1 libpng.txt - A description on how to use and modify libpng
3 libpng version 1.2.5 - October 3, 2002
4 Updated and distributed by Glenn Randers-Pehrson
6 Copyright (c) 1998-2002 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
7 For conditions of distribution and use, see copyright
12 libpng 1.0 beta 6 version 0.96 May 28, 1997
13 Updated and distributed by Andreas Dilger
14 Copyright (c) 1996, 1997 Andreas Dilger
16 libpng 1.0 beta 2 - version 0.88 January 26, 1996
17 For conditions of distribution and use, see copyright
18 notice in png.h. Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Guy Eric
19 Schalnat, Group 42, Inc.
21 Updated/rewritten per request in the libpng FAQ
22 Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Frank J. T. Wojcik
23 December 18, 1995 & January 20, 1996
27 This file describes how to use and modify the PNG reference library
28 (known as libpng) for your own use. There are five sections to this
29 file: introduction, structures, reading, writing, and modification and
30 configuration notes for various special platforms. In addition to this
31 file, example.c is a good starting point for using the library, as
32 it is heavily commented and should include everything most people
33 will need. We assume that libpng is already installed; see the
34 INSTALL file for instructions on how to install libpng.
36 Libpng was written as a companion to the PNG specification, as a way
37 of reducing the amount of time and effort it takes to support the PNG
38 file format in application programs.
40 The PNG-1.2 specification is available at <http://www.libpng.org/pub/png>
41 and at <ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/>.
43 The PNG-1.0 specification is available
44 as RFC 2083 <ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/> and as a
45 W3C Recommendation <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC.png.html>. Some
46 additional chunks are described in the special-purpose public chunks
47 documents at <ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/>.
50 about PNG, and the latest version of libpng, can be found at the PNG home
51 page, <http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/>
52 and at <ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/>.
54 Most users will not have to modify the library significantly; advanced
55 users may want to modify it more. All attempts were made to make it as
56 complete as possible, while keeping the code easy to understand.
57 Currently, this library only supports C. Support for other languages
60 Libpng has been designed to handle multiple sessions at one time,
61 to be easily modifiable, to be portable to the vast majority of
62 machines (ANSI, K&R, 16-, 32-, and 64-bit) available, and to be easy
63 to use. The ultimate goal of libpng is to promote the acceptance of
64 the PNG file format in whatever way possible. While there is still
65 work to be done (see the TODO file), libpng should cover the
66 majority of the needs of its users.
68 Libpng uses zlib for its compression and decompression of PNG files.
69 Further information about zlib, and the latest version of zlib, can
70 be found at the zlib home page, <http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/>.
71 The zlib compression utility is a general purpose utility that is
72 useful for more than PNG files, and can be used without libpng.
73 See the documentation delivered with zlib for more details.
74 You can usually find the source files for the zlib utility wherever you
75 find the libpng source files.
77 Libpng is thread safe, provided the threads are using different
78 instances of the structures. Each thread should have its own
79 png_struct and png_info instances, and thus its own image.
80 Libpng does not protect itself against two threads using the
81 same instance of a structure. Note: thread safety may be defeated
82 by use of some of the MMX assembler code in pnggccrd.c, which is only
83 compiled when the user defines PNG_THREAD_UNSAFE_OK.
88 There are two main structures that are important to libpng, png_struct
89 and png_info. The first, png_struct, is an internal structure that
90 will not, for the most part, be used by a user except as the first
91 variable passed to every libpng function call.
93 The png_info structure is designed to provide information about the
94 PNG file. At one time, the fields of png_info were intended to be
95 directly accessible to the user. However, this tended to cause problems
96 with applications using dynamically loaded libraries, and as a result
97 a set of interface functions for png_info (the png_get_*() and png_set_*()
98 functions) was developed. The fields of png_info are still available for
99 older applications, but it is suggested that applications use the new
100 interfaces if at all possible.
102 Applications that do make direct access to the members of png_struct (except
103 for png_ptr->jmpbuf) must be recompiled whenever the library is updated,
104 and applications that make direct access to the members of png_info must
105 be recompiled if they were compiled or loaded with libpng version 1.0.6,
106 in which the members were in a different order. In version 1.0.7, the
107 members of the png_info structure reverted to the old order, as they were
108 in versions 0.97c through 1.0.5. Starting with version 2.0.0, both
109 structures are going to be hidden, and the contents of the structures will
110 only be accessible through the png_get/png_set functions.
112 The png.h header file is an invaluable reference for programming with libpng.
113 And while I'm on the topic, make sure you include the libpng header file:
119 We'll now walk you through the possible functions to call when reading
120 in a PNG file sequentially, briefly explaining the syntax and purpose
121 of each one. See example.c and png.h for more detail. While
122 progressive reading is covered in the next section, you will still
123 need some of the functions discussed in this section to read a PNG
128 You will want to do the I/O initialization(*) before you get into libpng,
129 so if it doesn't work, you don't have much to undo. Of course, you
130 will also want to insure that you are, in fact, dealing with a PNG
131 file. Libpng provides a simple check to see if a file is a PNG file.
132 To use it, pass in the first 1 to 8 bytes of the file to the function
133 png_sig_cmp(), and it will return 0 if the bytes match the corresponding
134 bytes of the PNG signature, or nonzero otherwise. Of course, the more bytes
135 you pass in, the greater the accuracy of the prediction.
137 If you are intending to keep the file pointer open for use in libpng,
138 you must ensure you don't read more than 8 bytes from the beginning
139 of the file, and you also have to make a call to png_set_sig_bytes_read()
140 with the number of bytes you read from the beginning. Libpng will
141 then only check the bytes (if any) that your program didn't read.
143 (*): If you are not using the standard I/O functions, you will need
144 to replace them with custom functions. See the discussion under
148 FILE *fp = fopen(file_name, "rb");
153 fread(header, 1, number, fp);
154 is_png = !png_sig_cmp(header, 0, number);
161 Next, png_struct and png_info need to be allocated and initialized. In
162 order to ensure that the size of these structures is correct even with a
163 dynamically linked libpng, there are functions to initialize and
164 allocate the structures. We also pass the library version, optional
165 pointers to error handling functions, and a pointer to a data struct for
166 use by the error functions, if necessary (the pointer and functions can
167 be NULL if the default error handlers are to be used). See the section
168 on Changes to Libpng below regarding the old initialization functions.
169 The structure allocation functions quietly return NULL if they fail to
170 create the structure, so your application should check for that.
172 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_read_struct
173 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
174 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
178 png_infop info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
181 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr,
182 (png_infopp)NULL, (png_infopp)NULL);
186 png_infop end_info = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
189 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
194 If you want to use your own memory allocation routines,
195 define PNG_USER_MEM_SUPPORTED and use
196 png_create_read_struct_2() instead of png_create_read_struct():
198 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_read_struct_2
199 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
200 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn, (png_voidp)
201 user_mem_ptr, user_malloc_fn, user_free_fn);
203 The error handling routines passed to png_create_read_struct()
204 and the memory alloc/free routines passed to png_create_struct_2()
205 are only necessary if you are not using the libpng supplied error
206 handling and memory alloc/free functions.
208 When libpng encounters an error, it expects to longjmp back
209 to your routine. Therefore, you will need to call setjmp and pass
210 your png_jmpbuf(png_ptr). If you read the file from different
211 routines, you will need to update the jmpbuf field every time you enter
212 a new routine that will call a png_*() function.
