ping files?

ok, ping files...... what are they? anything ending in .PNG (or .png or .Png or .pNg or......) yes this is a new image format (that has become my personal defacto standard for images). lets look at them in comparison to other images. in comparison to a jpeg: compression on a jpeg can be and usaly is better, but a ping file (they are called ping by proper proninciation in the set standard, not 'dot-pee-en-gee') can have an extremly great compression factor depending on what its saving. ok, now in comparison to a bitmap (.bmp or any other standard image file that saves raw image data on a one pixel one byte basis) compression is wonderful! for an example of the compression factor that ping files are capable of look at the attached file...... it contains every posible color in a scale of 16 MILLION colors (hint, in order to view this file properly youll have to turn your moniter resolution back up to its 24 or 32 bit settings) impressive when you look at it (more impressive if your webbrowser actualy opens the file whitout crashing, use a real photo editing program, i happen to know that The GIMP reads and displays it just fine). now im gonna have you do a little experiment. resave the file as a bitmap file (.bmp should work)now after it gets done saving (which can be QUITE a time depending on processing power) look at the file size? in ping file format its only 113K....... in bitmap? (should i say or leave it up to you to test on your own?) its quite impressive when you look at the compression.

ok, enuf of compression. just about every other image file (except bitmaps) use some form of compression or another. data quality. compared to a jpeg, its ALOT better, even on minimum compression and max compression in the jpegs favor. the format is built upon a standard for compression of 'lossless image compression' meaning that as you compress the file if looks the same. jpegs suffer here, sometimes badly. pings dont. slap them to max compression and all you do is show down the speed that you work with the files after there saved, the image is the exact same. lossless image compression. ok lets look at a bitmap. i cant say that ping has anything over bitmaps when it comes to data quality, unless you choose to save the bitmap in some kind of limeted quality (ex. 256 color) mode. ok, gif's are a popular standard nowadays..... ill compare them. gifs have excelent compression! theres not denying it. but they are limeted to only 256 colors (255 if its an animated gif or you specify an 'blank' color). so these have little use other than simply making your porn sites more...... interactive! sence they are only lemeted to there 256 colors they gave nothing for keeping photo images (unless you use a mapped pallet and take a photo of your thumb with a macro lense), so good compression but less of a standard for true color images.

ok finaly support. its currently still a productive standard meaning that it keeps progressing and getting better (usialy, but like anything thats 'progressive' it CAN get worse with alot of tampering). what do you say? your webbrowser wont view that 113K file i attached? thats cause its not ment for your webbrowser. this file is massive and needs a program that exists to look at photos and other high quality images. my webbrowser crashed everytime i tried to view it. but your webbrowser (assuming your not stuck with an un-upgraded crap OS from 1995) will view ping files. it will, belive it or not. this one is just alittle more that it will probably handle. it has browser support from all major browsers now-a-days, and is quickly becomming an internet suported standard.

so in closing if your looking for a file to save your photo album in and want every last color preserved but dont have the space available for 5 meg bitmap files, id 100% recomend using ping as the image format

Excellent post. I have to agree. My XP Pro machine has a 40GB HDD. My Tux has a 40 and a 15GB in it. My XP box has 9GB's left. My Tux box has 43GB's left. I converted everything that I needed for my Tux box into .png and I have saved a crap load of space. This is an excellent format to use. Some websites have already embraced it, and believe it or not. IE has finaly added support for it. It beats .jpg and .gif by a shot or two. It slams .bmp hands down.

Greenies to you.

very good tut! i would like to see more like this if possible(relating to graphics /sound files i mean).. i have seen associations for that file extension but never actually seen a "real life" png..hahaha
as a side note when you scroll up and down on that attachment it looks cool and kinda makes you dizzy!

man i am in a good mood right now! :D
greenies for you!

well thanks to both of you, i probly wont come up with many other tutorials tho cause my knowledge isnt quite all that great on many things, so alas, i know very little about things that havent had tutorials before

i just got really bored one day and looked up all the ping standards and did little experiments to see the exact workings myself...... sence then, i havent had any regrets but thanks for all the input.

{P2P} > im with you, all the way, everything on my system uses pings

destined > yeah i know what you mean. the GIMP opens the file at 2% so i had to do ALOT of zooming in to get it to full size but once its in all the way its not quite what your expect with all the different drasticly changing color blocks.