.PNG file extension, the pronunciation 'Ping'

[sandbox]

So far so good!

QUOTE

PNG was designed recently, with the experience advantage of knowing all that went before. The original purpose of PNG was to be a royalty-free GIF and LZW replacement (see LZW next page). However PNG supports a large set of technical features, including superior lossless compression from LZ77. Compression in PNG is called the ZIP method, and is like the 'deflate" method in PKZIP (and is royalty free).

But the big deal is that PNG incorporates special preprocessing filters that can greatly improve the lossless compression efficiency, especially for typical gradient data found in 24 bit photographic images. This filter preprocessing causes PNG to be a little slower than other formats when reading or writing the file (but all types of compression require processing time).

http://www.scantips.com/basics9p.html

Best file types for these general purposes:
http://www.scantips.com/basics09.html

[Paddy]

A more comprehensive run down of the ins and outs of PNG files:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PNG

Early versions of iWeb converted all images to PNG before publishing, which many people found terribly annoying, as with some files, and particularly photos, it increased the file size and page load times enormously. Apple responded to the complaints by allowing the use of JPEG in later versions.

More:

http://user.fundy.net/morris/?photoshop27.shtml (a little out of date in the discussion of PS7 and CS but lots of detail & examples)

And more good stuff about file formats here:

http://www.wfu.edu/~matthews/misc/graphics...ts/formats.html

[kimmer]

Interesting info. Thanks to you both.

[Xairbusdriver]

I think the best thing about PNG is you get transparency but without the 255 color limit of GIF. Of course, one of the problems with PNG is that you get transparency without the small size of GIF. Of course, just as RAM has increased in computers, file size doesn't matter much now that everyone is on broadband.

[sandbox]

Thanks Folks
This is part of a Hurricane Preparedness exercise.

I thought to use PNG for it’s archival properties.
In the past TIFF was the default scanner file type and I was trying to create files that closely related to TIFF. These files are not photos, they are “legal docs”, which can be converted to PDF’s at anytime for secure web transfer. Even at the highest settings JPEG does not display the clarity that TIFF or PNG seems to offer.

For years I use a Umax legal scanner with a 14”plate and the documents were scanned to TIFF by default, a legal requirement back in 1998 if one was digitalizing legal/medical files.

Recently I’ve discovered, by accident, while looking through high quality scanner sites that the new default, or at least used by many scanner professionals is PNG.

I’m scanning text, line-art, and graphs and PNG just seems to maintain the details I need that when scanned to JPEG the files acquire something resembling a watermark in the background.

I have thousands of files to “securely encrypt and achieve” so I need to get it right the first time. I felt that maintaining the most information per file would serve me better in the future.

When the plan is outlined I may need to acquire a written authorization from the regulating agencies, though there has been NO specific outline establish for our industry as it has for attorneys and or medical facilities.

[Paddy]

Yeah - JPEG is not the way to go - it's never as good for text. PNG may well become the new default - particularly as it has none of the royalty issues of TIFF AND it's readable on the internet (although Safari has no problems with TIFF, I discovered in my reading of one of the sites I linked to above).

[sandbox]

I didn't think so Paddy, thou the new page Manager defaults to Jpeg on the first scan.

I have Epson smart panels but they don't include PNG as a scan option Jpeg or BMP is their only choices.

Vuescan worked well in the past but I'm not going to upgrade it when Page manager has better offerings.

Page Manager works seemlessly from scanner to scanner, brand to brand, so far it's a keeper and included in Brother MFC's with the option of upgrading to the full program.

I think XABD has the same program, both old and new. It will be interesting if this software turns into a winner.