214 See your documentation of setjmp/longjmp for your compiler for more
215 information on setjmp/longjmp. See the discussion on libpng error
216 handling in the Customizing Libpng section below for more information
217 on the libpng error handling. If an error occurs, and libpng longjmp's
218 back to your setjmp, you will want to call png_destroy_read_struct() to
221 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
223 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
229 If you would rather avoid the complexity of setjmp/longjmp issues,
230 you can compile libpng with PNG_SETJMP_NOT_SUPPORTED, in which case
231 errors will result in a call to PNG_ABORT() which defaults to abort().
233 Now you need to set up the input code. The default for libpng is to
234 use the C function fread(). If you use this, you will need to pass a
235 valid FILE * in the function png_init_io(). Be sure that the file is
236 opened in binary mode. If you wish to handle reading data in another
237 way, you need not call the png_init_io() function, but you must then
238 implement the libpng I/O methods discussed in the Customizing Libpng
241 png_init_io(png_ptr, fp);
243 If you had previously opened the file and read any of the signature from
244 the beginning in order to see if this was a PNG file, you need to let
245 libpng know that there are some bytes missing from the start of the file.
247 png_set_sig_bytes(png_ptr, number);
249 Setting up callback code
251 You can set up a callback function to handle any unknown chunks in the
252 input stream. You must supply the function
254 read_chunk_callback(png_ptr ptr,
255 png_unknown_chunkp chunk);
257 /* The unknown chunk structure contains your
262 /* Note that libpng has already taken care of
265 /* put your code here. Return one of the
268 return (-n); /* chunk had an error */
269 return (0); /* did not recognize */
270 return (n); /* success */
273 (You can give your function another name that you like instead of
274 "read_chunk_callback")
276 To inform libpng about your function, use
278 png_set_read_user_chunk_fn(png_ptr, user_chunk_ptr,
279 read_chunk_callback);
281 This names not only the callback function, but also a user pointer that
282 you can retrieve with
284 png_get_user_chunk_ptr(png_ptr);
286 At this point, you can set up a callback function that will be
287 called after each row has been read, which you can use to control
288 a progress meter or the like. It's demonstrated in pngtest.c.
289 You must supply a function
291 void read_row_callback(png_ptr ptr, png_uint_32 row,
294 /* put your code here */
297 (You can give it another name that you like instead of "read_row_callback")
299 To inform libpng about your function, use
301 png_set_read_status_fn(png_ptr, read_row_callback);
303 Unknown-chunk handling
305 Now you get to set the way the library processes unknown chunks in the
306 input PNG stream. Both known and unknown chunks will be read. Normal
307 behavior is that known chunks will be parsed into information in
308 various info_ptr members; unknown chunks will be discarded. To change
311 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, info_ptr, keep,
312 chunk_list, num_chunks);
313 keep - 0: do not keep
314 1: keep only if safe-to-copy
315 2: keep even if unsafe-to-copy
316 chunk_list - list of chunks affected (a byte string,
317 five bytes per chunk, NULL or '\0' if
319 num_chunks - number of chunks affected; if 0, all
320 unknown chunks are affected
322 Unknown chunks declared in this way will be saved as raw data onto a
323 list of png_unknown_chunk structures. If a chunk that is normally
324 known to libpng is named in the list, it will be handled as unknown,
325 according to the "keep" directive. If a chunk is named in successive
326 instances of png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(), the final instance will
329 The high-level read interface
331 At this point there are two ways to proceed; through the high-level
332 read interface, or through a sequence of low-level read operations.
333 You can use the high-level interface if (a) you are willing to read
334 the entire image into memory, and (b) the input transformations
335 you want to do are limited to the following set:
337 PNG_TRANSFORM_IDENTITY No transformation
338 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_16 Strip 16-bit samples to
340 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_ALPHA Discard the alpha channel
341 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKING Expand 1, 2 and 4-bit
343 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKSWAP Change order of packed
345 PNG_TRANSFORM_EXPAND Perform set_expand()
346 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_MONO Invert monochrome images
347 PNG_TRANSFORM_SHIFT Normalize pixels to the
349 PNG_TRANSFORM_BGR Flip RGB to BGR, RGBA
351 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ALPHA Flip RGBA to ARGB or GA
353 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_ALPHA Change alpha from opacity
355 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ENDIAN Byte-swap 16-bit samples
357 (This excludes setting a background color, doing gamma transformation,
358 dithering, and setting filler.) If this is the case, simply do this:
360 png_read_png(png_ptr, info_ptr, png_transforms, NULL)
362 where png_transforms is an integer containing the logical OR of
363 some set of transformation flags. This call is equivalent to png_read_info(),
364 followed the set of transformations indicated by the transform mask,
365 then png_read_image(), and finally png_read_end().
367 (The final parameter of this call is not yet used. Someday it might point
368 to transformation parameters required by some future input transform.)
370 After you have called png_read_png(), you can retrieve the image data
373 row_pointers = png_get_rows(png_ptr, info_ptr);
375 where row_pointers is an array of pointers to the pixel data for each row:
377 png_bytep row_pointers[height];
379 If you know your image size and pixel size ahead of time, you can allocate
380 row_pointers prior to calling png_read_png() with
382 row_pointers = png_malloc(png_ptr,
383 height*sizeof(png_bytep));
384 for (int i=0; i<height, i++)
385 row_pointers[i]=png_malloc(png_ptr,
387 png_set_rows(png_ptr, info_ptr, &row_pointers);
389 Alternatively you could allocate your image in one big block and define
390 row_pointers[i] to point into the proper places in your block.
392 If you use png_set_rows(), the application is responsible for freeing
393 row_pointers (and row_pointers[i], if they were separately allocated).
395 If you don't allocate row_pointers ahead of time, png_read_png() will
396 do it, and it'll be free'ed when you call png_destroy_*().
398 The low-level read interface
400 If you are going the low-level route, you are now ready to read all
401 the file information up to the actual image data. You do this with a
402 call to png_read_info().
404 png_read_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
406 This will process all chunks up to but not including the image data.
408 Querying the info structure
410 Functions are used to get the information from the info_ptr once it
411 has been read. Note that these fields may not be completely filled
412 in until png_read_end() has read the chunk data following the image.
414 png_get_IHDR(png_ptr, info_ptr, &width, &height,
415 &bit_depth, &color_type, &interlace_type,
416 &compression_type, &filter_method);
418 width - holds the width of the image
419 in pixels (up to 2^31).
420 height - holds the height of the image
421 in pixels (up to 2^31).
422 bit_depth - holds the bit depth of one of the
423 image channels. (valid values are
424 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and depend also on
425 the color_type. See also
426 significant bits (sBIT) below).
427 color_type - describes which color/alpha channels
430 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8, 16)
431 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA
433 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE
434 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8)
437 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA
440 PNG_COLOR_MASK_PALETTE
444 filter_method - (must be PNG_FILTER_TYPE_BASE
445 for PNG 1.0, and can also be
446 PNG_INTRAPIXEL_DIFFERENCING if
447 the PNG datastream is embedded in
448 a MNG-1.0 datastream)
449 compression_type - (must be PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE
451 interlace_type - (PNG_INTERLACE_NONE or
453 Any or all of interlace_type, compression_type, of
454 filter_method can be NULL if you are
455 not interested in their values.
