PNG is very similar to GIF, but it uses a different compression algorithm and can't be animated (yet, I hear rumors that they are working on that...)
The PNG equivalent of Animated GIFs are MNGs (Multiple-image Network Graphics.) As implied by the name, MNG was based on the PNG format to handle animated graphics. In addition to sharing a number of PNG's best features, it offers the following animation features:
- Object/sprite based animation
- Much better compression than animated GIFs
- Frame differencing support
- Nested loops (useful for complex animations)
But MNGs are currently still in development and very few programs support it as of yet (the only program that springs to my mind is Netscape 6).
-- Rozallin J. Thompson
The Webmistress who doesn't hesitate to use strict;