On 11/27/06, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: AFAIK it's only on the image page... it can be very useful there: for example, the large amount transparency in the file you linked is probably a bad idea, but without the checkerboard you couldn't see it. I think we need to have a function to display transparency. I have no opinion on if that the image page should be overloaded to perform that function.

Erik Moeller wrote: No, actually this is a background image set using CSS. The chessboard pattern is not part of the png (try "view image"). It wouldn't be a good idea for Wikipedias, but at least for Commons, it is quite helpful: it allows you to see on first glance which images have transparency where. This avoids images with a white background to be considered redundant to ones with a transparent background, and helps people to see which images are suitable for use on a colored background (especially for icons) . I feel this setup is badly needed at least for image description pages. I also like to have it on galleries and in categories, but that may be a matter of taste. Also, the "chessboard" could easily be turned on and off using a bit of JS code... or of course your custom monobook.css. -- Daniel