How can imagealphablending() be effectively utilized in PHP to preserve transparency in PNG files?

When working with PNG files in PHP, preserving transparency can be a challenge when using imagealphablending(). To effectively utilize imagealphablending() and maintain transparency in PNG files, it is important to set the blending mode to false before working with the images. This will ensure that the alpha channel transparency is preserved during image manipulation.

// Load the PNG file with transparency
$source = imagecreatefrompng('source.png');

// Disable alpha blending to preserve transparency
imagealphablending($source, false);

// Perform image manipulation here

// Save or output the modified image
imagepng($source, 'output.png');

// Free up memory
imagedestroy($source);