i need to make a transparent text box

[macleod]

i am a student and i have website due in about 2 hours now. i figured i could somehow psychically transmit my fathers computer-engineer skills but turns out i was wrong

i have this background image set, and i want to drop a square on the right side of it where you can still see the background image but it's lighter, so you can read the text. and, of course, the text can't spill out of this box. i wanted to just do the text in html so i could make links in this box.

please, please, please

pity a stupid art student who desperately needs your help.

[macleod]

if i'm a cute girl, will i get more help?

do i need to post a picture or something?


now's YOUR turn to save MY ***! how exciting for you!

[VIPStephan]

if i'm a cute girl, will i get more help?

You will get more help if you express yourself clearly enough and yes, definately if you post some code or an image. Maybe it's just me but I couldn't figure out what exactly you want(ed) to have...

[bustamelon]

Let's see if I understand:

You want to place a semi-transparent box inside another bigger box whose background consists of an image?

In other words, the foreground box should still show what's in the background, but with slightly less opacity? Something like the bee in this picture (http://jeffhowden.com/) ?

The only way to do this, AFAIK, is to create a mesh image in your graphics app. I don't know if that's the term for it, but the image would have every other pixel transparent. In photoshop, you would create a pattern, 2x2 px, with, say, the top left and bottom right pixels transparent, and the top right and bottom left pixels a shade of white..... or something along those lines. You would them use this 2x2 pixel gif as a tiled background in your foreground box.... make sense?