} * "In particular, GIF is well adapted for online } communications because of its streamability and } progressive display capability. PNG shares those } attributes. (Stress added). } ====Can some one tell me.. does this mean that } PNG can support animation?? what does } "progressive display capability" mean ??====
It refers to the ability to display a low-resolution version of the image followed by increasing amounts of detail. Not animation. For animations, see MNG.
There's been a PNG patch for Xv available since 1995. Xv itself hasn't been upgraded because in order to keep GIF support without paying the tax it has to have been released before January 1, 1995, according to the original UNISYS manifesto. But since the grandfather clause seems to be gone now, Xv's only choices seem to be to eliminate GIF support or to pay up.
} I tried taking all my scans & videocaptures and } saving them to PNG format... } Unfortunately the images, compared to saving } JPEG files with compression set to 1(at least } in PSP) resulted in UNGODLY huge file sizes
No surprise there. PNG is for computer graphics. JPEG is for natural images. You need both in your toolbag.
} The one thing that I've always liked about.gif } is the animations. So, does anyone have } suggestions about an open source animated } format to use in place of.gif?
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/mng/
I've been obsessively collecting ad banners for the past 3 or 4 months. Of the approximately 350 I've got so far, ImageMagick successfully converts *all* of them to MNG. Total GIF size is 357 megabytes while total MNG size is 338 megabytes.
} that is a good question, and as far as i know, } an unanswerable one. As far as i know, gif aking } programs do not leave a message for Unisys that } they are liscensed
Many of the animated banners that are served by the ad brokers contain a GIF comment that says they were made by Gif Builder (which seems to be no longer available from its author); others say they were made with unlicensed or demo programs.
True. There is a certain amount of overhead in PNG that isn't present in GIF, namely an 8-byte signature and three required chunks. The smallest possible PNG is 67 bytes, while the smallest useful one (a transparent dot that can be used for a spacer) is 68 bytes.
A file doesn't have to be very large before this overhead is amortized, though.
The Unisys page that sparked this discussion http://corp2.unisys.com/LeadStory/lzw-license.ht ml has been replaced with one dated September 2, 1999, that offers some "clarification" and a list of a dozen or so Unisys-licensed applications.
Slashdot Mirror
} perl -pi -e 's:ANIMEXTS1:ANIMEXTZ1:' ./netscape ./netscape
./netscape
} perl -pi -e 's:NETSCAPE2:NOTSCAPE2:'
Also, if MNG ever takes off:
perl -pi -e 's:TERM:doNt':
which will cause the animation to be executed
only once.
} I can see the 1000's of emails to rob now.... } "what the hell happened to all the icons?"
And 3 or 4 dozen emails... "what the hell happened to
my banners?"
} * "In particular, GIF is well adapted for online .. does this mean that
} communications because of its streamability and
} progressive display capability. PNG shares those
} attributes. (Stress added).
} ====Can some one tell me
} PNG can support animation?? what does
} "progressive display capability" mean ??====
It refers to the ability to display a low-resolution
version of the image followed by increasing amounts
of detail. Not animation. For animations, see MNG.
There's been a PNG patch for Xv available since
1995. Xv itself hasn't been upgraded because
in order to keep GIF support without paying
the tax it has to have been released before
January 1, 1995, according to the original
UNISYS manifesto. But since the grandfather
clause seems to be gone now, Xv's only choices
seem to be to eliminate GIF support or to pay up.
} I tried taking all my scans & videocaptures and
} saving them to PNG format...
} Unfortunately the images, compared to saving
} JPEG files with compression set to 1(at least
} in PSP) resulted in UNGODLY huge file sizes
No surprise there. PNG is for computer graphics.
JPEG is for natural images. You need both in
your toolbag.
} 350 ad banners takes up 357 megabytes?! Geez
} where are you getting them things from?
Oops, missed the decimal point. It only seems
like 357 megabytes but is actually 3.57 (and
the MNGs are 3.38) megabytes.
