I would like to make a semi-transparent background for use during news posts and things so its possible to still see my website background but also make text easier to read by being on a solid color semi-transparent background.

Not sure if website linking is allowed or not but take my website Sorrow i would like to make the news section in the center of the page have a gray or black semi transparent background so i can still see the dragon wallpaper while reading the text. Is this possible to do?

PS. I used

opacity:0.4;filter:alpha(opacity=40);

and while it does work the problem is the text fades out as well. Something tells me this is going to be a complex operation.

Website linking is definitely allowed here, even encouraged, since it gives me a chance to see your work, and better answer questions.

That said, the best and easiest way to do partial transparency in the browser is with a partially transparent image, rather than doing CSS tricks (which are still pretty wonky).

If you want, use this image as your background image (it's a partially transparent grey image we use in another template).

Followup, the biggest problem I've experienced with CSS transparency is that the child elements become transparent, too.

To work around that, you need to do a little trickery, but it's immensely easier to just use an image.