Why use the PNG format?
The default print screen image for Windows is BMP which creates huge bitmaps. GIF would be a satisfactory alternative but PNG is better. Therefore, Solid Capture defaults to the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format, which is pronounced “Ping.” It was designed to replace the older and simpler GIF format and, to some extent, the much more complex TIFF format. For the Web, PNG really has three main advantages over GIF: alpha channels (variable transparency), gamma correction (cross-platform control of image brightness), and two-dimensional interlacing (a method of progressive display). PNG also compresses better than GIF in almost every case, but the difference is generally only around 5% to 25%, not a large enough factor to encourage switching on that basis alone. One GIF feature that PNG does not try to reproduce is multiple-image support, especially animations; PNG was and is intended to be a single-image format only. (A very PNG-like extension format called MNG was finalized in mid-
