New animated image format (APNG)

M

Mr. Pokemon

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I don't know if that has been discussed (and I apologize in advance if it has been) but I have to ask: why is Bulbapedia switching from GIF to APNG for animated images? GIF is more widely supported (the most popular APNG-compatible browser is probably FF3) and they take up less space. For example:

Ani043MS.gif
299 bytes

Ani043MS.png
473 bytes

(Those are Oddish sprites by the way.) The GIF as you can see, is slightly smaller than the APNG (.png) file. I know it's a very small difference, but it adds up doesn't it?
 
Look closer. The color is better. Plus, when putting them in for animation, you don't have to alter the file format and get losses in quality.

Plus IE8's coming soon. Animated pngs are the wave of the future, and I think it's best to embrace them rather than be stuck with a crappy old 256-color file format.

It's slightly larger, yes, but if size was all that mattered, we'd have all new episode screenshots as gif files, too.
 
TTEchidna said:
It's slightly larger, yes, but if size was all that mattered, we'd have all new episode screenshots as gif files, too.
Click to expand...
Difference being that episode screenshots by nature should be of much higher quality than sprites, which generally use few colors.

As of last month IE 6 and 7 still have over 50% market share. I wouldn't be surprised if a large number of Firefox users are still at 2.xx as well. None of these browsers support APNG except for still images, but they do support gif. And is IE8 even confirmed to support APNG?
 
Well, it's not like the animating pngs are for much other than show anyway. It's not like they make the non-upgraded browsers say "WHAT IS THIS I CANNOT READ IT SO HERE'S A LITTLE RED X". They just show the still image. Essentially for older browsers that makes the ani and MS templates the same.

And then when they do get the update, they'll be pleasantly surprised. Plus, 99% of IE using computers are in offices anyway.
 
I'm using Beta IE8 on my home PC. When I get off work, I'll look to see if the sprites animate. If not, it's not like it won't happen.
 
I installed IE8 and the animated PNGs just show the first frame. So much for APNGs being the wave of the future.
 
Nah, IE's just always behind and has crap security anyway.

Tabbed browsing was a much-touted Firefox feature, so much so that IE adopted it. It's only a matter of time before IE properly supports animated pngs too... after all, it didn't even support proper transparency in REGULAR pngs until a while ago.

Plus, um, beta IE8. Play beta GSC and you'll see why beta's not betta.
 
TTEchidna said:
Nah, IE's just always behind and has crap security anyway.

Tabbed browsing was a much-touted Firefox feature, so much so that IE adopted it. It's only a matter of time before IE properly supports animated pngs too...
Click to expand...
A matter of time? IE still doesn't support XHTML 1.1 (which has been around since 2001), or even plan to. The IE devs have also said that APNG support is at the same level of importance as MNG support—considering how rarely used either of those are on the Web, it's unlikely that either will be implemented anytime soon.

And tabs in Firefox? Opera totally implemented those first.
TTEchidna said:
Plus, um, beta IE8. Play beta GSC and you'll see why beta's not betta.
Click to expand...
Beta GSC concepts are like way cool. :-(

/me is totally not turning this into a browser war thread
 
Which is the point: make them not used so rarely, and it'll be important to include that support!
 
I'm not sure it's a good policy to alienate the IE base - which I seriously doubt is under 1%, especially among the younger demographic.

Not that it's really an issue in this case since the bottom line is that the images do show up.
 
Both the animated Giratina pngs on the Archives have been given a deletion tag by different contributors, in one case specifically with the statement "It aint moving".

If a significant proportion of our contributors don't realise they are animated, that could lead to more issues in the future. Something to consider.
 
FabuVinny said:
Both the animated Giratina pngs on the Archives have been given a deletion tag by different contributors, in one case specifically with the statement "It aint moving".
Click to expand...
It could just be that I'm up late, but that give me a good laugh. Not only that, but they're probably using Internet Explorer.
 
Not paying attention causes this.

They should have read the Main Page.
 
Where, on the main page, are animated pngs mentioned?

The trouble is, I created a notice template for them and then one of our admins went and missed the point anyway. That case wasn't too bad since they just uploaded seperate images for Shellos and Gastrodon that we can use but the fact remains that these things keep happening. Even if the users with IE are in the wrong, our being a wiki will mean this continues to be an issue.
 
It was mentioned when first implemented. Part of the Platinum new standard thing.

Also, which images were the anipngs put for deletion? I couldn't see it for either Giratina in either Forme.
 
Please note: The thread is from 17 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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