457 channels = png_get_channels(png_ptr, info_ptr);
458 channels - number of channels of info for the
459 color type (valid values are 1 (GRAY,
460 PALETTE), 2 (GRAY_ALPHA), 3 (RGB),
461 4 (RGB_ALPHA or RGB + filler byte))
462 rowbytes = png_get_rowbytes(png_ptr, info_ptr);
463 rowbytes - number of bytes needed to hold a row
465 signature = png_get_signature(png_ptr, info_ptr);
466 signature - holds the signature read from the
467 file (if any). The data is kept in
468 the same offset it would be if the
469 whole signature were read (i.e. if an
470 application had already read in 4
471 bytes of signature before starting
472 libpng, the remaining 4 bytes would
473 be in signature[4] through signature[7]
474 (see png_set_sig_bytes())).
477 width = png_get_image_width(png_ptr,
479 height = png_get_image_height(png_ptr,
481 bit_depth = png_get_bit_depth(png_ptr,
483 color_type = png_get_color_type(png_ptr,
485 filter_method = png_get_filter_type(png_ptr,
487 compression_type = png_get_compression_type(png_ptr,
489 interlace_type = png_get_interlace_type(png_ptr,
493 These are also important, but their validity depends on whether the chunk
494 has been read. The png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr, PNG_INFO_<chunk>) and
495 png_get_<chunk>(png_ptr, info_ptr, ...) functions return non-zero if the
496 data has been read, or zero if it is missing. The parameters to the
497 png_get_<chunk> are set directly if they are simple data types, or a pointer
498 into the info_ptr is returned for any complex types.
500 png_get_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr, &palette,
502 palette - the palette for the file
504 num_palette - number of entries in the palette
506 png_get_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, &gamma);
507 gamma - the gamma the file is written
510 png_get_sRGB(png_ptr, info_ptr, &srgb_intent);
511 srgb_intent - the rendering intent (PNG_INFO_sRGB)
512 The presence of the sRGB chunk
513 means that the pixel data is in the
514 sRGB color space. This chunk also
515 implies specific values of gAMA and
518 png_get_iCCP(png_ptr, info_ptr, &name,
519 &compression_type, &profile, &proflen);
520 name - The profile name.
521 compression - The compression type; always
522 PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE for PNG 1.0.
523 You may give NULL to this argument to
525 profile - International Color Consortium color
526 profile data. May contain NULs.
527 proflen - length of profile data in bytes.
529 png_get_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit);
530 sig_bit - the number of significant bits for
531 (PNG_INFO_sBIT) each of the gray,
532 red, green, and blue channels,
533 whichever are appropriate for the
534 given color type (png_color_16)
536 png_get_tRNS(png_ptr, info_ptr, &trans, &num_trans,
538 trans - array of transparent entries for
539 palette (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
540 trans_values - graylevel or color sample values of
541 the single transparent color for
542 non-paletted images (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
543 num_trans - number of transparent entries
546 png_get_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr, &hist);
548 hist - histogram of palette (array of
551 png_get_tIME(png_ptr, info_ptr, &mod_time);
552 mod_time - time image was last modified
555 png_get_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, &background);
556 background - background color (PNG_VALID_bKGD)
557 valid 16-bit red, green and blue
558 values, regardless of color_type
560 num_comments = png_get_text(png_ptr, info_ptr,
561 &text_ptr, &num_text);
562 num_comments - number of comments
563 text_ptr - array of png_text holding image
565 text_ptr[i].compression - type of compression used
566 on "text" PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
567 PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
568 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
569 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
570 text_ptr[i].key - keyword for comment. Must contain
572 text_ptr[i].text - text comments for current
573 keyword. Can be empty.
574 text_ptr[i].text_length - length of text string,
575 after decompression, 0 for iTXt
576 text_ptr[i].itxt_length - length of itxt string,
577 after decompression, 0 for tEXt/zTXt
578 text_ptr[i].lang - language of comment (empty
580 text_ptr[i].lang_key - keyword in UTF-8
581 (empty string for unknown).
582 num_text - number of comments (same as
583 num_comments; you can put NULL here
584 to avoid the duplication)
585 Note while png_set_text() will accept text, language,
586 and translated keywords that can be NULL pointers, the
587 structure returned by png_get_text will always contain
588 regular zero-terminated C strings. They might be
589 empty strings but they will never be NULL pointers.
591 num_spalettes = png_get_sPLT(png_ptr, info_ptr,
593 palette_ptr - array of palette structures holding
594 contents of one or more sPLT chunks
596 num_spalettes - number of sPLT chunks read.
598 png_get_oFFs(png_ptr, info_ptr, &offset_x, &offset_y,
600 offset_x - positive offset from the left edge
602 offset_y - positive offset from the top edge
604 unit_type - PNG_OFFSET_PIXEL, PNG_OFFSET_MICROMETER
606 png_get_pHYs(png_ptr, info_ptr, &res_x, &res_y,
608 res_x - pixels/unit physical resolution in
610 res_y - pixels/unit physical resolution in
612 unit_type - PNG_RESOLUTION_UNKNOWN,
615 png_get_sCAL(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unit, &width,
617 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
618 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
619 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
620 (width and height are doubles)
622 png_get_sCAL_s(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unit, &width,
624 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
625 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
626 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
627 (width and height are strings like "2.54")
629 num_unknown_chunks = png_get_unknown_chunks(png_ptr,
631 unknowns - array of png_unknown_chunk
632 structures holding unknown chunks
633 unknowns[i].name - name of unknown chunk
634 unknowns[i].data - data of unknown chunk
635 unknowns[i].size - size of unknown chunk's data
636 unknowns[i].location - position of chunk in file
638 The value of "i" corresponds to the order in which the
639 chunks were read from the PNG file or inserted with the
640 png_set_unknown_chunks() function.
642 The data from the pHYs chunk can be retrieved in several convenient
645 res_x = png_get_x_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
647 res_y = png_get_y_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
649 res_x_and_y = png_get_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
651 res_x = png_get_x_pixels_per_inch(png_ptr,
653 res_y = png_get_y_pixels_per_inch(png_ptr,
655 res_x_and_y = png_get_pixels_per_inch(png_ptr,
657 aspect_ratio = png_get_pixel_aspect_ratio(png_ptr,
660 (Each of these returns 0 [signifying "unknown"] if
661 the data is not present or if res_x is 0;
662 res_x_and_y is 0 if res_x != res_y)
664 The data from the oFFs chunk can be retrieved in several convenient
667 x_offset = png_get_x_offset_microns(png_ptr, info_ptr);
668 y_offset = png_get_y_offset_microns(png_ptr, info_ptr);
669 x_offset = png_get_x_offset_inches(png_ptr, info_ptr);
670 y_offset = png_get_y_offset_inches(png_ptr, info_ptr);
672 (Each of these returns 0 [signifying "unknown" if both
673 x and y are 0] if the data is not present or if the
674 chunk is present but the unit is the pixel)
676 For more information, see the png_info definition in png.h and the
677 PNG specification for chunk contents. Be careful with trusting
678 rowbytes, as some of the transformations could increase the space
679 needed to hold a row (expand, filler, gray_to_rgb, etc.).
680 See png_read_update_info(), below.
682 A quick word about text_ptr and num_text. PNG stores comments in
683 keyword/text pairs, one pair per chunk, with no limit on the number
684 of text chunks, and a 2^31 byte limit on their size. While there are
685 suggested keywords, there is no requirement to restrict the use to these
686 strings. It is strongly suggested that keywords and text be sensible
687 to humans (that's the point), so don't use abbreviations. Non-printing
688 symbols are not allowed. See the PNG specification for more details.
