What's wrong with PNG files? Options

[*The Markster*]

I realize that people can still use PNG files because of their high reliability. But aside from the fact that, for an unknown reason, many are neglecting PNG files and looking up to GIF files instead, is there anything technically inconvenient with PNG files? I do know that some browsers experience alpha transparency issues with them, but I've heard that there's some fixes too. But I'm not really sure. xD

So yeah. Could someone please tell me the pros and cons of it, and if they have fixes? Thanks.

[clarity]

I think there is a fix for it for myspace (w/ the trasnparency issues in ff), you can check the scripts.


I ALWAYS use PNGs. Only because GIF pixleate my images, and JPG's turn into HORRIBLE quality.

[*Azarel*]

I don't know what the fixes are, but there is a PNG/GIF (as well as PNG/JPG) comparison on wikipedia.

Edit- Actually, what Lucy (a beautiful nothing) meant was this script which fixes the transparency issue in internet explorer, not firefox (as firefox renders png transparencies correctly).

[*The Markster*]

I don't know what the fixes are, but there is a PNG/GIF (as well as PNG/JPG) comparison on wikipedia.

Edit- Actually, what Lucy (a beautiful nothing) meant was this script which fixes the transparency issue in internet explorer, not firefox (as firefox renders png transparencies correctly).

Thanks a lot. This really helps.
About the IE alpha-transparency fix, does that fix Internet Explorer 4-6?

I ALWAYS use PNGs. Only because GIF pixleate my images, and JPG's turn into HORRIBLE quality.

JPGs horriblify your pictures? Hm. Doesn't it work well if you set the JPEG quality to 100? I usually do that to my real-life images, as well as certain of my Myspace layout images.

[*mipadi*]

PNG is a great format, aside from the fact that PNG file sizes are slightly larger than that of JPEG (due to the fact that PNG is a loss-less compression format). Of course, not all browsers (specifically, IE) have full support for transparent PNGs, so you can't expect everyone to view them properly.

Actually, I expect Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) to eventually supersede PNG, or at least start to gain popularity, since it's a better file format—but not a lot of browsers have support for SVG yet. (Firefox does, as well as WebKit-based browsers like Safari.)