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0 pointsaljungberg9y ago0 comments

You have to admit it's a little funny that if PNG's one goal in life was to replace GIF, they chose to not support the one thing GIF is used for today.

You had one job PNG. One job!

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3 comments · 2 top-level

gpvos9y ago· 1 in thread

The popularity of animated GIFs, or the use at any scale of them at all really, only came after PNG was finalized.

The design of PNG started in January 1995 and PNG 1.0 was published in October 1996. Netscape Navigator added animated GIF support in September 1995, and if I remember correctly, it wasn't immediately used at large scale. Anyway, by that time, the PNG team had IIRC already decided to put animation in a yet-to-be-designed MNG.

aljungbergOP9y ago

And to be fair GIF was used in many many places where we now use PNG.

None the less, a funny end result.

annnnd9y ago

PNG successfully replaced GIFs. It is because of the decision not to support animations that GIF became a synonym for animations.

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