689 There is also no requirement to have text after the keyword.
691 Keywords should be limited to 79 Latin-1 characters without leading or
692 trailing spaces, but non-consecutive spaces are allowed within the
693 keyword. It is possible to have the same keyword any number of times.
694 The text_ptr is an array of png_text structures, each holding a
695 pointer to a language string, a pointer to a keyword and a pointer to
696 a text string. The text string, language code, and translated
697 keyword may be empty or NULL pointers. The keyword/text
698 pairs are put into the array in the order that they are received.
699 However, some or all of the text chunks may be after the image, so, to
700 make sure you have read all the text chunks, don't mess with these
701 until after you read the stuff after the image. This will be
702 mentioned again below in the discussion that goes with png_read_end().
704 Input transformations
706 After you've read the header information, you can set up the library
707 to handle any special transformations of the image data. The various
708 ways to transform the data will be described in the order that they
709 should occur. This is important, as some of these change the color
710 type and/or bit depth of the data, and some others only work on
711 certain color types and bit depths. Even though each transformation
712 checks to see if it has data that it can do something with, you should
713 make sure to only enable a transformation if it will be valid for the
714 data. For example, don't swap red and blue on grayscale data.
716 The colors used for the background and transparency values should be
717 supplied in the same format/depth as the current image data. They
718 are stored in the same format/depth as the image data in a bKGD or tRNS
719 chunk, so this is what libpng expects for this data. The colors are
720 transformed to keep in sync with the image data when an application
721 calls the png_read_update_info() routine (see below).
723 Data will be decoded into the supplied row buffers packed into bytes
724 unless the library has been told to transform it into another format.
725 For example, 4 bit/pixel paletted or grayscale data will be returned
726 2 pixels/byte with the leftmost pixel in the high-order bits of the
727 byte, unless png_set_packing() is called. 8-bit RGB data will be stored
728 in RGB RGB RGB format unless png_set_filler() is called to insert filler
729 bytes, either before or after each RGB triplet. 16-bit RGB data will
730 be returned RRGGBB RRGGBB, with the most significant byte of the color
731 value first, unless png_set_strip_16() is called to transform it to
732 regular RGB RGB triplets, or png_set_filler() is called to insert
733 filler bytes, either before or after each RRGGBB triplet. Similarly,
734 8-bit or 16-bit grayscale data can be modified with png_set_filler()
735 or png_set_strip_16().
737 The following code transforms grayscale images of less than 8 to 8 bits,
738 changes paletted images to RGB, and adds a full alpha channel if there is
739 transparency information in a tRNS chunk. This is most useful on
740 grayscale images with bit depths of 2 or 4 or if there is a multiple-image
741 viewing application that wishes to treat all images in the same way.
743 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE)
744 png_set_palette_to_rgb(png_ptr);
746 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY &&
747 bit_depth < 8) png_set_gray_1_2_4_to_8(png_ptr);
749 if (png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr,
750 PNG_INFO_tRNS)) png_set_tRNS_to_alpha(png_ptr);
752 These three functions are actually aliases for png_set_expand(), added
753 in libpng version 1.0.4, with the function names expanded to improve code
754 readability. In some future version they may actually do different
757 PNG can have files with 16 bits per channel. If you only can handle
758 8 bits per channel, this will strip the pixels down to 8 bit.
761 png_set_strip_16(png_ptr);
763 If, for some reason, you don't need the alpha channel on an image,
764 and you want to remove it rather than combining it with the background
765 (but the image author certainly had in mind that you *would* combine
766 it with the background, so that's what you should probably do):
768 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA)
769 png_set_strip_alpha(png_ptr);
771 In PNG files, the alpha channel in an image
772 is the level of opacity. If you need the alpha channel in an image to
773 be the level of transparency instead of opacity, you can invert the
774 alpha channel (or the tRNS chunk data) after it's read, so that 0 is
775 fully opaque and 255 (in 8-bit or paletted images) or 65535 (in 16-bit
776 images) is fully transparent, with
778 png_set_invert_alpha(png_ptr);
780 PNG files pack pixels of bit depths 1, 2, and 4 into bytes as small as
781 they can, resulting in, for example, 8 pixels per byte for 1 bit
782 files. This code expands to 1 pixel per byte without changing the
783 values of the pixels:
786 png_set_packing(png_ptr);
788 PNG files have possible bit depths of 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16. All pixels
789 stored in a PNG image have been "scaled" or "shifted" up to the next
790 higher possible bit depth (e.g. from 5 bits/sample in the range [0,31] to
791 8 bits/sample in the range [0, 255]). However, it is also possible to
792 convert the PNG pixel data back to the original bit depth of the image.
793 This call reduces the pixels back down to the original bit depth:
795 png_color_8p sig_bit;
797 if (png_get_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit))
798 png_set_shift(png_ptr, sig_bit);
800 PNG files store 3-color pixels in red, green, blue order. This code
801 changes the storage of the pixels to blue, green, red:
803 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB ||
804 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
805 png_set_bgr(png_ptr);
807 PNG files store RGB pixels packed into 3 or 6 bytes. This code expands them
808 into 4 or 8 bytes for windowing systems that need them in this format:
810 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB)
811 png_set_filler(png_ptr, filler, PNG_FILLER_BEFORE);
813 where "filler" is the 8 or 16-bit number to fill with, and the location is
814 either PNG_FILLER_BEFORE or PNG_FILLER_AFTER, depending upon whether
815 you want the filler before the RGB or after. This transformation
816 does not affect images that already have full alpha channels. To add an
817 opaque alpha channel, use filler=0xff or 0xffff and PNG_FILLER_AFTER which
818 will generate RGBA pixels.
820 If you are reading an image with an alpha channel, and you need the
821 data as ARGB instead of the normal PNG format RGBA:
823 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
824 png_set_swap_alpha(png_ptr);
826 For some uses, you may want a grayscale image to be represented as
827 RGB. This code will do that conversion:
829 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY ||
830 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA)
831 png_set_gray_to_rgb(png_ptr);
833 Conversely, you can convert an RGB or RGBA image to grayscale or grayscale
836 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB ||
837 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
838 png_set_rgb_to_gray_fixed(png_ptr, error_action,
839 int red_weight, int green_weight);
841 error_action = 1: silently do the conversion
842 error_action = 2: issue a warning if the original
843 image has any pixel where
844 red != green or red != blue
845 error_action = 3: issue an error and abort the
846 conversion if the original
847 image has any pixel where
848 red != green or red != blue
850 red_weight: weight of red component times 100000
851 green_weight: weight of green component times 100000
852 If either weight is negative, default
853 weights (21268, 71514) are used.
855 If you have set error_action = 1 or 2, you can
856 later check whether the image really was gray, after processing
857 the image rows, with the png_get_rgb_to_gray_status(png_ptr) function.
858 It will return a png_byte that is zero if the image was gray or
859 1 if there were any non-gray pixels. bKGD and sBIT data
860 will be silently converted to grayscale, using the green channel
861 data, regardless of the error_action setting.
