“PNG–The Definitive Guide is Greg Roelofs’ description of
the design and use of PNG. PNG is a specification for a raster
image file format. Greg’s text, published by O’Reilly, is a
clear and thorough exploration of the topic. Ranging from the early
history of the design to detailed programming information on chunks
and gamma correction to application support for this new format,
the text is a complete descriptive volume on the subject.”
“Pronounced “ping” according to Greg (although I have a hard
time not vocalizing the three letters separately), PNG has evolved
over the past four years in response to limitations in design and
licensing of the older GIF format. Greg is uniquely qualified to
describe the format and tell its tale of evolution. He was there
when Thomas Boutell first announced the project, and has written
numerous articles on the subject–including being one of the few
contributing authors I’ve ever had to my “Graphics Muse” column in
Linux Gazette (http://www.linuxgazette.com/).”
“The text is divided into three parts: Using PNG, The Design of
PNG and Programming with PNG. The specification for PNG is
platform-independent, and Greg keeps true to this philosophy with
this text. It covers everything from Linux to Windows to BeOS to
OS/2; however, the first section does finish with a focus on
Macromedia’s Fireworks 1.0, a decidedly non-Linux application.”