Miscellaneous Applications with PNG Support

These are applications that don't necessarily fit into the viewer / converter / editor / browser categories. Most of them are either image-creation programs of one sort or another (e.g., Fractint and POV-Ray) or else helper utilities or libraries (such as the Amiga PNG DataTypes and Ulead PNG plug-in).

As with the other PNG-applications pages, links to home WWW sites or to downloadable versions are provided where known, but if a link is broken, check the location and see if an updated version is available (and please tell Greg!). Relevant operating systems are printed in (parenthesized italics).

These are listed alphabetically, more or less:

• Art Wall [Ulead Systems] (Windows 3.x) - all versions; read-only; 1.5MB. (This is a screen saver.)

• BeadPlan [3-D Software] (Windows 9x/NT) - version 2.0 and later; read/write; uses libpng and zlib. (This is just what it says: a program for planning bead patterns. It can export a final plan as a PNG image or use an existing PNG image as a background for conversion to a bead graph, which need not be an ordinary rectangular grid.)

• CompuLog [Bob Berry] (DOS) - version 2.00 and later; read-only; 159k

• CryptaPix - see the PNG-supporting image viewers page

• CyberStudio [GoLive] (Mac PPC) - version 3.0(?) and later; read-only. (This is an HTML editor. It does not support image-editing but may be able to write ``low-res'' PNGs [for Netscape's LOWSRC attribute?]. Reportedly it has problems with the intermediate-edit PNGs generated by Macromedia Fireworks 1.0.)

• Digital Receiver D500 [Sony UK] (MHEG-5) - read-only; tri-level alpha support (0%, 50%, 100%); commercial. (This is a set-top box that decodes digital TV broadcasts for display on an existing TV set. PNG is supported as part of the UK profile for MHEG-5, basically a next-generation teletext standard that supports bitmapped images and video in addition to text--rather like HTML, except different.)

• Digital Receiver DTR 730-IM [Pace Micro Technology] (MHEG-5) - read-only; tri-level alpha support? (This is a set-top box that decodes digital TV broadcasts for display on an existing TV set. PNG is supported as part of the UK profile for MHEG-5.)

• Digital Receiver DTX 6370 [Philips] (MHEG-5) - read-only; tri-level alpha support? (This is a set-top box that decodes digital TV broadcasts for display on an existing TV set. PNG is supported as part of the UK profile for MHEG-5, basically a next-generation teletext standard that supports bitmapped images and video in addition to text--rather like HTML, except different. The link also has information on a pair of integrated digital TVs--i.e., combined decoder and display.)

• Director [Macromedia] (Windows 9x/NT, Macintosh) - version 6.0(?) and later; read-only. (This is a ``multimedia production'' editor that can import PNG images into its animated presentations.)

• Dreamweaver [Macromedia] (Windows 9x/NT, Macintosh) - all versions; read-only. (This is an HTML editor. It does not support image-editing.)

• Excel 97 - see Office 97 below

• Elastic Reality [Avid] (Windows 9x/NT, PowerMac) - version 3.0 and later; read/write. (This is a special-effects tool with warping and morphing features; it supports images up to 64 bits deep. PNG support in the Irix/X version is coming.)

• Fandango [Alexander Hildyard] (Windows 9x/NT) - all versions; read-only. (This is a program to create screen savers.)

• FD Trinitron WEGA [Sony UK] (MHEG-5) - models KV-32DS60(S) and KV-28DS60(S); read-only; tri-level alpha support (0%, 50%, 100%); commercial. (This is an integrated digital TV set; PNG is supported as part of the UK profile for MHEG-5, basically a next-generation teletext standard that supports bitmapped images and video in addition to text--rather like HTML, except different.)

• file [Ian Darwin, Christos Zoulas] (Unix, OS/2, DOS, etc.) - version 3.18 and later; read-only; 68k. (This is a command-line program to determine automatically the type and characteristics of all sorts of file formats, including images and compressed files or archives.)

• Final Writer [SoftWood] (Amiga) - version 5.0 and later via a PNG DataType (see below for a couple); read-only. (This is a word processor with image-import and other DTP capabilities.)

