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Ping – Drag & Drop Optimization of PNG Files

November 25th, 2006 - Mac OS X, OS X Apps

If you’re a blogger, web developer, programmer, graphic artist, or general Mac geek, you probably regularly encounter and use PNG files. While PNG is a great format, it can be a little bloated – this is why you need the Ping app. Ping works by optimizing a variety of aspects of the PNG format (palette, compression parameters, IDAT chunks, etc.) but it does not remove any image information from the file. Just how good is this little app? We put it to the test!

The file: Here is our snazzy Web2.0ish test graphic, saved as PNG format via Adobe Photoshop CS, it is 84k:

The results: The original 84k file was compressed 62% to 32k! See for yourself!

Is that cool or what? Reducing the file sizes of images is crucial for conserving bandwidth and optimizing the load time of webpages. This app is really a ‘must have’ for Mac OS X based web developers. Now check it out yourself.

Developer Homepage

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Posted by: Editor

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Comments:

Comments: 6

Comment from anonymous
Time: November 25, 2006, 4:44 pm

Seems to work as advertised, thanks.

Comment from JBrickley
Time: November 26, 2006, 9:29 am

Exactly the same thing as PNGCrusher – http://www.amake.us/software/pngcrusher/
It’s practically an exact copy… Both applications don’t really do anything unique but provide a custom icon plus drag & drop interface to the OptiPNG GNU Linux application and bundle that application inside their respective SoftwareName.app bundle. Both were created with different versions of Platypus http://www.sveinbjorn.org/platypus which did all the bundling.

So it seems each developer merely came upon the exact same idea and each built different icons (the author of PNGCrusher gives credit to another for his icon). It’s possible that the PING developer was frustrated that PNGCrusher was not being updated and released his own updated PING. PNGCrusher hasn’t been updated in quite some time 9/18/2005 and PING has a newer OptiPNG binary.

Examining the package contents for both reveals the only real difference is the version of OptiPNG:

PNGCrusher:

./optipng -v
OptiPNG 0.4.8: Advanced PNG optimizer.
Copyright (C) 2001-2005 Cosmin Truta.

This program is open-source software. See LICENSE for more details.
Compiled with libpng version 1.0.18-optipng and zlib version 1.2.2-optipng

PING:

./optipng -v
OptiPNG 0.5.2: Advanced PNG optimizer.
Copyright (C) 2001-2006 Cosmin Truta.

This program is open-source software. See LICENSE for more details.

Portions of this software are based in part on the work of:
Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler (zlib)
Glenn Randers-Pehrson and the PNG Development Group (libpng)
Miyasaka Masaru (BMP support)
David Koblas (GIF support)

Compiled with libpng version 1.2.10-optipng and zlib version 1.2.3-optipng

Both applications are really just simple wrappers built around OptiPNG. Here’s the OptiPNG home page – http://optipng.sourceforge.net/

One could simply download it, compile it, and use it in Automator / AppleScript Folder Actions, etc. This I find more useful because I can build it into my existing workflow of Folder Actions. I can process hundreds of PNG files using OptiPNG when I script it.

That being said, the credit should go to the author of OptiPNG, Cosmin Truta and I should also mention that I have replaced PNGCrusher with PING even though I have OptiPNG worked into my scripted workflow; PING is adequate for one off processing now and then. PING is also newer then PNGCrusher. When I have to process many files, I just use my scripted OptiPNG workflows.

Comment from Ed
Time: November 27, 2006, 6:11 pm

Coolness

Comment from WU Xiangchang
Time: November 27, 2006, 6:14 pm

Bravo JBrickley!

I like the PNG compressors, they help me a lot. Anything drag and drop

Comment from Aj
Time: March 20, 2008, 7:55 am

Thanks a bunch JBrickley. A very useful comment – better than the original article. I had found OptiPNG and PNGcrusher but did not know how those fit together with PING. You showed me the light. Thanks.

Comment from Nick
Time: January 21, 2009, 12:19 pm

Ummmmmm this links to a porn site.

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November 25th, 2006