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A new PNG spec

(www.programmax.net)
615 points bluedel | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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poisonborz ◴[] No.44375523[source]
Not backwards compatible. We just add it to that nice cupboard "great advanced image formats we will forget about".

Society doesn't need a new image format. I'd wager to say not any new multimedia format. Big corporate entites do, and have churning them out at a steady pace.

Look at poor webp - a format pushed by the largest industry players - and the abysmal everyday use it gets, and the hate it generates.

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michaelmior ◴[] No.44375537[source]
> and the abysmal everyday use it gets

Estimates are that 95% of Internet users have a browser that supports WebP and that ~25% of the top million websites serve WebP images. I wouldn't call that abysmal.

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Geezus_42 ◴[] No.44375752[source]
Great, so I can download it, but then I have to convert it to a different format before half my apps will be able to use it.
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wltr ◴[] No.44376017[source]
Maybe the issue is with your operating system then?
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jdiff ◴[] No.44376098[source]
App support has very little to do with the operating system. OSes by and large will preview it just fine.
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dinkblam ◴[] No.44376294{3}[source]
on the contrary. on macOS apps don't have to support image (or movie) formats. it is done by the system and transparently handled by the APIs. apps automatically gain new formats when the system adds it.
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1. reaperducer ◴[] No.44376343{4}[source]
The unfortunate side effect of this convenience is that apps automatically lose image support when macOS chases to no longer support them, too.

One example is Sony's SRF camera raw format.

Programs like Photoshop and Affinity have to bring their own decoders where previously none were required.

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2. dspillett ◴[] No.44376470[source]
And having to bring in support for formats that are deprecated by the OS, if they decide to keep supporting that format as there is sufficient demand from their users, is worse than having to bring in support for all formats rather than getting support from the OS?

Having ask that in a slightly confrontational way, one of the reasons I started using VLC all those years ago, and still use it to this day, was having trouble with other media players that relied on OS support fail to work well (or at all) with some codecs, while VLC brought support for them, and their dog, built-in and reliable. Dragging your own format support libraries with you can be beneficial.