What about transparent backgrounds? In order to have some areas of the window appear transparent, you need to apply a shape mask to it. A shape mask is a GdkBitmap specifying which pixels will appear transparent and which - opaque. Note that GdkBitmap is a monochrome mask so it is not possible to achieve variable transparency as of yet. Complete example: realize(); list($pixmap, $mask) = gdk::pixmap_create_from_xpm($win->window, null, "rings.xpm"); $pix = &new GtkPixmap($pixmap, $mask); $win->add($pix); $win->shape_combine_mask($mask, 0, 0); $win->set_default_size($pixmap->width, $pixmap->height); $win->set_policy(false, false, false); $win->show_all(); ?>]]>