Are there best practices for maintaining image transparency when manipulating images with PHP functions like imagecopy?

When manipulating images with PHP functions like imagecopy, it's important to maintain image transparency by using the imagesavealpha() function to preserve alpha channel information. This ensures that transparent areas of the image remain transparent after manipulation.

// Load the original image
$source = imagecreatefrompng('original.png');

// Create a blank image with transparency
$destination = imagecreatetruecolor(imagesx($source), imagesy($source));
imagesavealpha($destination, true);
$trans_background = imagecolorallocatealpha($destination, 0, 0, 0, 127);
imagefill($destination, 0, 0, $trans_background);

// Copy the original image onto the blank image
imagecopy($destination, $source, 0, 0, 0, 0, imagesx($source), imagesy($source));

// Save or output the manipulated image
imagepng($destination, 'manipulated.png');

// Free up memory
imagedestroy($source);
imagedestroy($destination);