maybe iv got a mental block today but i cant figure out how to get to the alpha channel of an image that was loaded from a file ? $Himage=_GDIPlus_ImageLoadFromFile($file) _GDIPlus_GraphicsDrawImageRect($buffer,$Himage,.......) whereas if im using a brush to _GDIPlus_GraphicsFillRect($buffer,........,$brush) i can set the alpha when making the brush. tried setting the files transparency in photoshop before i save it but that dont work. what am i missing. thx all.