863 With red_weight+green_weight<=100000,
864 the normalized graylevel is computed:
866 int rw = red_weight * 65536;
867 int gw = green_weight * 65536;
868 int bw = 65536 - (rw + gw);
869 gray = (rw*red + gw*green + bw*blue)/65536;
871 The default values approximate those recommended in the Charles
872 Poynton's Color FAQ, <http://www.inforamp.net/~poynton/>
873 Copyright (c) 1998-01-04 Charles Poynton poynton@inforamp.net
875 Y = 0.212671 * R + 0.715160 * G + 0.072169 * B
877 Libpng approximates this with
879 Y = 0.21268 * R + 0.7151 * G + 0.07217 * B
881 which can be expressed with integers as
883 Y = (6969 * R + 23434 * G + 2365 * B)/32768
885 The calculation is done in a linear colorspace, if the image gamma
888 If you have a grayscale and you are using png_set_expand_depth(),
889 png_set_expand(), or png_set_gray_to_rgb to change to truecolor or to
890 a higher bit-depth, you must either supply the background color as a gray
891 value at the original file bit-depth (need_expand = 1) or else supply the
892 background color as an RGB triplet at the final, expanded bit depth
893 (need_expand = 0). Similarly, if you are reading a paletted image, you
894 must either supply the background color as a palette index (need_expand = 1)
895 or as an RGB triplet that may or may not be in the palette (need_expand = 0).
897 png_color_16 my_background;
898 png_color_16p image_background;
900 if (png_get_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, &image_background))
901 png_set_background(png_ptr, image_background,
902 PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_FILE, 1, 1.0);
904 png_set_background(png_ptr, &my_background,
905 PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_SCREEN, 0, 1.0);
907 The png_set_background() function tells libpng to composite images
908 with alpha or simple transparency against the supplied background
909 color. If the PNG file contains a bKGD chunk (PNG_INFO_bKGD valid),
910 you may use this color, or supply another color more suitable for
911 the current display (e.g., the background color from a web page). You
912 need to tell libpng whether the color is in the gamma space of the
913 display (PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_SCREEN for colors you supply), the file
914 (PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_FILE for colors from the bKGD chunk), or one
915 that is neither of these gammas (PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_UNIQUE - I don't
916 know why anyone would use this, but it's here).
918 To properly display PNG images on any kind of system, the application needs
919 to know what the display gamma is. Ideally, the user will know this, and
920 the application will allow them to set it. One method of allowing the user
921 to set the display gamma separately for each system is to check for a
922 SCREEN_GAMMA or DISPLAY_GAMMA environment variable, which will hopefully be
925 Note that display_gamma is the overall gamma correction required to produce
926 pleasing results, which depends on the lighting conditions in the surrounding
927 environment. In a dim or brightly lit room, no compensation other than
928 the physical gamma exponent of the monitor is needed, while in a dark room
929 a slightly smaller exponent is better.
931 double gamma, screen_gamma;
933 if (/* We have a user-defined screen
936 screen_gamma = user_defined_screen_gamma;
938 /* One way that applications can share the same
939 screen gamma value */
940 else if ((gamma_str = getenv("SCREEN_GAMMA"))
943 screen_gamma = (double)atof(gamma_str);
945 /* If we don't have another value */
948 screen_gamma = 2.2; /* A good guess for a
949 PC monitor in a bright office or a dim room */
950 screen_gamma = 2.0; /* A good guess for a
951 PC monitor in a dark room */
952 screen_gamma = 1.7 or 1.0; /* A good
953 guess for Mac systems */
956 The png_set_gamma() function handles gamma transformations of the data.
957 Pass both the file gamma and the current screen_gamma. If the file does
958 not have a gamma value, you can pass one anyway if you have an idea what
959 it is (usually 0.45455 is a good guess for GIF images on PCs). Note
960 that file gammas are inverted from screen gammas. See the discussions
961 on gamma in the PNG specification for an excellent description of what
962 gamma is, and why all applications should support it. It is strongly
963 recommended that PNG viewers support gamma correction.
965 if (png_get_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, &gamma))
966 png_set_gamma(png_ptr, screen_gamma, gamma);
968 png_set_gamma(png_ptr, screen_gamma, 0.45455);
970 If you need to reduce an RGB file to a paletted file, or if a paletted
971 file has more entries then will fit on your screen, png_set_dither()
972 will do that. Note that this is a simple match dither that merely
973 finds the closest color available. This should work fairly well with
974 optimized palettes, and fairly badly with linear color cubes. If you
975 pass a palette that is larger then maximum_colors, the file will
976 reduce the number of colors in the palette so it will fit into
977 maximum_colors. If there is a histogram, it will use it to make
978 more intelligent choices when reducing the palette. If there is no
979 histogram, it may not do as good a job.
981 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR)
983 if (png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr,
986 png_uint_16p histogram = NULL;
988 png_get_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr,
990 png_set_dither(png_ptr, palette, num_palette,
991 max_screen_colors, histogram, 1);
995 png_color std_color_cube[MAX_SCREEN_COLORS] =
998 png_set_dither(png_ptr, std_color_cube,
999 MAX_SCREEN_COLORS, MAX_SCREEN_COLORS,
1004 PNG files describe monochrome as black being zero and white being one.
1005 The following code will reverse this (make black be one and white be
1008 if (bit_depth == 1 && color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY)
1009 png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
1011 This function can also be used to invert grayscale and gray-alpha images:
1013 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY ||
1014 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA)
1015 png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
1017 PNG files store 16 bit pixels in network byte order (big-endian,
1018 ie. most significant bits first). This code changes the storage to the
1019 other way (little-endian, i.e. least significant bits first, the
1020 way PCs store them):
1022 if (bit_depth == 16)
1023 png_set_swap(png_ptr);
1025 If you are using packed-pixel images (1, 2, or 4 bits/pixel), and you
1026 need to change the order the pixels are packed into bytes, you can use:
1029 png_set_packswap(png_ptr);
1031 Finally, you can write your own transformation function if none of
1032 the existing ones meets your needs. This is done by setting a callback
1035 png_set_read_user_transform_fn(png_ptr,
1038 You must supply the function
1040 void read_transform_fn(png_ptr ptr, row_info_ptr
1041 row_info, png_bytep data)
1043 See pngtest.c for a working example. Your function will be called
1044 after all of the other transformations have been processed.
1046 You can also set up a pointer to a user structure for use by your
1047 callback function, and you can inform libpng that your transform
1048 function will change the number of channels or bit depth with the
1051 png_set_user_transform_info(png_ptr, user_ptr,
1052 user_depth, user_channels);
1054 The user's application, not libpng, is responsible for allocating and
1055 freeing any memory required for the user structure.
1057 You can retrieve the pointer via the function
1058 png_get_user_transform_ptr(). For example:
1060 voidp read_user_transform_ptr =
1061 png_get_user_transform_ptr(png_ptr);
1063 The last thing to handle is interlacing; this is covered in detail below,
1064 but you must call the function here if you want libpng to handle expansion
1065 of the interlaced image.
1067 number_of_passes = png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
1069 After setting the transformations, libpng can update your png_info
1070 structure to reflect any transformations you've requested with this
1071 call. This is most useful to update the info structure's rowbytes
1072 field so you can use it to allocate your image memory. This function
1073 will also update your palette with the correct screen_gamma and
1074 background if these have been given with the calls above.
1076 png_read_update_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1078 After you call png_read_update_info(), you can allocate any
1079 memory you need to hold the image. The row data is simply
1080 raw byte data for all forms of images. As the actual allocation
1081 varies among applications, no example will be given. If you
1082 are allocating one large chunk, you will need to build an
1083 array of pointers to each row, as it will be needed for some
1084 of the functions below.
