←back to thread

A new PNG spec

(www.programmax.net)
618 points bluedel | 4 comments | 24 Jun 25 13:01 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
albert_e ◴[25 Jun 25 05:09 UTC] No.44373786[source]▶
So animated GIFs can be replaced by Animated PNGs with alpha blending with transparent backgrounds and lossless compression! Some nostalgia from 2000s websites can be revived and relived :)

Curious if Animated SVGs are also a thing. I remember seeing some Javascript based SVG animations (it was a animated chatbot avatar) - but not sure if there is any standard framework.

replies(10): >>44373806 #>>44373868 #>>44374146 #>>44374225 #>>44374312 #>>44374556 #>>44374786 #>>44376132 #>>44379316 #>>44385628 #
riffraff ◴[25 Jun 25 05:22 UTC] No.44373868[source]▶
I was under the impression many gifs these days are actually served as soundless videos, as those basically compress better.

Can animated PNG beat av1 or whatever?

replies(6): >>44374218 #>>44374256 #>>44374550 #>>44374739 #>>44375571 #>>44385655 #
armada651 ◴[25 Jun 25 07:30 UTC] No.44374550[source]▶
> Can animated PNG beat av1 or whatever?

Animated PNGs can't beat GIF nevermind video compression algorithms.

replies(2): >>44374811 #>>44374952 #
Aissen ◴[25 Jun 25 08:34 UTC] No.44374952[source]▶
> Animated PNGs can't beat GIF nevermind video compression algorithms.

Not entirely true, it depends on what's being displayed, see a few simple tests specifically constructed to show how much better APNG can be vs GIF and {,lossy} webp: http://littlesvr.ca/apng/gif_apng_webp.html

Of course I don't think it generalizes all that well…

replies(3): >>44375573 #>>44375646 #>>44380354 #
1. bmacho ◴[25 Jun 25 10:28 UTC] No.44375646{3}[source]▶
I tried these examples on ezgif, and indeed apng manages to be smaller than webp every single time. Weird, I was under the impression that webp was almost always smaller? Is this because GIF images are already special, or apng uses better compression than png?

edit: using the same ezgif webp and apng on a H.264 source, apng is suddenly 10x the size than webp. It seems apng is only better if the source is gif

replies(3): >>44376096 #>>44383964 #>>44385690 #
2. Aissen ◴[25 Jun 25 11:37 UTC] No.44376096[source]▶
I have no idea! I actually hoped someone would show a much more comprehensive and serious benchmark in response, but that has failed to materialize.
3. fc417fc802 ◴[26 Jun 25 03:34 UTC] No.44383964[source]▶
I would guess that apng only wins when indexed colors can be used. That guess would match what you saw using an h264 file for the source.
4. account42 ◴[26 Jun 25 09:34 UTC] No.44385690[source]▶
Almost like video codecs and animated images are different niches that optimize for different content.