• Font F/X - see the PNG-supporting 3D apps page

• Fractint [Stone Soup Group] (DOS, Windows 3.x) - version 20; read/write (see also Xfractint below) (coming)

• gnuplot [Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley et al.] (Unix, VMS, OS/2, DOS, Windows 3.x, Amiga, OS-9/68k, Atari, Macintosh, Human68k) - version 3.6 beta 261 and later; write-only (beta versions are available here)

• HTML Editor++ 98 [CoffeeCup Software] (Windows 9x, NT) - version 5.1 and later; read/write? shareware. (This is an HTML editor with image-conversion to [and from?] PNG via its Image Companion module.)

• Icon Archiver [Alessandro Montalcini] (Macintosh) - version 2.0 and later; write-only; uses libpng and zlib. (This is an icon database that lets you export icons in PNG format, among other things.) (coming)

• IDL [Research Systems] (Unix/X, VMS, Windows 9x/NT, Macintosh) - version 5.2 and later; read/write. (This is a 4GL application development package for data analysis and visualization. PNG support is via ``an API to read, query, and write PNG images.'')

• Image Server [TrueSpectra] (Windows 9x/NT) - all versions? read/write? commercial.

• Impressario [Silicon Graphics] (Irix/X) - version 2.1(?) and later; read-only. (This is a printer manager; it supports PNG via the ImageVision Library above.)

• InfoChannel IC100 [Scala] (DOS, OS/2, Windows 9x/NT) - all versions; read-only? (This is a multi-user, multimedia presentation package, supporting graphics, sound, animation, video, transition effects, and so forth. See also Multimedia MM100 below.)

• Internet Config [Quinn `The Eskimo', Peter N. Lewis et al.] (Macintosh) - version 1.2 and later; assigns type `PNG ' rather than (registered) `PNGf' [supposedly fixed in version 1.4]. (This is a centralized configuration utility to allow one to update the Internet-related preferences of many applications in one place--for example, if the user's e-mail address changes.)

• Kodak DVC 300 [Kodak Digital Science] (Windows 9x/NT) - all versions; write-only. (This is actually a piece of hardware--a digital video camera that supports several output formats for stills, including PNG.)

• LazaLabl [SoftCentre] (Windows 3.x, Windows 9x/NT) - version 2.6 and later; read/write; uses libpng and zlib. (This is an application for creating business cards, mailing labels, badges, etc.)

• MainActor [MainConcept] (Windows 9x/NT, OS/2) - version 2.0 and later; read/write. (This is a ``multimedia processing package'' for editing, composing and sequencing video and animations.)

• Mapedit [Tom Boutell] (Windows 3.x, Windows 9x/NT, Unix/X) - version 2.0 and later; read-only. (This is an application for making WWW image maps, either server-side or client-side, out of web pages with embedded images.)

• Mathematica - see the PNG-supporting 3D apps page

• Mediamaster DVB 9850T [Nokia] (MHEG-5) - read-only; tri-level alpha support? (This is a set-top box that decodes digital TV broadcasts for display on an existing TV set. PNG is supported as part of the UK profile for MHEG-5.)

• Memo Writer Pro [Universal Development Corporation] (Windows 3.x, Windows 9x/NT) - version 2.6(?) and later; read-only. (This appears to be a word processor DLL component plug-in thingumbob with support for various image formats via ImageLib above.)

• MetaCard [MetaCard] (Unix/X, Windows 9x/NT) - version 2.2 and later; read-only. (This is a multimedia ``card stack'' and scripting language similar to Apple's HyperCard; it can import PNG images.)

• Morph Man [STOIK Software] (Windows 9x/NT) - all versions? read/write? (This is an image-morphing tool. It takes a start image and an end image and generates the intervening frames.)

• Mortar [Big Picture Multimedia] (Windows 9x/NT) - version 1.1 and later; read-only. (This is an HTML editor/web-site builder with PNG support in the form of an image-map editor. Write support of some sort is coming in a future release.)

• MultiMedia MM100/MM200 [Scala] (DOS, OS/2, Windows 3.x, Windows 9x/NT) - all versions; read-only? (This is a single-user, multimedia presentation package, supporting graphics, sound, animation, video, transition effects, and so forth. See also InfoChannel IC100 above.)

• Office 97 [Microsoft] (Windows 9x/NT) - all versions; read/write. (This is Microsoft's business applications suite and an update to Office 95; it uses PNG as its native compressed image format and also directly in its PowerPoint, Excel, Word and OfficeArt components. See the image editors page for details on the latter.)

