The common PNG extension, short for Portable Network Graphic, is used on image file that contain a bitmap of indexed colours, which are compressed in a lossless way. The PNG format is often used as a way to store images that are optimezed for the web. It is similar to a GIF image file, but differs in a way that it is not restrained by copyrights. It has been created in a response to the GIF format, which is too limited when it comes to colours and licenses. The downside of PNG is that it cannot include animations, as the GIF images do. Animation has been enabled in the MNG format, a relative to the PNG format. The major benefit of PNG files is that they may contain 8-bit transparency as one of the few image formats. A major setback for PNG file is that it doesn’t support CMYK colours, because it hasn’t been designed for professional graphic applications.
Mime type: image/png, application/png, application/x-png
