A PNG image with an 8-bit transparency channel (top). The same image is overlaid onto a checkered background (bottom), typically used with graphics software to denote the transparency. File extension .png MIME type image/png Type code PNGf Uniform Type Identifier public.png Developed by PNG Development Group (donated to W3C) Type of format lossless bitmap image format Extended to APNG, JNG and MNG Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. PNG was created to improve upon and replace the GIF format, as an image-file format not requiring a patent license. PNG is pronounced /'p??/ both P-N-G and ping.[1] The PNG initialism is optionally recursive, unofficially standing for ?PNG's Not GIF?.[2] PNG supports palette-based (palettes of 24-bit RGB colors), greyscale or RGB images. PNG was designed for transferring images on the Internet, not professional graphics, and so does not support other color spaces (such as CMYK). PNG files nearly always use file-extension "PNG" or "png" and are assigned MIME media type "image/png" (approved October 14, 1996).