CSS background opacity with rgba not working in IE 8

Create a png which is larger than 1x1 pixel (thanks thirtydot), and which matches the transparency of your background.

EDIT : to fall back for IE6+ support, you can specify bkgd chunk for the png, this is a color which will replace the true alpha transparency if it is not supported. You can fix it with gimp eg.

To simulate RGBA and HSLA background in IE, you can use a gradient filter, with the same start and end color (alpha channel is the first pair in the value of HEX)

background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.3); /* browsers */
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(GradientType=0,startColorstr='#4cffffff', endColorstr='#4cffffff'); /* IE */