Editing Multiple-image Network Graphics

{{short description|File format}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}

{{Infobox file format
| name =           Multiple-image Network Graphics
| extension =      .mng
| mime =           video/x-mng (unofficial)
| owner = PNG Development Group (donated to [[World Wide Web Consortium|W3C]])

| creatorcode = 
| genre =          [[computer animation]] 
| container for =  [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]], [[JPEG Network Graphics|JNG]]
| extended from =  [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]]
}}

'''Multiple-image Network Graphics''' ('''MNG''') is a [[graphics file format]] published in 2001 for [[computer animation|animated]] images. Its specification is publicly documented and there are [[free software]] reference implementations available.

MNG is closely related to the [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]] image format. When PNG development started in early 1995, developers decided not to incorporate support for [[animation]], because the majority of the PNG developers felt that overloading a single file type with both still and animation features is a bad design, both for users (who have no simple way of determining to which class a given image file belongs) and for web servers (which should use a MIME type starting with <code>image/</code> for stills and <code>video/</code> for animations—GIF notwithstanding),<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngfaq.html#animation|title=PNG Frequently Asked Questions|website=libpng.org}}</ref> but work soon started on MNG as an animation-supporting version of PNG. Version 1.0 of the MNG specification was released on 31 January 2001.

==File support==

===Support===
[[Gwenview]] has native MNG support. [[GIMP]] can export images as MNG files. [[Imagemagick]] can create a MNG file from a series of PNG files. With the MNG plugin, [[Irfanview]] can read a MNG file.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irfanview.com/plugins.htm |title=IrfanView PlugIns |publisher=Irfanview.com |access-date=18 November 2012 |first=irfan |last=skiljan}}</ref> If [[MPlayer]] is linked against libmng, it and all its graphical front-ends like [[Gnome MPlayer]] can display MNG files.

[[Mozilla]] browsers and [[Netscape (web browser)|Netscape]] 6.0, 6.01 and 7.0 included native support for MNG until the code was removed in 2003 due to code size and little actual usage,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195280|title=195280 - Removal of MNG/JNG support|website=bugzilla.mozilla.org}}</ref> causing complaints on the Mozilla development site.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18574|title=18574 - (mng) restore support for MNG animation format and JNG image format|website=bugzilla.mozilla.org}}</ref> Mozilla later added support for [[APNG]] as a simpler alternative.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Animated_PNG_graphics |title=Animated PNG graphics - MDC Doc Center |date=4 July 2008 |access-date=6 December 2010}}</ref> Similarly, early versions of the [[Konqueror]] browser included MNG support but it was later dropped. MNG support was never included in [[Google Chrome]], [[Internet Explorer]], [[Opera (web browser)|Opera]], or [[Safari (web browser)|Safari]].
{| class = "wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Product
! Support status
|-
| rowspan="11" | [[Image processing]]
|-
| [[Chasys Draw IES]]
| {{yes}} 
|-
| [[GIMP]]
| {{partial}} 
|-
| [[Gwenview]]
| {{yes}}
|-
| [[ImageMagick]]
| {{yes}}
|-
| [[Irfanview]]
| {{Depends|Partial, via plugin}}
|-
| <abbr title="Konqueror Media Player">KMPlayer</abbr>
| {{yes}}
|-
| Konvertor
| {{yes}}
|-
| [[MPlayer]]
| {{yes}}
|-
| [[XnView]]
| {{yes}}
|}

===Server support===
Web servers generally don't come pre-configured to support MNG files.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Images_and_other_uploaded_files&oldid=4194673 |title=Help:Images and other uploaded files |work=Wikimedia Meta-Wiki |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation |date=2 October 2012 |access-date=18 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://help.lycos.com/kb_article.php?ref=4470-EIHB-9773|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812150940/https://help.lycos.com/kb_article.php?ref=4470-EIHB-9773|url-status=dead|title=Database Error|archive-date=12 August 2014|website=help.lycos.com}}</ref>

The MNG developers had hoped that MNG would replace GIF for animated images on the [[World Wide Web]], just as PNG had done for still images.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.libpng.org/pub/mng/#history|title=MNG (Multiple-image Network Graphics) Home Page|website=libpng.org}}</ref> However, with the expiration of LZW patents and existence of alternative file formats such as APNG, Flash and [[Scalable Vector Graphics|SVG]], combined with lack of MNG-supporting viewers and services, web usage was far less than expected.

