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A new PNG spec

(www.programmax.net)
617 points bluedel | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.207s | 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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jillesvangurp ◴[] No.44374842[source]
Old PNGs will work just fine. And forward compatibility is much less important.

The main use case for PNG is web browsers and all of them seem to be on board. Using old web browsers is a bad idea. You do get these relics showing up using some old version of internet explorer. But some images not rendering is the least of their problems. The main challenge is actually going to be updating graphics tools to export the new files. And teaching people that sRGB maybe isn't good enough any more. That's going to be hard since most people have no clue about color spaces.

Anyway, that gives everybody plenty of time to upgrade. By the time this stuff is widely used, it will be widely supported. So, you kind of get forward compatibility that way. Your browser already supports the new format. Your image editor probably doesn't.

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AlienRobot ◴[] No.44376086[source]
>The main use case for PNG is web browsers

This is news to me. I'm pretty sure the main use case for PNG is lossless transparent graphics.

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1. asadotzler ◴[] No.44379910[source]
Depends on whose use cases you're considering.

There are about 3.6 billion people surfing the web and experiencing PNGs. That use case, consuming PNGs, seems to dwarf the perhaps 100 million (somewhat wild guess) graphic designers, web developers, and photo editing professionals who manipulate images for publishing (in any medium) or archiving.

If, on the other hand, you're considering the use cases envisioned by PNG's creators, or the use cases that interest the people processing or publishing images, yes, these people are focused on format itself and its capabilities.

I suspect this particular use of "use case" isn't terribly clear. Also these two considerations are not incompatible.