• pdftex [Han The Thanh] (Unix) - all versions? read/write? (This program converts TeX documents into Adobe PDF format, including embedded PNG images. The primary ftp site is difficult to reach but may be more up-to-date. A Linux mini-HOWTO is also available.)

• Philips Digital Set-Top Box - see Digital Receiver DTX 6370 above

• Philips Integrated Digital TV - see Digital Receiver DTX 6370 above

• Photogenics PNG loader/saver [Jolyon Ralph] (Amiga) - version 0.9; read/write; uses libpng and zlib; read-only support for grayscale/monochrome and interlacing; 43k. (This is a `GIO' plug-in for Photogenics 1.2 only. Version 2.0 and later includes native PNG support; see the image editors page for details. Click here if link breaks.)

• Photon Desktop Manager / pdm [QNX Software Systems] (QNX) - version 1.1 and later; read-only. (This program allows the use of PNG images for desktop backgrounds.) (coming)

• pngcrush - see the PNG-supporting image converters page

• PNG DataType [Cloanto] (Amiga) - all versions; read-only; 8-bit only prior to version 43.2 (24-bit tag extensions supported in 43.2 and later); transparency support; includes sample DataType-based image viewer (ViewDT) with source code; 67k. (This DataType is a standardized DLL-type thing that allows any image-handling application under AmigaDOS 3.0 or later to understand PNG images automagically. Amiga users probably already knew that, but it was news to Greg. Also see Personal Paint on the image editors page. Click here if link breaks.)

• PNG DataType [Andreas Kleinert] (Amiga) - all versions; read-only; transparency support; native PowerPC support available; 241K; shareware. (See also this page, which apparently was no longer being maintained as of October 1998. Click here if link breaks.)

• pngmeta - see PNG Source Code and Libraries

• PowerPoint 97 - see Office 97 above

• PrintGF [Cary Ravitz] (DOS, Windows 3.x) - version 1.24b and later; read-only; 73k [note that the link points at version 1.06]

• Print Screen Deluxe [Janesway Electronics Software] (Windows 3.x, Windows 9x/NT) - version 3.0(?) and later; write-only. (This is a utility that does exactly what it says: print the screen to a printer or a file.)

• Progress [David McCormack] (Acorn RISC OS) - version 0.45 and later; read-only. (This is a PNG helper app for the Termite/Webite browser, although it can also be used as a stand-alone viewer. Like Termite, it is no longer being developed; version 0.50 is the final release.)

• Projector [Nun's Meadow Software] (Windows 9x/NT) - version 1.5f and later; read-only. (This is a screen saver and multimedia presentation tool.)

• Puzzlemaker [Network Solution Developers] (any) - November 1998 and later; write-only. (This is a web/CGI-based puzzle-generator that now uses PNG format for its automatically created puzzles. Unfortunately the site also uses the Microsoft IIS 4.0 web server, which enforces a very strict HTTP header syntax; since all versions of Netscape Navigator have a typo in the PNG part of their Accept headers -- i.e., a missing comma -- the server refuses to return anything to Netscape browsers and the generated images appear broken. No word yet on any fixes.)

• PV-WAVE [Visual Numerics] (Unix, Windows 9x/NT) - version 6.04 and later; read/write. (This is a scientific analysis and visualization suite.)

• Repligator [Owen Ransen] (Windows 9x/NT) - version 4.0 and later; read/write; shareware. (This is a special-effects program that takes existing images and modifies them in any of several dozen interesting ways.)

• Rhapsody [Apple] (Macintosh) - all versions; read/write. (This is Apple's NeXT-generation operating system [so to speak]. Ali Ozer claimed that PNG would be supported via Rhapsody's NSImage AppKit class, and Clifford Colby reports that PNG support is indeed included in DR1. That appears to make Rhapsody the first OS to ``ship'' with native PNG support, although it's arguable in the case of a developer's release. Unfortunately Rhapsody appears to be mostly dead as of May 1998.)

• sanecgi [Thomas Boutell] (Unix) - all versions; write-only. (This is a web-browser interface to SANE-compatible scanners; it operates via a Perl CGI script and various helper apps such as the netpbm suite.)

• Shöwboat [rö design] (Windows 9x/NT, BeOS x86) - all versions; read/write. (This is a photo-album / digital-scrapbook package for combining images, animations and audio. PNG is supported both as an import/export format and as an internal format for file transport.)