==Technical details==
The structure of MNG files is essentially the same as that of PNG files, differing only in the slightly different signature (<code>8A 4D 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A</code> in [[hexadecimal]], where <code>4D 4E 47</code> is ASCII for "MNG" – see [[Portable Network Graphics#File header|Portable Network Graphics: File header]]) and the use of a much greater variety of [[Portable Network Graphics#"Chunks" within the file|chunks]] to support all the animation features that it provides. Images to be used in the animation are stored in the MNG file as encapsulated PNG or [[JPEG Network Graphics|JNG]] images.

Two versions of MNG of reduced complexity are also defined: MNG-LC (low complexity) and MNG-VLC (very low complexity). These allow applications to include some level of MNG support without having to implement the entire MNG specification, just as the [[Scalable Vector Graphics|SVG]] standard offers the "SVG Basic" and "SVG Tiny" subsets.

MNG does not have a registered [[MIME]] media type, but <code>video/x-mng</code> or <code>image/x-mng</code> can be used.
MNG animations may be included in [[HTML]] pages using the <code><embed></code> or <code><object></code> tag.

MNG can either be lossy or lossless, depending whether the frames are encoded in PNG (lossless) or [[JPEG Network Graphics|JNG]] (lossy).

==Alternatives==
Most modern web browsers support animations in [[Animated Portable Network Graphics|APNG]], [[SVG animation|SVG]], [[WebP]], and [[WebM]]. {{As of|2024|02}} only [[Apple Safari]] supports [[HEIF]] and [[JPEG XL]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Deveria |first=Alexis |title=Can I use... Browser support tables for modern web technologies |website=Can I use... Browser support tables for modern web technologies |date=2024-02-17 |url=http://caniuse.com |access-date=2024-02-21}} See: [http://caniuse.com/mng MNG], 
[http://caniuse.com/apng Animated PNG], [http://caniuse.com/svg-smil SVG SMIL animation], [http://caniuse.com/webp WebP], [http://caniuse.com/webm WebM], [https://caniuse.com/avif AVIF], [https://caniuse.com/jpegxl JPEG XL], [https://caniuse.com/heif HEIF/HEIC], [https://caniuse.com/css-animation CSS Animation], [https://caniuse.com/web-animation Web Animations API], [https://caniuse.com/sr_flash Adobe Flash].</ref> The most common alternatives have been [[Animated GIF]] and – up until its deprecation in 2017<ref>{{cite web|title=Flash & The Future of Interactive Content|publisher=[[Adobe Inc.]]|date=July 25, 2017|url=https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171202123704/https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/|archive-date=December 2, 2017}}</ref> – [[Adobe Flash]]. GIF images are restricted to 256 colors with limited compression, but the format is supported in all graphical web browsers and is still widely used. 

Animations can be generated ad hoc in a browser with the [[Cascading Style Sheets#CSS 3|CSS 3]] features [[CSS animations|animations]], transitions, and [[Sprite (computer graphics)#Sprites by CSS|sprites]], or also the [[JavaScript]] [[web animations API]], by specifying frames or motions of still images or rendered shapes. This can be resource-intensive, and the animation generally cannot be saved in a portable image file or posted on [[imageboards]].

[[Internet Explorer]] only supported GIF, CSS, and Flash animations.

== See also ==
*[[APNG|Animated Portable Network Graphics]] (APNG)
*[[JPEG Network Graphics]] (JNG)

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.libpng.org/pub/mng/ MNG Home Page]
* [http://www.libpng.org/pub/mng/mngapps.html List of applications that support MNG images]
* [http://mngzilla.sourceforge.net MNGzilla] - A Mozilla variant with MNG support, dormant since 2007
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20000815200341/http://www.libmng.com/MNGsuite/index.html MNG test cases] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130911015815/http://libmng.com/MNGsuite/ archive copy])

{{Compression formats}}
{{Graphics file formats}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Multiple-Image Network Graphics}}
[[Category:Animated graphics file formats]]
[[Category:Graphics file formats]]
[[Category:Open formats]]
[[Category:Portable Network Graphics]]