How to change the opacity (alpha, transparency) of an element in a canvas element after it has been drawn?

Question

Using the HTML5 element, I would like to load an image file (PNG, JPEG, etc.), draw it to the canvas completely transparently, and then fade it i

Answer 1

Edit: The answer marked as "correct" is not correct.

It's easy to do. Try this code, swapping out "ie.jpg" with whatever picture you have handy:

The key is the globalAlpha property.

Tested with IE 9, FF 5, Safari 5, and Chrome 12 on Win7.