1088 After you've allocated memory, you can read the image data.
1089 The simplest way to do this is in one function call. If you are
1090 allocating enough memory to hold the whole image, you can just
1091 call png_read_image() and libpng will read in all the image data
1092 and put it in the memory area supplied. You will need to pass in
1093 an array of pointers to each row.
1095 This function automatically handles interlacing, so you don't need
1096 to call png_set_interlace_handling() or call this function multiple
1097 times, or any of that other stuff necessary with png_read_rows().
1099 png_read_image(png_ptr, row_pointers);
1101 where row_pointers is:
1103 png_bytep row_pointers[height];
1105 You can point to void or char or whatever you use for pixels.
1107 If you don't want to read in the whole image at once, you can
1108 use png_read_rows() instead. If there is no interlacing (check
1109 interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_NONE), this is simple:
1111 png_read_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers, NULL,
1114 where row_pointers is the same as in the png_read_image() call.
1116 If you are doing this just one row at a time, you can do this with
1117 a single row_pointer instead of an array of row_pointers:
1119 png_bytep row_pointer = row;
1120 png_read_row(png_ptr, row_pointer, NULL);
1122 If the file is interlaced (interlace_type != 0 in the IHDR chunk), things
1123 get somewhat harder. The only current (PNG Specification version 1.2)
1124 interlacing type for PNG is (interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7)
1125 is a somewhat complicated 2D interlace scheme, known as Adam7, that
1126 breaks down an image into seven smaller images of varying size, based
1129 libpng can fill out those images or it can give them to you "as is".
1130 If you want them filled out, there are two ways to do that. The one
1131 mentioned in the PNG specification is to expand each pixel to cover
1132 those pixels that have not been read yet (the "rectangle" method).
1133 This results in a blocky image for the first pass, which gradually
1134 smooths out as more pixels are read. The other method is the "sparkle"
1135 method, where pixels are drawn only in their final locations, with the
1136 rest of the image remaining whatever colors they were initialized to
1137 before the start of the read. The first method usually looks better,
1138 but tends to be slower, as there are more pixels to put in the rows.
1140 If you don't want libpng to handle the interlacing details, just call
1141 png_read_rows() seven times to read in all seven images. Each of the
1142 images is a valid image by itself, or they can all be combined on an
1143 8x8 grid to form a single image (although if you intend to combine them
1144 you would be far better off using the libpng interlace handling).
1146 The first pass will return an image 1/8 as wide as the entire image
1147 (every 8th column starting in column 0) and 1/8 as high as the original
1148 (every 8th row starting in row 0), the second will be 1/8 as wide
1149 (starting in column 4) and 1/8 as high (also starting in row 0). The
1150 third pass will be 1/4 as wide (every 4th pixel starting in column 0) and
1151 1/8 as high (every 8th row starting in row 4), and the fourth pass will
1152 be 1/4 as wide and 1/4 as high (every 4th column starting in column 2,
1153 and every 4th row starting in row 0). The fifth pass will return an
1154 image 1/2 as wide, and 1/4 as high (starting at column 0 and row 2),
1155 while the sixth pass will be 1/2 as wide and 1/2 as high as the original
1156 (starting in column 1 and row 0). The seventh and final pass will be as
1157 wide as the original, and 1/2 as high, containing all of the odd
1158 numbered scanlines. Phew!
1160 If you want libpng to expand the images, call this before calling
1161 png_start_read_image() or png_read_update_info():
1163 if (interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7)
1165 = png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
1167 This will return the number of passes needed. Currently, this
1168 is seven, but may change if another interlace type is added.
1169 This function can be called even if the file is not interlaced,
1170 where it will return one pass.
1172 If you are not going to display the image after each pass, but are
1173 going to wait until the entire image is read in, use the sparkle
1174 effect. This effect is faster and the end result of either method
1175 is exactly the same. If you are planning on displaying the image
1176 after each pass, the "rectangle" effect is generally considered the
1179 If you only want the "sparkle" effect, just call png_read_rows() as
1180 normal, with the third parameter NULL. Make sure you make pass over
1181 the image number_of_passes times, and you don't change the data in the
1182 rows between calls. You can change the locations of the data, just
1183 not the data. Each pass only writes the pixels appropriate for that
1184 pass, and assumes the data from previous passes is still valid.
1186 png_read_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers, NULL,
1189 If you only want the first effect (the rectangles), do the same as
1190 before except pass the row buffer in the third parameter, and leave
1191 the second parameter NULL.
1193 png_read_rows(png_ptr, NULL, row_pointers,
1196 Finishing a sequential read
1198 After you are finished reading the image through either the high- or
1199 low-level interfaces, you can finish reading the file. If you are
1200 interested in comments or time, which may be stored either before or
1201 after the image data, you should pass the separate png_info struct if
1202 you want to keep the comments from before and after the image
1203 separate. If you are not interested, you can pass NULL.
1205 png_read_end(png_ptr, end_info);
1207 When you are done, you can free all memory allocated by libpng like this:
1209 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
1212 It is also possible to individually free the info_ptr members that
1213 point to libpng-allocated storage with the following function:
1215 png_free_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, mask, seq)
1216 mask - identifies data to be freed, a mask
1217 containing the logical OR of one or
1219 PNG_FREE_PLTE, PNG_FREE_TRNS,
1220 PNG_FREE_HIST, PNG_FREE_ICCP,
1221 PNG_FREE_PCAL, PNG_FREE_ROWS,
1222 PNG_FREE_SCAL, PNG_FREE_SPLT,
1223 PNG_FREE_TEXT, PNG_FREE_UNKN,
1224 or simply PNG_FREE_ALL
1225 seq - sequence number of item to be freed
1228 This function may be safely called when the relevant storage has
1229 already been freed, or has not yet been allocated, or was allocated
1230 by the user and not by libpng, and will in those
1231 cases do nothing. The "seq" parameter is ignored if only one item
1232 of the selected data type, such as PLTE, is allowed. If "seq" is not
1233 -1, and multiple items are allowed for the data type identified in
1234 the mask, such as text or sPLT, only the n'th item in the structure
1235 is freed, where n is "seq".
1237 The default behavior is only to free data that was allocated internally
1238 by libpng. This can be changed, so that libpng will not free the data,
1239 or so that it will free data that was allocated by the user with png_malloc()
1240 or png_zalloc() and passed in via a png_set_*() function, with
1242 png_data_freer(png_ptr, info_ptr, freer, mask)
1243 mask - which data elements are affected
1244 same choices as in png_free_data()
1246 PNG_DESTROY_WILL_FREE_DATA
1247 PNG_SET_WILL_FREE_DATA
1248 PNG_USER_WILL_FREE_DATA
1250 This function only affects data that has already been allocated.
1251 You can call this function after reading the PNG data but before calling
1252 any png_set_*() functions, to control whether the user or the png_set_*()
1253 function is responsible for freeing any existing data that might be present,
1254 and again after the png_set_*() functions to control whether the user
1255 or png_destroy_*() is supposed to free the data. When the user assumes
1256 responsibility for libpng-allocated data, the application must use
1257 png_free() to free it, and when the user transfers responsibility to libpng
1258 for data that the user has allocated, the user must have used png_malloc()
1259 or png_zalloc() to allocate it.
1261 If you allocated your row_pointers in a single block, as suggested above in
1262 the description of the high level read interface, you must not transfer
1263 responsibility for freeing it to the png_set_rows or png_read_destroy function,
1264 because they would also try to free the individual row_pointers[i].
