The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF • Hacker News Board

Re: The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF

#31

Post by ygra » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 4:38 PM UTC

zuppy wrote: post #21

duiker101 wrote: post #14

I really wonder why GIFs are still around. Apart for being used as short videos for funny things they have not a huge use afaik. They really feel like an old technology. They are also a pain to support on android.

I think it's because of IE. I know IE sopports transparent PNGs for quite a while, but until not very long ago there were not so many options and people don't really like to upgrade IE apparently.

Binary transparency PNGs (i.e. no separate alpha channel) have worked in IE since at least 6. So except for animation support there really is no reason to use GIF.

Re: The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF

#32

Post by rkuykendall-com » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 4:42 PM UTC

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #17

gue5t wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Webkit's stance is basically "we're only doing it if upstream libpng supports it" (because APNG support basically requires a couple hooks in libpng itself) but the libpng devs refuse to accept the patch for apng support because they are of the opinion that libpng should process only PNG, not derivative formats, which is what they consider APNG.

In fairness I can see it from the libpng guy's perspective. It will make their library larger and potentially less fit for a certain purpose. Why hasn't someone forked libpng, added the apng patch and then made it available for WebKit? Then everyone is happy. Just needs a middle-man.

Because then the upkeep and maintenance of the PNG library for webkit relies on a middle-man.

Re: The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF

#33

Post by darkstalker » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 4:52 PM UTC

What happened to JPEG 2000? It supports lossless too, but never seen it implemented on browsers.

Re: The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF

#34

Post by potomak » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 4:56 PM UTC

That's why I made Draw![1][2] pixel art animation editor!

[1] http://drawbang.com

[2] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drawbang/id578228937

Re: The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF

#35

Post by Tichy » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:00 PM UTC

Although I noticed (accidentally) that gif animated boobs seem to become more popular, that could be a thread to PNG domination.

Re: The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF

#36

Post by fein » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:06 PM UTC

martinced wrote: post #15

"The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF" ... On the Web! PNG has been more popular than GIF since a very long time for basically anything non-web needing lossless picture compression. From smartphones icons to OS icons, software logos and icons, etc. I'd say the proportion is about 100:1. Actually I was suprised while just running a "find" on my Linux distro to even find a few .gif files. But thousand…

> Screenshots taken from OS X and Linux are saved to PNG files

You can really save screenies in whatever format you like on linux with imagemagick.

It's just $ import -window root screenshot.

Unless you're referring to whatever the DE has implemented, but I've never taken an SS without using the terminal, so I have no idea.

Re: The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF

#37

Post by conradfr » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:24 PM UTC

It would have been sooner if 8 bit PNG with alpha transparency had been implemented in Photoshop like in Fireworks.

Re: The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF

#38

Post by ComputerGuru » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:30 PM UTC

darkstalker wrote: post #33

What happened to JPEG 2000? It supports lossless too, but never seen it implemented on browsers.

Royalty and licensing issues. It's heavily encumbered with patents.

As far as the actual quality:compression goes (both lossy and lossless), it kicked ass. But with so many free options, why bother?

Re: The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF

#39

Post by eli » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:35 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #30

And this particular circle is complete. Of course the patents that were the heart of such controversy are now expired so GIF code is no longer 'not-open' but it has a bad reputation so we don't play with it any more :-). I like PNG though, the library development, while a bit rocky at first, matured quite nicely and about 5 years ago crossed the point where enough people took the time to figure out how to use it that…

Yup, great point. I think if there weren't patent concerns over GIF years ago, there wouldn't have been nearly as wide support for the format, which means far fewer people would be using it today.

Re: The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF

#40

Post by charonn0 » Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 5:46 PM UTC

martinced wrote: post #15

"The PNG image file format is now more popular than GIF" ... On the Web! PNG has been more popular than GIF since a very long time for basically anything non-web needing lossless picture compression. From smartphones icons to OS icons, software logos and icons, etc. I'd say the proportion is about 100:1. Actually I was suprised while just running a "find" on my Linux distro to even find a few .gif files. But thousand…

MS Paint under Windows (since Vista) saves all images by default as PNG.