} The one thing that I've always liked about
} is the animations. So, does anyone have
} suggestions about an open source animated
} format to use in place of
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/mng/
I've been obsessively collecting ad banners for
the past 3 or 4 months. Of the approximately
350 I've got so far, ImageMagick successfully
converts *all* of them to MNG. Total GIF size
is 357 megabytes while total MNG size is 338
megabytes.
The legal status of compressed TIFF is the same
as that of GIF. The UNISYS site mentioned them
in the same breath.
I haven't checked the UNISYS page today (it
tends to change the rules on occasion...)
but am about to.
} that is a good question, and as far as i know, } an unanswerable one. As far as i know, gif aking
} programs do not leave a message for Unisys that
} they are liscensed
Many of the animated banners that are served by
the ad brokers contain a GIF comment that says
they were made by Gif Builder (which seems to
be no longer available from its author); others
say they were made with unlicensed or demo programs.
True. There is a certain amount of overhead
in PNG that isn't present in GIF, namely
an 8-byte signature and three required chunks.
The smallest possible PNG is 67 bytes, while
the smallest useful one (a transparent dot
that can be used for a spacer) is 68 bytes.
A file doesn't have to be very large before
this overhead is amortized, though.
>3. Ain't Mae Ling Mak really cute?
>
>4. (No GIFs due to patent problems)
Why not mak a Mae Ling PNG?
Glenn
I switched from a mouse to a thumb-operated trackball a couple of months ago and it helped
a lot.
The Unisys page that sparked this discussiont ml
http://corp2.unisys.com/LeadStory/lzw-license.h
has been replaced with one dated September 2,
1999, that offers some "clarification" and a list
of a dozen or so Unisys-licensed applications.
Glenn
MNGs will be exponentially longer? Here are some
real-world results with a bunch of recent
banners found on the net, converted to MNG
with ImageMagick. The MNGs
are on average slightly smaller than the GIFs:
_GIF_ _MNG_ File
bytes bytes
13106 11766 Solid/32bitcom
9855 8293 Solid/amazon-auction
6140 6369 Solid/breakup
12314 12161 Solid/buzzabout
8160 9902 Solid/c-net
8458 8411 Solid/casino
8308 9101 Solid/catch-the-monkey
7644 7272 Solid/ccfraud
8453 8802 Solid/datek-fish
6195 6127 Solid/delphi-forums
12293 10964 Solid/dont-click-here
10960 15009 Solid/fatbraintext
15303 14769 Solid/find-the-ball
9621 8017 Solid/friends-homesite
9880 8993 Solid/gigabuys
11067 9834 Solid/house-net
13743 13622 Solid/how-low-blue
12217 10858 Solid/how-low-orange
9132 9050 Solid/ie_animated
8339 8324 Solid/insweb
12748 12474 Solid/its4you
13527 11067 Solid/million-cars
15856 14817 Solid/msinternet
9188 7593 Solid/necx-pcstore
6578 7029 Solid/ns-want-a-date
7997 7668 Solid/ruin-your-day
12385 11667 Solid/sgi-linux.gif
4885 4526 Solid/smart-browsing
5720 6060 Solid/surplus-auction
7190 6772 Solid/yahoochat
7966 8452 Transparent/any-point
10213 9000 Transparent/brand-roses
10494 9756 Transparent/brands60pct
10590 10747 Transparent/codewarrior-tools
12107 10619 Transparent/discovery-health
11002 11007 Transparent/fast-easy-free
10256 8867 Transparent/fathers-found-468
7933 7547 Transparent/free-shipping
9563 9286 Transparent/freeworld
11307 11175 Transparent/iSyndicate
11957 12670 Transparent/mailcom
9526 9410 Transparent/moneybag
11069 13438 Transparent/realguide
11941 11988 Transparent/roll-with-pros
6750 6341 Transparent/webidentity
9936 8751 Transparent/zdnetdl
459872 446371 total