1266 If you allocated text_ptr.text, text_ptr.lang, and text_ptr.translated_keyword
1267 separately, do not transfer responsibility for freeing text_ptr to libpng,
1268 because when libpng fills a png_text structure it combines these members with
1269 the key member, and png_free_data() will free only text_ptr.key. Similarly,
1270 if you transfer responsibility for free'ing text_ptr from libpng to your
1271 application, your application must not separately free those members.
1273 The png_free_data() function will turn off the "valid" flag for anything
1274 it frees. If you need to turn the flag off for a chunk that was freed by your
1275 application instead of by libpng, you can use
1277 png_set_invalid(png_ptr, info_ptr, mask);
1278 mask - identifies the chunks to be made invalid,
1279 containing the logical OR of one or
1281 PNG_INFO_gAMA, PNG_INFO_sBIT,
1282 PNG_INFO_cHRM, PNG_INFO_PLTE,
1283 PNG_INFO_tRNS, PNG_INFO_bKGD,
1284 PNG_INFO_hIST, PNG_INFO_pHYs,
1285 PNG_INFO_oFFs, PNG_INFO_tIME,
1286 PNG_INFO_pCAL, PNG_INFO_sRGB,
1287 PNG_INFO_iCCP, PNG_INFO_sPLT,
1288 PNG_INFO_sCAL, PNG_INFO_IDAT
1290 For a more compact example of reading a PNG image, see the file example.c.
1292 Reading PNG files progressively
1294 The progressive reader is slightly different then the non-progressive
1295 reader. Instead of calling png_read_info(), png_read_rows(), and
1296 png_read_end(), you make one call to png_process_data(), which calls
1297 callbacks when it has the info, a row, or the end of the image. You
1298 set up these callbacks with png_set_progressive_read_fn(). You don't
1299 have to worry about the input/output functions of libpng, as you are
1300 giving the library the data directly in png_process_data(). I will
1301 assume that you have read the section on reading PNG files above,
1302 so I will only highlight the differences (although I will show
1305 png_structp png_ptr;
1308 /* An example code fragment of how you would
1309 initialize the progressive reader in your
1312 initialize_png_reader()
1314 png_ptr = png_create_read_struct
1315 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
1316 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
1319 info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
1322 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, (png_infopp)NULL,
1327 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
1329 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
1334 /* This one's new. You can provide functions
1335 to be called when the header info is valid,
1336 when each row is completed, and when the image
1337 is finished. If you aren't using all functions,
1338 you can specify NULL parameters. Even when all
1339 three functions are NULL, you need to call
1340 png_set_progressive_read_fn(). You can use
1341 any struct as the user_ptr (cast to a void pointer
1342 for the function call), and retrieve the pointer
1343 from inside the callbacks using the function
1345 png_get_progressive_ptr(png_ptr);
1347 which will return a void pointer, which you have
1348 to cast appropriately.
1350 png_set_progressive_read_fn(png_ptr, (void *)user_ptr,
1351 info_callback, row_callback, end_callback);
1356 /* A code fragment that you call as you receive blocks
1359 process_data(png_bytep buffer, png_uint_32 length)
1361 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
1363 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
1368 /* This one's new also. Simply give it a chunk
1369 of data from the file stream (in order, of
1370 course). On machines with segmented memory
1371 models machines, don't give it any more than
1372 64K. The library seems to run fine with sizes
1373 of 4K. Although you can give it much less if
1374 necessary (I assume you can give it chunks of
1375 1 byte, I haven't tried less then 256 bytes
1376 yet). When this function returns, you may
1377 want to display any rows that were generated
1378 in the row callback if you don't already do
1381 png_process_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, buffer, length);
1385 /* This function is called (as set by
1386 png_set_progressive_read_fn() above) when enough data
1387 has been supplied so all of the header has been
1391 info_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_infop info)
1393 /* Do any setup here, including setting any of
1394 the transformations mentioned in the Reading
1395 PNG files section. For now, you _must_ call
1396 either png_start_read_image() or
1397 png_read_update_info() after all the
1398 transformations are set (even if you don't set
1399 any). You may start getting rows before
1400 png_process_data() returns, so this is your
1401 last chance to prepare for that.
1405 /* This function is called when each row of image
1408 row_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_bytep new_row,
1409 png_uint_32 row_num, int pass)
1411 /* If the image is interlaced, and you turned
1412 on the interlace handler, this function will
1413 be called for every row in every pass. Some
1414 of these rows will not be changed from the
1415 previous pass. When the row is not changed,
1416 the new_row variable will be NULL. The rows
1417 and passes are called in order, so you don't
1418 really need the row_num and pass, but I'm
1419 supplying them because it may make your life
1422 For the non-NULL rows of interlaced images,
1423 you must call png_progressive_combine_row()
1424 passing in the row and the old row. You can
1425 call this function for NULL rows (it will just
1426 return) and for non-interlaced images (it just
1427 does the memcpy for you) if it will make the
1428 code easier. Thus, you can just do this for
1432 png_progressive_combine_row(png_ptr, old_row,
1435 /* where old_row is what was displayed for
1436 previously for the row. Note that the first
1437 pass (pass == 0, really) will completely cover
1438 the old row, so the rows do not have to be
1439 initialized. After the first pass (and only
1440 for interlaced images), you will have to pass
1441 the current row, and the function will combine
1442 the old row and the new row.
1447 end_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_infop info)
1449 /* This function is called after the whole image
1450 has been read, including any chunks after the
1451 image (up to and including the IEND). You
1452 will usually have the same info chunk as you
1453 had in the header, although some data may have
1454 been added to the comments and time fields.
1456 Most people won't do much here, perhaps setting
1457 a flag that marks the image as finished.
1465 Much of this is very similar to reading. However, everything of
1466 importance is repeated here, so you won't have to constantly look
1467 back up in the reading section to understand writing.
1471 You will want to do the I/O initialization before you get into libpng,
1472 so if it doesn't work, you don't have anything to undo. If you are not
1473 using the standard I/O functions, you will need to replace them with
1474 custom writing functions. See the discussion under Customizing libpng.
1476 FILE *fp = fopen(file_name, "wb");
1482 Next, png_struct and png_info need to be allocated and initialized.
1483 As these can be both relatively large, you may not want to store these
1484 on the stack, unless you have stack space to spare. Of course, you
1485 will want to check if they return NULL. If you are also reading,
1486 you won't want to name your read structure and your write structure
1487 both "png_ptr"; you can call them anything you like, such as
1488 "read_ptr" and "write_ptr". Look at pngtest.c, for example.
1490 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_write_struct
1491 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
1492 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
1496 png_infop info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
1499 png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr,
1504 If you want to use your own memory allocation routines,
1505 define PNG_USER_MEM_SUPPORTED and use
1506 png_create_write_struct_2() instead of png_create_write_struct():
1508 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_write_struct_2
1509 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
1510 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn, (png_voidp)
1511 user_mem_ptr, user_malloc_fn, user_free_fn);
1513 After you have these structures, you will need to set up the
1514 error handling. When libpng encounters an error, it expects to
1515 longjmp() back to your routine. Therefore, you will need to call
1516 setjmp() and pass the png_jmpbuf(png_ptr). If you
1517 write the file from different routines, you will need to update
1518 the png_jmpbuf(png_ptr) every time you enter a new routine that will
1519 call a png_*() function. See your documentation of setjmp/longjmp
1520 for your compiler for more information on setjmp/longjmp. See
1521 the discussion on libpng error handling in the Customizing Libpng
1522 section below for more information on the libpng error handling.
