libpng-1.0.3: description + notes

PNG (pronounced ``ping'') is the Portable Network Graphics format, a format for storing images on computers. PNG was designed to be the successor to the once-popular GIF format, which became decidedly less popular right around New Year's Day 1995 when Unisys and CompuServe announced that programs implementing GIF would require royalties, because of Unisys' patent on the LZW compression method used in GIF. Since GIF had been showing its age in a number of ways even prior to that, the announcement only catalyzed the development of a new and much-improved replacement format. PNG is the result. Some of PNG's spiffier features include:


NOTE: Developers intending to use this distribution of libpng for application development should be sure to read the information below. Users installing libpng for the runtime environment only need not read any further.

Developers intending to use this library for development of other freeware packages or their own software applications will need to be familiar with a few peculiarities due to the way that this library is packaged and installed. The reasons for this installation strategy are described further in the fw_common product release notes.

The header files and libraries in this package are installed into /usr/freeware. This means that when building software using this distribution of libpng you should be sure to do the following:

Following these guidelines will allow your application to safely and easily use the software in this package.
To auto-install this package, go back and click on the respective install icon.