this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2025
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Alpha channels are also why a lot of Android apps are full of PNGs. Every app you use will be using a PNG somewhere, probably uncrushed, full of Photoshop metadata.
Of course social media is full of lossy images. Websites can be, too. But plenty of web content is lossless PNGs in ARGB format, because that's what the person making that shit decided to use, and they don't care about saving a few milliseconds of transfer time every time you download their content.
If you know why you need alpha channels, of course you're going to save in an appropriate format. But most casual users aren't going to care. They took a picture of their breakfast or dog and just want to upload now. I'm not arguing PNGs serve no purpose; I'm arguing that most people aren't Web or app designers. They don't care whether it's lossy or lossless, let alone about transparency.