Graphics Interchange Format: Gift Animated Joker Applauds

PNG image files are generally smaller than GIF files of the same image quality, due to the more efficient compression techniques used in PNG encoding. PNG files can indeed be much larger than GIF files in situations where a GIF and a PNG file were created from a high-quality master image, as PNG is capable of storing more color depth and transparency information than GIF. However, for identical 8-bit (or lower) image data, PNG-format image files are almost always smaller than the equivalent GIF. Misinformation about PNG efficiency can generally be traced back to poor PNG support in older versions of some image manipulation programs, (for example Adobe Photoshop did not optimize PNGs for reduced color palettes by default).

MNG, a variant of PNG that supports animation, reached version 1.0 in 2001, but few applications support it. Animated GIF remains widely used as many applications are capable of creating the files, and it remains the only animated image format capable of being rendered in nearly all modern web browsers without the use of a plug-in. Nevertheless, embedded Flash objects, MPEGs and other video formats are used in place of animated GIFs in many websites. Other approaches, such as individual frames served by AJAX, or SVG images may be animated via JavaScript. In 2004, a proposed extension to the PNG format called APNG was suggested. It was to provide the ability to animate PNG files, while retaining backwards compatibility in decoders that cannot understand the animation chunk. Older decoders would simply render the first frame of the animation.