PocketMatrix

as a work around for now, you could always save the PNG out as 2 separate files - one for picture colour information, and one for the alpha mask information

Thank you, but it is 33% larger on run time. 32PNG(24color converted to 16 + alpha 8 bits) = 24 bits vs. 16 + 16 bits = 32 bits.
24 vs. 32!
But thank you anyway.
Could you please post your code for 2 surfaces AlphaBlit?

well actually I wrote my own gfx engine instead of using PocketFrog or GapiDraw in the end - which amongst many other features allows a 16bit image to use ANY 8bit mask as an alpha mask - so still 24 bit

so sorry, no code to share - but the principle still applies