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Opera adds support for APNG (animation in PNG images)

Published September 17th, 2007 8:30 PM EDT By Daniel Goldman

In the latest alpha release of Opera 9.5 we’ve added support for APNG. APNG is an extension to PNG that enables animation in PNG images.

APNG was first proposed by Mozilla; it should be available in Firefox 3.

Anne van Kesteren (one of Opera’s standards guys) and David Storey (Opera’s Chief Web Opener) both blogged about this. Check their respective blog posts for more details.

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8 Comments

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  1. 1 TheMajor Sep 18th, 2007 at 5:17 am
    using Opera Opera 9.50 on Windows Windows XP

    Finally, high quality animated bitmaps.

  2. 2 Alica Sep 18th, 2007 at 6:53 am
    using Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6 on Windows Windows XP

    Why bother? APNG is rejected as official extension by PNG group, and authoring solution is also minimal. Animated lossless image may be useful one day, but obviously not in the near future.

  3. 3 Val Sep 18th, 2007 at 7:50 am
    using Opera Opera 9.21 on Linux Linux

    It is useful today, and since (a bit feature creeped) MNG isn’t ready for production anywhere, APNG will fill the need for now.

  4. 4 Øyvind Ø Sep 18th, 2007 at 9:45 am
    using Internet Explorer Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows Windows XP

    I’m wondering if it will be used for anything but banners and ads. Would hate to see web design go back to this

    - ØØ -

  5. 5 Filon Sep 18th, 2007 at 9:46 am
    using Opera Opera 9.00 on Windows Windows ME

    Greate news!

  6. 6 James Cassell Sep 18th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
    using Opera Opera 9.50 on Windows Windows Vista

    I’m actually kind of on the fence on this one. As Alicia pointed out, APNG was rejected as an official extension. On the other hand, I do think that a supported method of having high-quality animations is a good thing. It always got on my nerves that GIF was so limited — no alpha transparency, limited colors, lossy, etc.

  7. 7 Omega X Sep 19th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
    using Mozilla Mozilla 1.9a8pre on Windows Windows Vista

    You can’t say that Mozilla didn’t try to get it official. But its still an open to implement whether the PNG group accepts it or not. Which is why Opera was able to do it. Now that Opera has this functionality, many expect WebKit to pick it up soon as well.

  8. 8 Jadd Sep 20th, 2007 at 6:00 am
    using Opera Opera 9.50 on Windows Windows Vista

    I just looked up PNG group’s reaction, and they’re against it. It seems they have several good points. Please, Opera and Mozilla, do consider their opinions. You need to get this right from the start, not wrong from the start like GIF. Even if other browsers don’t follow suit.

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Opera Watch, an Opera browser blog, is run by Daniel Goldman, who used to work for Opera Software as a Technical Evangelist.

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