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home > graphics > clipart > file formats > bitmaps > .png Graphics File Format
FAQ: Converting GIF or JPG to PNG - The GIF format for images is very popular. Nearly every graphics program supports it. However, there are several problems with GIF (Gif rhymes with Jiffy peanut butter.) GIF was born in the days of very slow modems. To make the images smaller, GIF allowed only 256 colors. This is okay for icons. But GIF is useless for photos. When you convert a photograph into a GIF, quite a bit of the image is lost.
A Few Scanning Tips - PNG - Portable Network Graphics and scanning
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GIF, JPEG or PNG? - Here are some file formats you may have seen before. They have one thing in common: they don't belong on the Web. Before we go into these "leftover" formats, let's summarize why the three formats we've talked about so far are good to use on the Web.
Advantages of PNG - Most of us have heard about PNG by now, but few developers are using it on the Web due to the uneven support within the various Web browsers. The format was developed as a result of the Unisys/GIF controversy and the need to overcome the limitations of both the GIF and JPEG formats. Macromedia has adopted PNG as the native format for its Fireworks product, yet most users are still converting images for the Web to GIF and JPEG.
Browsers with PNG Support - The Web, of course, was one of the main targets for PNG support since progressive display is so important to those browsing over a low-speed link (like Greg, at the time). GIF's interlacing scheme isn't very good, and JPEG's progressive mode was still catching on; PNG's seven-pass, two-dimensional scheme was designed to fill this gap.
Cross-Browser Variable Opacity with PNG: A Real Solution - Sadly, flaky browser support has made PNG impractical for almost everything; but now, with a few simple workarounds, we can finally put one of its most compelling features to use.
3D Applications with PNG Support - 3D applications, from real-time VRML to high-end modeling apps to ray-tracers, are becoming increasingly popular, and textures are the usual means by which PNG images are supported.
File Types and Optimization - This lesson is designed to help you understand file types and file optimization. In this lesson, you will learn about GIF, JPG and PNG file formats. This lesson uses Adobe's "Save for Web" feature, located in Illustrator and Photoshop. Adobe ImageReady offers the same features, but is set up a little differently. It is recommended that you attend the class lectures to get the full understanding of this lesson.
GFX - Photoshop and the PNG Format
Image Editors with PNG Support - For the purposes of this page, an "image editor" is defined as a paint or drawing program that supports pixel-level editing (or the equivalent). As a general rule of thumb, if it's got a pencil or paint-brush tool, it's in; if it supplies only "algorithms" (such as sharpening, blurring, edge-detection, cropping, etc.), it's not. See the Image Converters page for applications in the latter class.
Image File Formats - Choosing the right file format to save your images in is of vital importance. There are three image formats in constant use on the net — GIF, JPG and PNG. Each is suited to a specific type of image, and matching your image to the correct format should result in a small, fast-loading graphic. Saving and exporting into these formats will require a decent image editor.
Image Viewers with PNG Support - One of the biggest categories of PNG-supporting applications is image viewers; virtually every major operating system is represented. Note that PNG image editors can often be used as viewers, too; they just tend to be slower and may not display as nicely on 256-color systems
Photoshop 5.5 - Optimizing Web Graphics
Smooth, Tight Images For The Web in Photoshop - There are any number of methods you can use to optimize and deploy nice smooth images as gif files to the Web. Usually it's much better however to "pixelsmith" the image by hand for the best results. After we took a look at the of this reader's problem, we knew this was a case for some rather serious pixelsmithing...
PNG - What is PNG file format?
PNG for a Healthy Image - Are the days of creating gif images for the World Wide Web coming to an end? Well, that's not likely to happen soon, but as graphics and web technology continue to merge and improve we can expect to see some significant enhancements to graphic capabilities. Perhaps the most notable WWW graphics enhancement to come along recently is the Portable Network Graphic (PNG).
PNG (Portable Network Graphic) - Most of us have heard about PNG by now, but few developers are using it on the Web due to the uneven support within the various Web browsers. The format was developed as a result of the Unisys/GIF controversy and the need to overcome the limitations of both the GIF and JPEG formats.
PNG - About the Portable Network Graphics format
PNG - Portable Network Graphics File Format - Well, in the beginning we had Gif and Jpeg, now add the mighty PNG!
PNG-Tech - Technical Issues Regarding the PNG File Format
Portable Network Graphics - A Turbo-Studly Image Format with Lossless Compression
Web Page Design for Designers - PNG - The 'other' graphics file format
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