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Presenting APNG: Like MNG, Only Better

Posted by timothy on from the aping-functionality dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It's fair to say that most people love PNG images (or at least hate GIFs). However, the one advantage GIFs have over PNGs is that they can be animated. There is, of course, an animated version of PNG, MNG, but few programs can view these images (mainly because the MNG decoder is so large that the likes of Mozilla refuse to include it). But there may be an answer coming: Vladimir Vukicevic and Stuart 'Pavlov' Parmenter (of Mozilla fame) have put together a specification for APNG (Animated Portable Network Graphics)." (Read more below.)

"Unlike MNG, APNG is not a separate file format, but rather an extension to PNG. Thus, APNG images are just normal PNG images (with the .png extension) but can be animated. The system is fully backwards-compatable, so any program that can open a PNG image will be able to open an APNG image (though non-APNG viewers will only show the first frame). Vitally, the decoder just adds an extra few kilobytes onto a standard PNG decoder. APNG support is in the process of being checked into Mozilla. Hopefully, other programs will follow suit."

2 of 424 comments (clear)

  1. The burning question is... by whiteranger99x · · Score: 5, Insightful

    how soon will such functionality be implented in major graphic manipulation programs like Photoshop?

    Oh, and yeah, I'm sure someone will make it work with The Gimp, so don't flog me over that detail. :P

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  2. Good to hear by cyxxon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well now, this sounds really nice. I have always wondered why MGN never really took off, but then PNG never really took off either (you all know the MSFT story...). Just never knew this had a big-decoder-problem.

    So naturally I was disappointed when Mozilla took out MNG support back then, but this seems to make it better (read: more chances of survival in the real world out there) standard, and that is always a good thing.

    One more reason to finally get rid of all them GIFs, even if they are no longer patent-encumbered - the format is still not capable of alpha transparency...