Why does this png display differently in Chrome/Firefox than in Safari/IE?

The the image consists of a checkerboard-style pattern of pixels. The "dark" pixels form the apple image, while the "light" ones show the pear. The answer to the SO question suggests that the gamma correction information (which is used by Chrome and FF, but not by older IE) makes the image darker, blacking out the apple and revealing the pear. Without gamma correction, the apple is visible, and the pear becomes a light-colored ghost.

edit: I put together the pieces! yay! :D

Re: Why does this png display differently in Chrome/Firefox than in Safari/IE?

#5

Post by derleth » Sun, Apr 07, 2013, 4:42 AM UTC

Reminds me of KOOLEFANT, by Magnus Bodin:

http://x42.com/koolefant/

This goes back to the late 1990s; the page mentions MSIE for Solaris.

Re: Why does this png display differently in Chrome/Firefox than in Safari/IE?

#6

Post by ancarda » Sun, Apr 07, 2013, 4:46 AM UTC

Interesting that Chrome (on OS X) displays a pear. I was under the impression Chrome used Core Graphics which would have exhibited this behaviour too?

Maybe not.

Re: Why does this png display differently in Chrome/Firefox than in Safari/IE?

#7

Post by trafnar » Sun, Apr 07, 2013, 4:56 AM UTC

ancarda wrote: post #6

Interesting that Chrome (on OS X) displays a pear. I was under the impression Chrome used Core Graphics which would have exhibited this behaviour too? Maybe not.

Chrome uses Skia instead of CoreGraphics according to this: http://paulirish.com/2013/webkit-for-developers#webkit-commo...

Re: Why does this png display differently in Chrome/Firefox than in Safari/IE?

#8

Post by mlex » Sun, Apr 07, 2013, 4:57 AM UTC

On my Retina monitor (Firefox Nightly), I see a pear but also the apple, though very faintly. Saving to the desktop gets me an apple, as expected.

Re: Why does this png display differently in Chrome/Firefox than in Safari/IE?

#9

Post by shardling » Sun, Apr 07, 2013, 5:01 AM UTC

mlex wrote: post #8

On my Retina monitor (Firefox Nightly), I see a pear but also the apple, though very faintly. Saving to the desktop gets me an apple, as expected.

using ff on a nexus 7 I see the apple and a very faint pear.

Re: Why does this png display differently in Chrome/Firefox than in Safari/IE?

#10

Post by bla2 » Sun, Apr 07, 2013, 5:04 AM UTC

ancarda wrote: post #6

Interesting that Chrome (on OS X) displays a pear. I was under the impression Chrome used Core Graphics which would have exhibited this behaviour too? Maybe not.

Chrome for Mac used to use CoreGraphics, but it switched to Skia because Skia was a lot faster at drawing stuff. (It still uses CoreText for rasterizing fonts, and Cocoa for drawing buttons.)