I think it's an optical illusion, my code should be removing the white so there is no bias introduced from any "antialias with" color. For example say you have a pixel with quarter its area red and the other three quarters transparent, its still 255,0,0 rgb with alpha=64 where as apps like photoshop and it sounds like 3dstudio max (i've had no such problems with lightwave) will average in the 75% "background color" so with white black or grey you will still get the pure red being modified when for textures, you want it to stay 255,0,0.