So, I was experimenting lately with a few browsers, just to see if I'd consider changing from Firefox. I was thinking of going back to Opera... or switching to Chrome. So I went and found out a few things.

So, can you tell a difference between these to .gifs?





You either see them as generally being the same speed, or the first one is hauling some major ass. If you are part of the latter, congrats... your browser doesn't suck. Back when I was messing around with making .gifs I would make them very high in frame count and very very fast per frame. This give them the best quality. I would go as low as .01 frames per second. Which is fine in say... Firefox or Opera. But Internet Explorer and Google Chrome told me, "No. Your animations are forced into .1 fps." Which made them horribly slow. And the only way to correct this to work with inferior browsers was to cut out a good number of frames to make it run at the same speed I wanted... but would lose a good deal of quality. But I digress...

Also, your web browser should have a clear a lot of junk when I close option. Back in the day, there were little cleanup programs that would clear all old cookies, cache, browsing history, download history, and all that lovely jazz. Just to keep as much junk off your computer as you can. If your browser doesn't have an option to do this when you close said browser... your browser sucks.

Oh, and another image one. What do you see here:



Well, a better question should be is this image moving or not. If you look at the image link. It's a .png which is a file format not yet known for animation. These animated pngs (apng) are very high quality animations and will one day be the norm. I know that at least Firefox and Opera support these. I think there might be a few others. Actually, I find apgns really interesting, so take a gander at this page for more info.

Also, add-ons are a godsend. There are a multitude of random people on the internet making tons of add-ons for browsers that make them suit your needs so much better than they normally do straight from install. I know that at least Chrome and Firefox support thrid party add-ons like Add Block Plus and such.

Anyways, I ultimately decided to stick with Firefox. But what do you guys use? I've tried out these things with Firefox, Chrome, IE, and Opera. So if any Netscape, Safari, etc users read this, let me know how these things turned out for you.

The problem with APNGs, as compared to GIFs, is file size. APNGs tend to be massive (with your single APNG above clocking in at a whopping 980kb) and is a massive hindrance to it becoming the norm in any foreseeable future.

There's also the fact that the people who developed it dropped further development on it years ago.

That is undeniably true. But depending on your internet speeds, the size really doesn't matter. I get about 15 meg down at home, so this stuff flies up without as much as a pause. And besides, internet speeds are only going to get faster.

Well, I did say as compared to GIFs, but that's still true. The file size being large isn't that big of a deal if you look at it from the perspective of the growth of the internet, but you're still stuck with APNG doing the same thing as another format, albeit in more detail, but with much larger file sizes.

If it's detail we're after, then what makes APNG stand out from items of even greater detail such as anything Flash can do? The way I see it, a greater detail animated image hasn't got a legitimate home on the internet anymore. It may have some 10 years ago (though APNG's file size would have been an even greater hindrance then), but now it's a lot like porting old games to new systems while only adding a facelift.

I see animated images, GIFs specifically, as being simply a convenience. APNG knocks down the quality barrier GIFs have, but at the cost of high file size. The very point you make, though, single handedly destroys the only other reason APNG would ever need to exist - people can get even greater quality than APNG can provide without so much as a pause.

You do have a good point. Flash would make a better substitute over .gif in many websites... and would be much smaller than apng. Either way, I'm glad I use a browser that runs them properly.

in 10 years everyone will be on 50MB or above (at least virgin over here is already rolling out 50MB and testing 100MB) and apng file sizes will be minuscule compared to the average person's bandwidth. the internet gets easier as it evolves, not more difficult.

i always used opera. i think it's the most standardized browser though mozilla is more widely used and more useful generally. chrome is great though, it runs soooo smoothly and has a totally integrated developer environment like thing. apparently google are coming out with a chromeOS which is internet based so it'd basically be just for netbooks. i always liked opera but chrome is deffo the nicest browser ive ever used. like as a tool for viewing the internet and that. i'm not big on loads of pluggy in crap.

At first I thought you were saying Firefox was a browser that sucked, but then I remembered my grandparents' only have IE. Remind me to come back to this topic when my new computer comes in.

Come back to this topic when your new computer comes in.