a 32-bit PNG is typically used, with a single alpha layer. This allows each pixel to have its own opacity, and can be combined with normal Windows transparency (#4).
I don't know if there is any module out there, even xLabel, that actually uses all five of these, but I know it at least does 2-5. Once you start using a newer xLabel, hopefully that will help get whatever you're trying to get done, done. Also, #4 and #5 require Windows 2000 or better (technically I think they work in NT4 by now, but pretty much nobody uses it anymore, so there aren't a lot of ways to check it out).
Whoa... Cerbie wins best answer. ;)
That's because I didn't really understand the question :).
That should be in the wiki :D
Hmm, actually, that's a good idea. Any clue what section it would fit best in?
...and then where to link to it from?!
I'll check it out later. There are probably several good places to stick it, and if I am going to make an article out of it, I aught to have imagery to accompany it, too.
ok i was using the latest version of xlabel from shellfront.org, didn't know there was a newer version out.
what i ment by background what the desktop area, no windows
i did do a search of the forums for transparency and transparent and labels and didn't get a whole lot on how to fix it, didn't know that pink was called magic pink!
thanks for the help though!
Shellfront and latest just dont go together anymore :-/. Shellfront kind of died. LS-Universe.info and Loose-Screws still seem to chug along, though (though I'm not quite sure what happened to the loose-screws forums).
loose-screws forums got hacked, from what I saw, and they never put them back up. Their chatbox is constantly under attack...