By Ian Hollidae, 2025/06/30

The PNG specification is getting an update for the first time in twenty years. The main focus is to simply recognize what the web community is already doing with the format. However, there appears to be a number of conflicts on the horizon regarding the future of image formats on the web.

The biggest issue is Google pushing its own WebP format, to become the defacto web standard, which some people aren't happy about. I've run across this problem myself (uploading a JPEG image but having it download as a WebP) while image testing. I admit, I'm not thrilled with this development.

There's also the matter of JPEG XL, the official successor to JPEG, which already does what the new PNG spec wants to achieve. All the major browsers seem to support it except for Chrome. And of course, JPEG itself will be difficult to replace, having been entrenched for so long. It makes me wonder if we might be at a point where any sort of friction between format stakeholders, mainly browsers and graphic toolsmakers, will lead to larger problems down the line.

In the long run, the more formats and tools that are available, the better. Let designers and developers sort things out. Hopefully this PNG update keeps things on that path.

Tags: Graphics