Platform/Browser Support
PNG was designed to be network-friendly, so naturally it is recognized and supported on all platforms. Fortunately, as of this writing, PNGs can be displayed as inline images in virtually all browsers (initially, PNGs required plug-ins such as PNG Live). However, not all of the advanced features, such as progressive display and embedded text, are supported. In fact, Internet Explorer didn’t start natively supporting alpha-channel transparency until its Version 7 release.
Table 31-1 lists the more popular browsers capable of displaying PNGs and the features they support. Note that there are myriad lesser-known browsers out there that also support PNG in all its glory. Some older browsers are included in the table for historical interest. For a complete list of PNG behavior on all browsers, see the browser support page on the official PNG web site at http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngapbr.html.
Table 31-1. Browser support for PNG
|
Browser |
Progressive display |
Binary transparency |
Alpha channel transparency |
Gamma correction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||
|
IE 7 (beta) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
IE 6 |
Yes |
Partial |
— |
Yes |
|
IE 5.5 |
Yes |
Partial |
— |
Yes |
|
IE 4.0 |
Yes |
Partial |
— |
— |
|
Mozilla/Firefox |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
NN 6 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
NN 4.x |
Yes |
— |
— |
— |
|
Opera 5 |
Yes |
Broken |
— |
Yes |
|
| ||||
|
Mozilla/Firefox |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Safari |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
IE 5 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
NN 6 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
NN 4.x |
Yes |
— |
— |
— |
|
iCab |
— |
Yes |
Yes |
— |
|
| ||||
|
Mozilla/Firefox ... | ||||
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