PNG Support Revisited?

suggest a way to improve Neat Image
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LV_Bill
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Joined: Mon May 30, 2011 6:38 pm

PNG Support Revisited?

Post by LV_Bill »

Dear Neat Image Team - A Forum search shows inquiries for PNG going back years. Any progress on this subject?

Don't you know how popular and widely used PNG really is? I strongly recommend that you take another look at the PNG subject. This is not some obscure file type. You need PNG support.

Meanwhile, after just recently buying your Neat Image Pro product, I find to my disappointment I have to go out and buy another product which will support PNG.

:cry:
NITeam
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Post by NITeam »

PNG support is in the wish list and may well be added. However please keep in mind that PNG is more limited than JPEG and TIFF because it doesn't directly support EXIF image metadata, that are typical for digital photos, so this format is of limited use for photo applications. Still, it is in the wish list and we will probably add it in one of the next updates.

Please also note that if you use Neat Image as a plug-in, you can use PNG right away, as long as the image editor supports PNG.

Vlad
janarne
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 10:15 pm
Location: Saronida, Greece

y

Post by janarne »

I want PNG Also, i used it now for 10 about years now

I have an idea for this,
in general not only for PNG, also for JPEG without EXIF Data:
A new feature could be if there is now Data that the
User could select a "Sample" File from which Neat takes the Exif information
OR the User could manually set the Parameters (ISO, and so on)
So with this it is posible to auto match a Profile.
(As an intererface it could be several drop down menu to select)

In Wikipedia they say that PNG does support Metadata,
did you know that?

greets
greets from greece
NITeam
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Post by NITeam »

The thing is, the EXIF standard doesn't support PNG. Which makes it difficult to combine these two things. In modern digital photo industry, they use mostly JPEGs and TIFFs, because these formats are included in the EXIF standard. So, whatever support we add for PNG, it is going to be less functional than for the EXIF-enabled file formats.

Vlad
LV_Bill
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Joined: Mon May 30, 2011 6:38 pm

Post by LV_Bill »

NITeam wrote:.......please keep in mind that PNG is more limited than JPEG and TIFF because it doesn't directly support EXIF image metadata.......
Vlad
Vlad - Well, I'm no expert on EXIF implementation, but I can tell you that all my png's DO have EXIF metadata. It is propagated from the original source images - usually Raw CR2 files - just like Tiff and Jpeg. Yeah, I know, Png drops me from 16-bit to 8-bit, but I'm okay with that. To my knowledge, only BMP format does not support EXIF data.

I'll be happy to send you sample png's with EXIF data if you like. Finally, I truly believe that PNG support would be a major enhancement for the Neat Image Product.

Regards, Bill
NITeam
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Post by NITeam »

Yes, please do. I will check if Photoshop and other EXIF-compatible tools are able to read those metadata from the PNG. It is quite possible that the metadata are a sub-set version of original EXIF converted to fit the PNG format.

Thank you,
Vlad
LV_Bill
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Joined: Mon May 30, 2011 6:38 pm

How to Attach Images?

Post by LV_Bill »

Vlad - Not to appear stupid, but I'm new to your Forum and it's not exactly clear how to attach or insert images. Can you post back with some instructions for a newbie? Thanks.
NITeam
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Post by NITeam »

Please see the e-mail button below. Please click it to e-mail the image to me.

Thank you,
Vlad
LV_Bill
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Joined: Mon May 30, 2011 6:38 pm

Post by LV_Bill »

Vlad - Apologies, but I find your Forum software to be really strange, very difficult to use, and unlike any of the dozens of similar products I have used before.

You asked me to click the "e-mail button". But, my screen shows no e-mail button at all. So, I guessed that you might have meant the PM button - which is of course, is NOT an e-mail.

So, I tried to send the Png sample images to you in a PM using the weird [IMG] syntax. As near as I can tell, the message was sent to me, not you. And, it had no attachments in it that I can see. So, I'm ready to give up on my futile effort to utilize your Forum software.

My e-mail address is Sumnerbi@aol.com. Feel free to send me a real e-mail message, and I will happily respond with PNG sample files attached.
NITeam
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Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2003 4:43 pm
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Post by NITeam »

Please kindly e-mail the image to support [at] neatimage.com (the address behind the e-mail button).

Thank you,
Vlad
LV_Bill
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Post by LV_Bill »

Posted for other Forum users – originally from a Private Message.

Regarding PNG and EXIF data. You are correct. The original PNG spec did not support the "classic" EXIF data. Instead, many software packages insert the camera's EXIF data into the XMP block. This is fully in compliance with XMP standards.

Regardless of the EXIF situation, vast numbers of users worldwide find that PNG is a great lossless *compromise* format. In contrast, Tiff produces huge files that are difficult to work with and prone to crashing software. PNG is not as good technically as Tiff, but much easier to work with – especially as a lossless working format and output format replacement for Jpeg.

Even though PNG has some obvious disadvantages, it is used by very large numbers of people as the most efficient lossless image format. Again, I strongly urge Neat Image to add PNG as a supported format. It seems to me that a large number of potential Neat Image BUYERS could be added to your user base with the addition of PNG. I will be looking forward to seeing this enhancement in an upgrade to Neat Image - hopefully sooner rather than later.
janarne
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 10:15 pm
Location: Saronida, Greece

PNG?

Post by janarne »

Hello,

I still miss it. It is anoying to convert my png to bitmap just to open them in neat image. Later i delete these bitmaps again, i have no need for bitmaps.
PNG has the advantage of lossless compression, that's why i use it since 13 years :-)
Are there some news for the PNG support in Neat Image, or a version where it could be added in neat?

greetings
greets from greece
NITeam
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Post by NITeam »

We are considering to include PNG support in one of the next updates of v7.

Vlad
janarne
Posts: 27
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 10:15 pm
Location: Saronida, Greece

Post by janarne »

I have seen in the new update 7.3 png is now supported.

Thank you for improving Neat image :-)
greets from greece
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