The PNG format is a format for lossless raster images, which is able to replace such classic formats as TIFF and GIF. It was designed to work mainly with WWW applications; it is robust and provides integrity checks for the file.
It was designed for the purpose of replacing the GIF format, but it also has additional design properties that were added with small effort from the designers. The features that are implemented in PNG and are absent in GIF format include:
Support for images with up to 48 bits per pixel, in True Color.
This document has been reviewed by W3C members and other interested parties and has been endorsed by the Director as a W3C Recommendation. It is a stable document and may be used as reference material or cited as a normative reference from another document. W3C's role in making the Recommendation is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment. This enhances the functionality and interoperability of the Web.
A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be found at
Status of this Document
This is a revision of the PNG 1.0 specification, which has been published as RFC-2083 and as a W3C Recommendation. The revision has been released by the PNG Development Group but has not been approved by any standards body.
The PNG specification is on a standards track under the purview of ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 24 and is expected to be released eventually as ISO/IEC International Standard 15948. It is the intent of the standards bodies to maintain backward compatibility with this specification. Implementors should periodically
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