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A new PNG spec

(www.programmax.net)
616 points bluedel | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.22s | source
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LeoPanthera ◴[] No.44373778[source]
> I know you all immediately wondered, better compression?. We're already working on that.

This worries me. Because presumably, changing the compression algorithm will break backwards compatibility, which means we'll start to see "png" files that aren't actually png files.

It'll be like USB-C but for images.

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1. altairprime ◴[] No.44375261[source]
They could, for example, use lossy compression for the compatibility layer and then fill it in the rest of the way to lossless using incompatible new compression objects. Legacy uses will see some fidelity degradation, but they are already being stuck with sRGB downmixes, so that’s fine — and those who are bothered by it can just emit a lossless-pixels (but lossy-color and lossy-range) compatibility layer and reserve the compression benefits for the color and dynamic range.

I’m not saying this is what will happen — but if I was able to construct a plausible approach to compression in ten minutes, then perhaps it’s a bit early to predict the doom of compatibility.