Implementing the Mac "Quick Look" type of window

[Scott Rossi]

Recently, Andre Garzia wrote:

> If you are not moving your stack, you can take a screenshot of the screen,
> crop it, set it as background of the stack with a clever image with a blend,
> then it will look like the effect you're trying to achieve but if the window
> moves, the background will not move with it...

As you correctly point out Andre, there is no built-in way to set varying
levels of transparency to different objects in a stack.  You must create a
custom window mask (bitmap) that defines which portions of the stack are
more transparent than others.

Instead of the above, the way to do this is to snapshot objects within the
stack, not the desktop background, to create the bitmap mask.  This way, the
stack will blend with whatever is behind it, anywhere it is dragged.  It
works perfectly, but the method is not dynamic so may not be suitable unless
you have a fairly static UI.

Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, UX Design