Converting animated gif to animated png?

[Bubble #5]

I'm setting up a new forum and I've noticed that vB and many vB hacks are now using the PNG format instead of the older GIF format. While I'm happy to see this, it also puts me in a pickle because most of my smilies are animated gifs. I've been looking around for an easy way to convert all of these older animated gif smilies, but so far no joy.

Does anyone know of a program that will simply take an animated gif (smilie) and convert it into an animated PNG?

[RickyH]

You physically can't have an animated PNG. GIF is the only file format (image wise) that supports animation.

[Bubble #5]

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APNG" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APNG</a>

[RickyH]

The vBulletin software itself does not support that file format from what i know. The image processor it uses just won't read it.

[Zachery]

vBulletin uses what it wants, you don't have to use png's if you don't want to... esp not for smilies. SMilies are completely on their own.

[jnissen]

I recently ran into this. Wanted to convert my default statusicon images from PNG to GIF. Had a couple animated GIF's. Tried to copy the GIF over under the same name but kept the GIF file type. Did not work. Then tried just changing the GIF to PNG in name only and that worked. May not work on all browsers but I'm happy for now.

[webmastersun]

Originally Posted by Bubble #5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APNG

Oh I thought it is not possible but since checked this link then...

[In Omnibus]

.gif format does not support transparency so it cannot be converted to .png because it lacks an alpha channel. Every individual frame of a gif animation would have to be converted one at a time. When gifs often have one hundred or more frames it is not worth the time and effort to convert them. It should also be noted IE and Edge browsers do not support APNG file formats.

[MrZeropage]

Never noticed that before, but APNG is quite a good thing.

It is working on my Safari-Browser, see the attached Image, this is one animated PNG
Should work in Chrome and Firefox, too... anybody not seeing the animation?

As I learned, Apple started using APNG with iOS10 in 2016 for all iMessage-Stickers and -Animations.

Why use GIF anymore?


Thanks for learning something new and quite cool


There are also some "convert to APNG" converters available:
https://ezgif.com/gif-to-apng
https://icons8.com/animizer/en/gif-apng-converter

[final kaoss]

Originally Posted by In Omnibus

.gif format does not support transparency so it cannot be converted to .png because it lacks an alpha channel. Every individual frame of a gif animation would have to be converted one at a time. When gifs often have one hundred or more frames it is not worth the time and effort to convert them. It should also be noted IE and Edge browsers do not support APNG file formats.

Microsoft can fall behind, anyone who isn't computer illiterate or forced to use their crap at an office would use something different.
If there's a program that can do it with a batch of files, (drag & drop a folder or selected gifs in there for instance) than it is worth the time & effort, especially if you can apply a lossless optimization to the new animated png.

Speaking of which, these will do the job.
http://gif2apng.sourceforge.net/

https://sourceforge.net/projects/apn...PNG_Optimizer/

APNG Optimizer 1.4
Optimizes APNG animations.

Usage
apngopt [options] anim.png [anim_opt.png]

Options
-z0 : zlib compression

-z1 : 7zip compression (default)

-z2 : Zopfli compression

-i## : number of iterations, default -i15

Changes in version 1.4:
Codebase updated (based on apngdis 2.8, apngasm 2.9)