position:relative does not trigger haslayout. haslayout is involved, but at a preceding step: The filter does solely apply to elements that have “layout”. This is the reason why your script actually does not work for non-layout elements having a background png, say a simple div with some text in it, without a dimension. You would have to apply a haslayout trigger like zoom:1 for such blocks not already having layout. Links that do not work can be addressed by z-index/position:relative for the link, but not if the element with the filter is positioned. There is a workaround for this situation. http://www.satzansatz.de/cssd/tmp/alphatransparency.html