What is PNG?

What is a PNG?

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics. It is a lossless, bitmap image format popular on the world wide web because it supports transparency in browsers. It was created to remove the need for GIF images in web browsers. Unlike GIF, PNG is an open standard with no patents.

The file name extension for PNG files is: .png

Here are some other questions about PNG you might also want to ask. If you have any other questions, please add a comment and we will try to answer.

What is PNG used for?

PNG formats are useful for displaying illustrations, charts and logos. The format can have transparent backgrounds, making them ideal for icons, overlays and similar web designs.

What is the difference between JPG and PNG?

PNG has transparency while JPEG can create smaller files with lossy compression.

Why is PNG popular?

PNG produces compact image files and is supported by all web browsers. So it is very popular with web designers.

Is it possible to convert PNG to JPG?

Yes. You can convert PNG to JPG and JPG to PNG. You will lose any transparency if you convert from PNG and may need to remember that JPG uses lossy compression.

Is it possible to convert PNG to PDF?

Yes. You will need  to print the PNG (most printers offer a print as PDF), export as PDF in a graphics package such as Mac Preview or use a third party tool such as our JDeli library.

How to open PNG files in Java?

ImageIO (the built-in Java Image library) includes support for JPEG images.

There are several commercial PNG solutions available. Our JDeli library allows you to read, write and display PNG files.

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(dicomImageFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(heicImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "heic", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(jpegImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "jpeg", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(jpeg2000ImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "jpx", outputStreamOrFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "pdf", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(pngImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "png", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(tiffImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "tiff", outputStreamOrFile);

// Read an image
BufferedImage bufferedImage = JDeli.read(webpImageFile);

// Write an image
JDeli.write(bufferedImage, "webp", outputStreamOrFile);