iOS 8 Safari Supports Animated PNG Images

Sunday September 28, 2014 8:18 PM PDT by Arnold Kim
Animated_PNG_example_bouncing_beach_ballWith the release of iOS 8, Safari has gained the ability to display Animated PNGs (APNGs). Originally proposed in 2004 as a replacement to animated GIF images, APNGs offers more color and transparency support over GIFs.
The Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) file format is a non-standard extension to the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) specification. It allows for animated PNG files that work similarly to animated GIF files, while supporting 24-bit images and 8-bit transparency not available for GIFs. It also retains backward compatibility with non-animated PNG files.
The APNG specification, however, was rejected by the PNG group in 2007, so support for the format has been rather limited. In fact, the format has been declared dead due to the lack of official adoption. Firefox was the only major browser that provided standard support for APNG, until iOS 8.

The beach ball image in this article is animated when viewed in iOS 8 or Firefox. Edit: and OS X Yosemite.

Thanks Parasprite
64 comments


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farewelwilliams
52 months ago
at least the beachball isn't spinning.
Rating: 29 Votes
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louiek
52 months ago
Excellent. Now can we get started on webm support?
Rating: 8 Votes
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xplora
52 months ago

The beach ball is also animated in Safari 8.


That being on OS X Yosemite, I can confirm that too, it was bouncing here.
Rating: 6 Votes
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phillies262834
52 months ago
The beach ball is also animated in Safari 8.
Rating: 6 Votes
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Bahroo
52 months ago
Thank you Apple, this is true innovation
Rating: 6 Votes
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Bahroo
52 months ago

Money was spent on stupid gifs and not on quality infrastructure #bendgate


I was being a little sarcastic lol, although this is cool though.

bendgate isn't a issue, my iPhone 6 holding up perfectly fine over here and its the best smartphone I ever used .
Rating: 6 Votes
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doelcm82
52 months ago
Amiga!!!
Rating: 6 Votes
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LastMac
52 months ago

Strange that they went for a format that was abandoned by its creator instead of something like WebP which is actively maintained.


At least one of the creators seems happy:

https://twitter.com/stuartparmenter/status/512071807520616448

And the format is simple enough, it does not require constant maintaining.
Rating: 5 Votes
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Solomani
52 months ago

Someone call the Beach Boys and ask them if they will appear at the October Yosemite launch.


We'll have fun fun fun til Sir Jony takes our beach ball awaaaaayyyy……
Rating: 5 Votes
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locust76
52 months ago
Webm support coming in 2024.
Rating: 5 Votes
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