Output PNG images with transparency in PHP

Question

How do you correctly output PNG images with PHP so their shading, and other transparent effects don't fail.

seems to be outputting as

...is there a way so this doesn't happen?

I merged two images together.

<?php
// Create image instances
$dest = imagecreatefrompng('vinyl.png');
$src = imagecreatefromjpeg('cover2.jpg');

// Copy and merge
imagecopymerge($dest, $src, 10, 10, 0, 0, 180, 180, 100);

// Output and free from memory
header('Content-Type: image/png');
imagepng($dest);

imagedestroy($dest);
imagedestroy($src);
?>

Answer 1

See this post: PNG Image Transparency in PHP GD

Answer 2

imagealphablending and imagesavealpha.