Advantages and disadvantages of PNG format

Advantages and disadvantages
How to use the PNG

Today PNG is one of the most popular raster formats on the Internet. In 1995 during Usenet conference it was suggested to develop this format as an alternative to the popular GIF format, that requires a license.
The main objective was to create a new format that is more flexible and free from patents. Thus PNG emerged, which unofficially stands for “PNG IS NOT A GIF”.

We have already briefly mentioned this format in this article. Now let`s analyze the pros and cons of the format in more detail.

Via Whoishostingthis.com

Advantages and disadvantages

Pros:
– minimum compression loss. The image quality is not changed by any compression ratio;
– format is suitable for storage of intermediate versions of the image. When you re-save image, quality is not lost;
– PNG supports a large number of colors. PNG-8 (256 colors) and PNG-24 (about 16.7 million. Colors);
– it supports multi level of transparency. Image has the 256 levels of opacity from fully opaque to fully transparent;
– it’s possible to work with layers;
– the ability to add to the file meta-data;
– small size files.

Cons:
– doesn’t support animation;
– ill-suited for working with full-color images;
– can not store multiple images in one file;
Now It becomes clear what caused the popularity of the PNG format among web designers. This is the only format that allows you to get images with a transparent background.
For example, it is very important for creating logos – it requires the presence of a transparent background.

How to use the PNG

In addition to the logo, this format is used for creating the web pages navigation elements, engravings, lithographs, text, graphics, images with sharp edges. In short, wherever transparency, good compression, details and clear boundaries of the image are necessary.

In future articles, we will discover svg and pdf vector formats .