Ping (png) Files

Unisys holds a patent on the technology used by gifs. Png (pronounced ping) files were design to be patent free and png is a better format in almost every way. Many tools used to produce gif's like photoshop have a license to produce gif files, but some public domain tools might not have such a license. Why not use the better png files? See the example below.

Here are solutions:

gif2png a local script which produces foo.png from foo.gif

the first is a 54K gif, the second is the same file as a 48K png, Artwork by Ellen Rumsey, used by permission.

Steven Bellenot, 5 Oct 1999