• Slides Shower [Chris Doan] (Windows 3.x, Windows 9x/NT) - registered version 2.1a and later ($14); read-only. (This is a ``multimedia screen saver'' that can also print to a Windows printer; link points at the shareware version.)

• Snappy [Play] (Windows 9x/NT) - version 3.0 and later; write-only; commercial. (This is a hardware/software combo: a video-capture device that captures still images from any video source--videocams, TVs, VCRs--and image-manipulation and enhancement software that saves the images in various formats.)

• Sony Digital Set-Top Box - see Digital Receiver D500 above

• Sony Integrated Digital TV - see FD Trinitron WEGA above

• uf2png.fio [Ulead Systems] (Windows 3.x) - all versions; read/write; 79k. (This is an add-on module for all Ulead image products [including Ulead Viewer on the image viewers page] and for Adobe/Aldus PhotoStyler [on the image editors page]. There may be a newer version on Ulead's very slow ftp site; the version above is the first non-beta release, v1.1, dated 15 September 1995 internally and 10 January 1996 on the ftp site.)

• V-Chat [Microsoft] (Windows 9x/NT) - version 1.1(?) and later; read-only. (This is an avatar-based chat system; the avatars are stored in PNG format.)

• Word 97 - see Office 97 above

• WordPerfect [Corel] (Windows 9x/NT, Unix) - version 8.0 and later; reportedly full alpha-transparency support but no support for transparency in palette PNGs; read/write; commercial. Also version 6.1 for Windows 3.x with cvww6x.exe and ``ScanForConverters=1'' in the [WPCorp] section of win.ini; read-only. (This is, of course, a professional word processor and office suite; at least the word-processor component is also capable of exporting HTML.)

• WumPNG [Oliver Fromme] (Windows 3.x) - all versions; read-only; 163k. (This is a PNG file dumper, useful for testing PNG images.)

• WWplus32 [Arcata Pet Software] (Windows 9x/NT) - version 3.0(?) and later; read-only; shareware. (This is a ``wallpaper manager/changer''; it can sequentially display various image formats as the desktop background.)

• WWSaver32 [Arcata Pet Software] (Windows 9x/NT) - version 3.0(?) and later; read-only; shareware. (This is a screensaver that displays image archives, including PNG format, optionally with associated audio.)

• WWWis [Alex Knowles] (anything with a Perl port) - version 1.8 and later; read-only (based on gifsize by Andrew Tong; previously known as WWWimagesize)

• XAllWrite [Axene] (Unix/X) - all versions; read-only. (This is a word processor that supports the import of various bitmap formats, including PNG.) (coming)

• XaoS [Jan Hubicka et al.] (Unix/X, Amiga, BeOS, DOS, Hurd, Macintosh, OS/2, plan9) - version 3.0 and later; write-only. (This is a ``fast, portable, real-time, interactive fractal zoomer.'')

• Xclamation [Axene] (Unix/X) - version 1.3.1 and later; read-only. (This is a desktop publishing app that supports the import of various bitmap formats, including PNG.)

• XEmacs [Lucid / University of Illinois / Sun / Amdahl / the XEmacs Team] (Unix/X) - version 19.14 and later; read-only

• XmHTML [Ripley Software Development] (Unix/X) - all versions; read-only; full gamma support; full alpha support; some progressive support, but better version coming. (This is a Motif widget capable of displaying HTML 3.2 documents, including images; it's currently in beta. A page demonstrating its PNG capabilities is also available.)

• XVidCap [Rasca Gmelch] (Unix/X) - version 0.3 and later; write-only. (This is a video-capture application for X; it simply grabs rectangular areas of the display and saves them as individual frames on disk, optionally in PNG format.)

Here are the other PNG-related pages at this site:

• Introduction to PNG features
• History of PNG
• News (and more history) of the PNG Development Group
• PNG Documentation
  • zlib Documentation
• PNG Source Code and Libraries
  • Application Toolkits
• PNG-supporting Applications
  • WWW and Online Browsers
  • Image Viewers
  • Image Editors
  • Image Converters
  • 3D Applications
• PNG support in VRML browsers
• PNG Images:
  • Willem's Test Suite of PNG Icons
  • Ray-traced PNG Interlacing Demo (also GIF / JPEG version)
  • Miscellaneous Images
• Links to other PNG resources
• Back to the PNG home page

Copyright © 1995-1999 Greg Roelofs.