PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

.png · image/png · 1996 · PNG Development Group (W3C)

PNG is a lossless format with full alpha transparency, designed in 1996 as the patent-free successor to GIF. It compresses flat colors, text and sharp edges perfectly, which makes it the standard for screenshots, logos, icons and UI graphics. The trade-off is size: a photo saved as PNG is often 5–10× larger than the same photo as JPEG. EditItAll optimizes PNGs losslessly with OxiPNG, and can optionally reduce the color palette for much bigger savings.

Compression

Lossless

Transparency

Yes

Animation

No

Browser display

All browsers

Strengths & limitations

Strengths

  • Pixel-perfect lossless compression
  • Full 8-bit alpha transparency
  • Ideal for text, screenshots, logos and flat design

Limitations

  • Very large files for photographs
  • No animation support
  • No native HDR or wide-gamut signaling in practice

Best used for

Tools for PNG

Compress PNGPNG → WebPPNG → AVIFPNG → JPEG XLPNG → JPEGPNG → GIFPNG → ICOPNG → TIFFPNG → BMPPNG → TGAPNG → QOIHEIC → PNGWebP → PNGAVIF → PNGJPEG XL → PNGJPEG → PNGGIF → PNGSVG → PNGICO → PNGTIFF → PNGBMP → PNGPSD → PNGTGA → PNGEXR → PNGQOI → PNGCR2 → PNGNEF → PNGARW → PNGDNG → PNG