Press Release
June 22, 1999
PNG Has Finally "Made It," Claims O'Reilly Author
SEBASTOPOL, CA--"Designed as an open-source format to replace GIF,
PNG is better, smaller, more extensible, and--unlike GIF--free," says
Greg Roelofs. "PNG has finally achieved the broad level of industry
backing in which its support is taken for granted; applications are
criticized for NOT supporting PNG." Roelofs is one of the designers
of PNG (Portable Network Graphics) and the author of the just-released
O'Reilly book, PNG: The
Definitive Guide.
PNG is an elegant and feature-rich image format that has recently
achieved broad industry support. PNG is supported by major software
applications like Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft
Office, Netscape Navigator, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. "It takes
about four years--sometimes more--for a new computer image format
to become widely accepted" says Roelofs. "This was true of GIF, TIFF,
JPEG/JFIF and now PNG, and it will presumably hold for newcomers
such as JPEG 2000 and the W3C's vector format, SVG. Since this effect
was first observed by Tom Lane--principal author of libjpeg, member of
the TIFF Advisory Committee, and another of PNG's designers--I refer to
it as "Lane's Law of Image Formats."
PNG is similar to the GIF and TIFF formats, but with a number of
designer-friendly improvements. It is anticipated to quickly become
the preferred file format for color-critical web images and high-quality
graphics interchange. And because of features such as lossless compression,
alpha transparency (variable levels of transparency), and a wide range of
color depths, PNG is expected to supplant GIF as the standard web format
for even non-critical images. Even animated GIFs may soon be replaced by
MNG, which is the animated version of PNG and which was just recently
frozen as a specification (Roleofs covers the MNG in Chapter 12 of his
new book). PNG also provides direct support for gamma correction, the
cross-platform control of image "brightness," and embedded text
annotations such as author and copyright info.
PNG: The Definitive
Guide is the first book devoted exclusively to
teaching and documenting this important new format. It is an indispensable
compendium for Web content developers and is full of examples,
application information, and practical hands-on advice.
PNG: The Definitive
Guide
is also essential for programmers who want to add full PNG support their
own applications. It focuses on implementing PNG with the libpng C library
and steps through three complete demo programs, discussing key elements
of each and noting alternative approaches
wherever appropriate. The book includes explanations of important
improvements with PNG, such as gamma correction and the standard
color spaces for precise reproduction of image colors on a wide range of
systems.
"The PNG format is one step in the evolution of portable, robust image formats.
With good, ubiquitous support just around the corner in web browsers, and
support in image-viewing and editing applications not merely common but
actually expected by customers, PNG's future is bright," says Roelofs.
For more information about the book, including Table of Contents, index,
author bio, and sample chapter, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pngdefg/
###
PNG: The Definitive
Guide
By Greg Roelofs
1st Edition June 1999 (US)
1-56592-542-4, 344 pages, $32.95 (US)
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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