I didn't know PNG ever went away. I'm using em all the time.
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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The title is hyperbole. PNG is lagging behind modern lossless formats in terms of new features.
This doesn't mean it's a bad format or that it shouldn't be used. In fact, it should still be the default unless you need something it doesn't support or really need to reduce file size.
In fact, it should still be the default unless you need something it doesn’t support or really need to reduce file size.
I disagree. It is wasteful (we're talking ~30% savings with lossless WebP or JPEG-XL) and widely misused, which matters at the massive scale of the Internet with technically inexperienced people making up plenty of those images.
Congratulations, your noob user is now using JPEG-XL. It's not working on old devices, or any mainstream browser besides Safari. The less mature library also has a bug that allows for RCE and now everyone is running a cryptominer.
Now you say, but webp is supported everywhere, so let's go with that. Now the noob is using wepb for a bunch of rasterised vector graphics with 4 or 5 flat colors, and he's wasting more disk space than before.
So I repeat, if you need one size fits all, PNG is better, it works everywhere, and it's even more efficient in cases where lossless graphics matter the most.
Now the noob is using wepb for a bunch of rasterised vector graphics with 4 or 5 flat colors, and he’s wasting more disk space than before.
I just tested with this image:
Default GIMP WebP export settings (90% quality): 88.8 kB
Lossless WebP mode: 85.6 kB
Default GIMP PNG export settings (compression level 9): 189.8 kB
So I don't trust this claim unless you have some evidence.
I can't see this image in the mobile app
It should show up fine in a mobile browser.
It's just a flat-colored version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vector-based_example.svg
This doesn’t mean it’s a bad format or that it shouldn’t be used. In fact, it should still be the default unless you need something it doesn’t support or really need to reduce file size.
I rather disagree. I’ve switched to lossless WebP for all my needs. There are practically no drawbacks and I get a smaller file.
Yeah, me too. Unless I'm saving a photo or a vector drawing, then I always choose PNG
HDR and EXIF are great changes.. APNG, if already being used for some apps/services, seems a logic choice. Maybe it'll finally mean the end of gifs once and for all?
What I'm more excited for though, is the improvements in compression that the article hints that are being worked on. Specially if it can beat other more modern formats that have added lossless compression like jpegxl. I feel it's best to have separate formats for lossless and lossy, to prevent the off-chance of lossyness getting through.
Not that I've seen anything wrong with what we currently have, but this is big!