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 in 1995 as a patent-free alternative to GIF, 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

Why was PNG created?

PNG was developed to provide a free, open standard for web images that supports:

• Full-color and grayscale images, with lossless compression.
• Advanced transparency (alpha channels), which GIF did not support.
• No patent restrictions, making it accessible to everyone.

Here are some other questions about PNG you might also want to ask. If you have any other questions, please contact us 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.

Other common use cases include:

• Web design elements, such as icons, logos, and overlays.
• Graphics requiring transparency or sharp edges.
• Screenshots, illustrations, charts, diagrams.

What are PNG format limitations

• Larger file sizes than JPEG for photographs.
• Not suited for animation (see APNG or GIF for animated graphics).
• Not natively supported by all legacy browsers (rare today).

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. JDeli is the best enterprise-level Java image library for performance and efficiency.

How to open PNG files in Java?

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

There are several commercial solutions that provide PNG support. Our JDeli library allows you to read, write and convert PNG files in pure Java.

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

// 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);