Comments on: Fixing PNG Gamma

By: Sagar

Sagar — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:00:52 +0000

Great tool……
Thanks………..

By: Dirk

Dirk — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 14:07:06 +0000

Yeah and Hooray!
Thanks for the info, I knew it was a PNG IE problem, but I had no idea how to fix it.

By: ScottBruin

ScottBruin — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:15:44 +0000

Mac OS X users,

Try this: http://www.shealanforshaw.com/gammaslamma-11-update-now-available/

By: Mark Abucayon

Mark Abucayon — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:38:47 +0000

You have a point right there. Thanks for this.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:53:43 +0000

@armateur6 -

I still think that it’s eminently suited to web reproduction of fine art.

I see where you are coming from. I misunderstood you original comment – I thought you were suggesting that PNG would be a good format for professional photographers to reproduce their work in print!

For anyone selling artwork or stock photography over the web, PNG + gamma correction should be a real boon, and if browsers automatically strip gamma from PNGs it is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

An ideal solution would be if browsers all respected the gamma value contained in a PNG, including the possibility that there is no gamma value specified. Coupled with that, it would be great if graphics applications such as Photoshop gave designers the option to embed or strip the gamma value from a PNG during the creation process. That would eliminate the need for cleanup after the fact using 3rd party applications like TweakPNG.

By: armateur6

armateur6 — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 22:39:01 +0000

Hey Jonathan — no worries, I appreciate the correction. And for digging me out of the deluge!

I certainly didn’t mean to imply that it should be used for print; but I still think that it’s eminently suited to web reproduction of fine art. The problem, of course, is the vast disparity between mac and PC gamma, and PNG at least exposed the issue. So it really IS an “advanced” feature — it’s just MORE advanced and exposing the flaws (lack of correction) in everything else!

Don’t get me wrong, I would much prefer to see browsers tackle gamma correction, but I really doubt that will ever happen. In the meantime I think more people in the photographic and art community should look to PNG. Cheers!

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 19:04:37 +0000

@amateur6: I hate to tell you this, but PNG was designed as replacement for the GIF format, which makes it a web format. It also doesn’t support CMYK color spaces, which makes is unsuitable for print production work. By the way – you should consider posting under a different handle – because of the word “amateur” your comment was tagged as spam as I almost missed it in the deluge.

By: amateur6

amateur6 — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:46:03 +0000

Just wanted to clarify that, as far as I can tell, none of this has any bearing on the application where PNG was obviously designed to shine: photography (or illustration). Gamma differences can absolutely kill subtleties in artwork, and so the PNG fix really IS a good thing — it’s just that web designers (and I am one) have a tendency to look for the ONE format solution to their problems. Or maybe PNG was originally promoted this way — I don’t recall. But saying “hooray, we can strip the gamma correction and PNGs will be better” seems to ignore the fact that it really CAN be a help, in the right circumstances.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 10:14:31 +0000

@EZ: I’m not convinced PNG is ‘ready for prime time’ just yet, but it’s nice to know that there are options available. I can’t wait until IE6 and Safari 1.3 are forgotten and we can start to use the PNG format freely. It will be really interesting to see the way web design changes once transparency becomes part of the designer’s repertoire…

By: Ephram Zerb

Ephram Zerb — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 01:51:23 +0000

Thanks for the post, didn’t realize that there was such a solution. My approach to the stated problem was to abandon PNGs and go back to using GIFs. Now I just need to rationalize using Microsoft’s “AlphaImageLoader Filter” to fix the transparency functionality to fully redeem the PNG format.