The Graphics Format PNG
A long time ago the graphics format PNG (pronounced PiNG) was developed as a standard for the internet. There must have been a reson for calling it Portable Network Graphics. Why PNG? A small table of common graphics formats shows the advantages:
| Format | Depth | Compression | Lossless | Copyrightless |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GIF | 16 bit | + | + | - |
| JPEG | 24 bit | + | - | + |
| TIFF | 24 bit | - | + | + |
| PNG | 48 bit | + | + | + |
Unfortunately the two most common browsers Netscape Communicator and MS Internet Explorer ignored or implemented this graphics format incomplete for a long time. Partly they still don't use it correctly in spite of PNG being OpenSource, e.g. the source code is well documented and available for free. Browsers with PNG support are for example
| Company | Browser | PNG since | Transparency | OS | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netscape | Communicator | v4.05 | v6.00 | Windows, MAC, Linux | Freeware |
| Mozilla | Mozilla | v1.00 | v1.00 | Windows, MAC, Linux | Open Source |
| Opera | Opera | v3.00 | v3.00 | Windows, MAC, Linux, Epoc | Shareware |
| Microsoft | Internet Explorer | v4.00 | v5.00 | Windows, MAC | Freeware |
| Vapor | Voyager | v1.00 | v2.96 | AmigaOS | Shareware |
| Omnipresence | IBrowse | v1.00 | v1.00 | AmigaOS | Commercial |
| AmiTrix | AWeb | v1.00 | v3.00 | AmigaOS | Commercial |
PNG info page of the W3C Organisation
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