What is transparency?

[gamingjustin]

Well, as you can tell by my post count I'm rather new around here. I've been actively pixeling for years and years, but it was only until recently (about 5 months ago or so) that I discovered other people painstakingly draw dots on a computer screen as well-- for a long time I was completely oblivious to an entire community. So, being mostly ignorant I have a question: What is transparency?

Here's what I think it is: In Photoshop it's possible to set the opacity of a color being used. By doing this, (for example) one can tint or shade something without having to handpick specific colors. Is this close; way off track? Is this considered "cheating" or just another way to pixel? 

Thanks in advance!

[Sherman Gill]

When we use the word transparency here, we generally mean it like:
An invisible color instead of magic pink/black/white/whatever.
If somethings considered cheating, either it doesn't really matter or there's a reason beyond 'it's cheating'. Using a semi opacity brush is frowned upon because: you have less control over the colors, it creates straight ramps (which generally look worse); it usually dulls colors it makes.

[gamingjustin]

Ah, ok. Thanks for the explanation. Yeah, there's really nothing more to this topic then eh? 

[Riskyproductions]

Well you got your question answered and maybe other people browsing this forum will find this and learn what transparency is.