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At Last, PNG An ISO Standard Under Publication

Posted by timothy on from the vectors-n-stuff dept.

Jeex writes "After its first draft back in '95, the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format is finally, as of 2003-04-25, an ISO standard under publication. Links: ISO technical programme: JTC 1/SC 24, PNG Homepage."

25 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. So, does that mean... by FroMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    MS will still not have proper PNG transparency in IE?

    Just now its ISO official?

    --
    Norris/Palin 2012
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  2. Cheesy Website by BlakeGarretson · · Score: 4, Funny

    The reason that it wasn't standardized before this is because nobody could take it serious with that cheesy website. ISO apparently thought PNG was made up by some teenager in his parents' basement.

  3. Noobs by Profane+Motherfucker · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    After leading the cry against the evils of patents and the overzealous attacks on end users by corporate lawyers, It's nice to see that Slashdot still uses GIFs.

    Fools.

    1. Re:Noobs by larry+bagina · · Score: 1

      CmdrTaco downloaded the gif-to-png commandline converter. However, it requires correct spelling to work properly.

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      Do you even lift?

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  4. And guess what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, that's right, 8 years later, Internet Explorer still doesn't support PNG properly!

  5. GIF and JPEG . . . by Dausha · · Score: 1

    I suppose this makes it easier for ISO to destandardize JPEG like was rumored previously. My question is, how long from PNG's ISO standardization and full acceptance by the community of browsers (e.g. Mozilla, Opera, IE, etc.) I live in the Unix environment, so I'm not aware of IE has given full transparency to transparent PNGs yet--that's why I'm asking.

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    What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
    1. Re:GIF and JPEG . . . by bofkentucky · · Score: 1

      Ummm, jpeg is lossy compression, gif and png are lossless. Jpeg is good for photo's, png for logos, line art, and other high detail work.

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    2. Re:GIF and JPEG . . . by GeckoX · · Score: 1

      Gif and png are NOT lossless.
      They CAN be, in certain situations depending on the source and the options used, but they are deffinately not lossless by deffinition.

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    3. Re:GIF and JPEG . . . by fredrikj · · Score: 2, Informative

      PNG is lossless by definition. (GIF is also lossless, although only when the source image has 256 or less colors.)

      The definition of lossless is that if you take an uncompressed bitmap, compress it with the compression method, and then decompress it, you'll get a file that is identical to the source bitmap, bit by bit. PNG is based on a general-purpose compression method, IIRC the same one that's used in .zip files, so you can (!) use PNG to compress executable files or audio files or whatever, if you just feed them into the encoder as raw images. PNG packs by patterns in the byte structure, and no data is lost.

      This is not the case for JPEG. JPEG doesn't compress by the data bits, but reformats the image as an approximation of the source image, based on the redundancy of color values as they appear in the rendered image. A JPEG image cannot be decompressed to an image identical to the source it was generated from. Therefore, JPEG is lossy.

    4. Re:GIF and JPEG . . . by leviramsey · · Score: 1

      Uh...

      LZW is a lossless algorithm, and it's the only algorithm supported by GIF, so how could GIF be lossy?

    5. Re:GIF and JPEG . . . by Webmonger · · Score: 3, Informative

      GIF and PNG use lossless compression techniques. They are lossless. If you have a black-and-white image and you save it into GIF or PNG, you will get an identical image back when you load it.

      You're confusing format with interface (because you refer to options used, and those are an interface thing). GIF is lossless, but it can only represent images with 256 colours or less. (Black-and-white images meet that test.) It's impossible to save an image with more than 256 colours as a GIF, so many programs will convert it for you. That doesn't mean GIF is lossy. Just means that it has limitations. Save any 256-colour image, load it up, and you'll get exactly what you had before.

    6. Re:GIF and JPEG . . . by mraymer · · Score: 1
      so you can (!) use PNG to compress executable files or audio files or whatever, if you just feed them into the encoder as raw images.

      That sounds really fun, but I can't fool any of my image programs into thinking, say, an EXE is a BMP by simply renaming them. Is there something special I need to do to get the program to believe the file is really a BMP? If that's not the case, do you know of any Windows software that this trick will work in?

      Thanks.

      --

      "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking

  6. Re:Great! by Ender+Ryan · · Score: 1
    When will dumbasses like you grow up?

    I would imagine Slashdot will switch to PNG sometime after IE has proper support for it.

    --
    Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
  7. Re:Great! by Ender+Ryan · · Score: 1
    PS - do you prefer sucking Hemos's dick or CmdrTaco's dick?

    I prefer having sex with my wife. Please grow up.

    --
    Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
  8. interestingly... by Ender+Ryan · · Score: 1
    ... you are wrong. It is perfectly possible to run IE on Linux nearly flawlessly using the proper version of wine, I have even done this myself once upon a time.

    So, I must say that Linux support IE better than IE supports PNG :)

    --
    Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
  9. Re:Great! by seinman · · Score: 3, Insightful
    But when will the hypocritical fucks on slashdot start using png graphics instead of gif?

    Probably about the same time that the hypocritical fucks who complain about PNG not working in IE shut up and switch to a better browser instead of just complaining about the one they have.
  10. Re:Great! by seinman · · Score: 1

    I'm not talking about web developers. Everyone I know (besides myself, naturally) uses IE, and everyone I know complains about it. Yet when I tell them about all the other browsers that they can try, they just stick with IE, and keep complaining. If the majority of the web users keep this attitude, those web designers are going to be stuck with GIF for a lot longer than they should be. Sure, good PNG support in IE would be a good thing, but in the meantime the end users are going to have to do something to make it happen.

  11. Oh, joy by 0x0d0a · · Score: 1

    We have a perfectly fine standard for years...but now we get to *pay* for the privilege of getting ahold of the standard. Sigh.

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    May we never see th
  12. Re:Great! by IntlHarvester · · Score: 1

    The GIF patent expires on June 30, 2003 -- that's only a month away, so get your complaining in ASAP!

    --
    Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
  13. Finally, a change by Call+Me+Black+Cloud · · Score: 1

    I'm so glad the "do you pronounce GIF as giff or jiff" debate will soon be replaced by the "do you pronounce PNG as ping or p-n-g" debate. On another topic, I always enjoy the "how do you pronounce Linux, Lie-nux because Linus is not pronounced Linnus or as Linnux" argument, though that has mostly gone away now.

    1. Re:Finally, a change by Webmonger · · Score: 1

      If you're from Finland, you do pronounce it "Linnus".

  14. IE cannot read MNG by yerricde · · Score: 2, Informative

    a flimsy one at best as MNG is "PNG+animation", in the same way GIF89a is "GIF87+animation".

    There's a big difference: Out of the box, the most recent released version of Microsoft Internet Explorer can display GIF89a animations. Out of the box, the most recent released version of Microsoft Internet Explorer cannot display MNG animations.

    --
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    1. Re:IE cannot read MNG by DarkKnightRadick · · Score: 1

      I'm just waiting until The GIMP supports MNG creation/editing. :)

      --
      "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
  15. PNG is pronounced "ping" by yerricde · · Score: 1

    PNG is pronounced like the duck.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  16. The Cher Patent Act? by yerricde · · Score: 1

    The GIF patent expires on June 30, 2003

    Not if Unisys bands together with Fraunhofer, Charlie Northrup, and big pharmaceutical manufacturers and demands that the U.S. Congress enact a Cher Patent Term Harmonization Act.

    that's only a month away

    Try two months, which is more than enough for intense lobbying. How long did it take to get USAPATRIOT passed?

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?