PNG Image Format

PNG stands for Portable Network Graphics format. It is pronounced Ping, just like Bing, the search engine, but Ping, as in Ping Pong Ball.

A PNG file can be used for full-color imagery like JPEG or for indexed images like GIF. In full-color mode, it may not be as efficient as JPEG. A PNG file can be much larger than a JPEG of the exact same image. The difference is it is not lossy. Therefore, if you read a full-color PNG file, make some modifications and other edits and save it back out, the quality will be just as good as it was before. This makes full-color PNG images an excellent choice for storing original copies of your own images if you wish to edit them down the road.

PNG can support more than 256 colors. Indexed PNG can be as efficient if not more than GIF images. Almost all browsers that I know of will support PNG files. Therefore, it is safe to use PNG files for your websites that you are building. PNG supports transparency like the GIF files, but I have seen some versions of Internet Explorer where a PNG transparency did not display properly.