1524 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
1526 png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);
1533 If you would rather avoid the complexity of setjmp/longjmp issues,
1534 you can compile libpng with PNG_SETJMP_NOT_SUPPORTED, in which case
1535 errors will result in a call to PNG_ABORT() which defaults to abort().
1537 Now you need to set up the output code. The default for libpng is to
1538 use the C function fwrite(). If you use this, you will need to pass a
1539 valid FILE * in the function png_init_io(). Be sure that the file is
1540 opened in binary mode. Again, if you wish to handle writing data in
1541 another way, see the discussion on libpng I/O handling in the Customizing
1542 Libpng section below.
1544 png_init_io(png_ptr, fp);
1548 At this point, you can set up a callback function that will be
1549 called after each row has been written, which you can use to control
1550 a progress meter or the like. It's demonstrated in pngtest.c.
1551 You must supply a function
1553 void write_row_callback(png_ptr, png_uint_32 row,
1556 /* put your code here */
1559 (You can give it another name that you like instead of "write_row_callback")
1561 To inform libpng about your function, use
1563 png_set_write_status_fn(png_ptr, write_row_callback);
1565 You now have the option of modifying how the compression library will
1566 run. The following functions are mainly for testing, but may be useful
1567 in some cases, like if you need to write PNG files extremely fast and
1568 are willing to give up some compression, or if you want to get the
1569 maximum possible compression at the expense of slower writing. If you
1570 have no special needs in this area, let the library do what it wants by
1571 not calling this function at all, as it has been tuned to deliver a good
1572 speed/compression ratio. The second parameter to png_set_filter() is
1573 the filter method, for which the only valid values are 0 (as of the
1574 July 1999 PNG specification, version 1.2) or 64 (if you are writing
1575 a PNG datastream that is to be embedded in a MNG datastream). The third
1576 parameter is a flag that indicates which filter type(s) are to be tested
1577 for each scanline. See the PNG specification for details on the specific filter
1581 /* turn on or off filtering, and/or choose
1582 specific filters. You can use either a single
1583 PNG_FILTER_VALUE_NAME or the logical OR of one
1584 or more PNG_FILTER_NAME masks. */
1585 png_set_filter(png_ptr, 0,
1586 PNG_FILTER_NONE | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_NONE |
1587 PNG_FILTER_SUB | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_SUB |
1588 PNG_FILTER_UP | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_UP |
1589 PNG_FILTER_AVE | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_AVE |
1590 PNG_FILTER_PAETH | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_PAETH|
1594 wants to start and stop using particular filters during compression,
1595 it should start out with all of the filters (to ensure that the previous
1596 row of pixels will be stored in case it's needed later), and then add
1597 and remove them after the start of compression.
1599 If you are writing a PNG datastream that is to be embedded in a MNG
1600 datastream, the second parameter can be either 0 or 64.
1602 The png_set_compression_*() functions interface to the zlib compression
1603 library, and should mostly be ignored unless you really know what you are
1604 doing. The only generally useful call is png_set_compression_level()
1605 which changes how much time zlib spends on trying to compress the image
1606 data. See the Compression Library (zlib.h and algorithm.txt, distributed
1607 with zlib) for details on the compression levels.
1609 /* set the zlib compression level */
1610 png_set_compression_level(png_ptr,
1611 Z_BEST_COMPRESSION);
1613 /* set other zlib parameters */
1614 png_set_compression_mem_level(png_ptr, 8);
1615 png_set_compression_strategy(png_ptr,
1616 Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY);
1617 png_set_compression_window_bits(png_ptr, 15);
1618 png_set_compression_method(png_ptr, 8);
1619 png_set_compression_buffer_size(png_ptr, 8192)
1621 extern PNG_EXPORT(void,png_set_zbuf_size)
1623 Setting the contents of info for output
1625 You now need to fill in the png_info structure with all the data you
1626 wish to write before the actual image. Note that the only thing you
1627 are allowed to write after the image is the text chunks and the time
1628 chunk (as of PNG Specification 1.2, anyway). See png_write_end() and
1629 the latest PNG specification for more information on that. If you
1630 wish to write them before the image, fill them in now, and flag that
1631 data as being valid. If you want to wait until after the data, don't
1632 fill them until png_write_end(). For all the fields in png_info and
1633 their data types, see png.h. For explanations of what the fields
1634 contain, see the PNG specification.
1636 Some of the more important parts of the png_info are:
1638 png_set_IHDR(png_ptr, info_ptr, width, height,
1639 bit_depth, color_type, interlace_type,
1640 compression_type, filter_method)
1641 width - holds the width of the image
1642 in pixels (up to 2^31).
1643 height - holds the height of the image
1644 in pixels (up to 2^31).
1645 bit_depth - holds the bit depth of one of the
1647 (valid values are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16
1648 and depend also on the
1649 color_type. See also significant
1651 color_type - describes which color/alpha
1652 channels are present.
1654 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8, 16)
1655 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA
1657 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE
1658 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8)
1661 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA
1664 PNG_COLOR_MASK_PALETTE
1665 PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR
1666 PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA
1668 interlace_type - PNG_INTERLACE_NONE or
1670 compression_type - (must be
1671 PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_DEFAULT)
1672 filter_method - (must be PNG_FILTER_TYPE_DEFAULT
1673 or, if you are writing a PNG to
1674 be embedded in a MNG datastream,
1676 PNG_INTRAPIXEL_DIFFERENCING)
1678 png_set_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr, palette,
1680 palette - the palette for the file
1681 (array of png_color)
1682 num_palette - number of entries in the palette
1684 png_set_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, gamma);
1685 gamma - the gamma the image was created
1688 png_set_sRGB(png_ptr, info_ptr, srgb_intent);
1689 srgb_intent - the rendering intent
1690 (PNG_INFO_sRGB) The presence of
1691 the sRGB chunk means that the pixel
1692 data is in the sRGB color space.
1693 This chunk also implies specific
1694 values of gAMA and cHRM. Rendering
1695 intent is the CSS-1 property that
1696 has been defined by the International
1698 (http://www.color.org).
1700 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_SATURATION,
1701 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_PERCEPTUAL,
1702 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_ABSOLUTE, or
1703 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_RELATIVE.
1706 png_set_sRGB_gAMA_and_cHRM(png_ptr, info_ptr,
1708 srgb_intent - the rendering intent
1709 (PNG_INFO_sRGB) The presence of the
1710 sRGB chunk means that the pixel
1711 data is in the sRGB color space.
1712 This function also causes gAMA and
1713 cHRM chunks with the specific values
1714 that are consistent with sRGB to be
1717 png_set_iCCP(png_ptr, info_ptr, name, compression_type,
1719 name - The profile name.
1720 compression - The compression type; always
1721 PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE for PNG 1.0.
1722 You may give NULL to this argument to
1724 profile - International Color Consortium color
1725 profile data. May contain NULs.
1726 proflen - length of profile data in bytes.
1728 png_set_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, sig_bit);
1729 sig_bit - the number of significant bits for
1730 (PNG_INFO_sBIT) each of the gray, red,
1731 green, and blue channels, whichever are
1732 appropriate for the given color type
1735 png_set_tRNS(png_ptr, info_ptr, trans, num_trans,
1737 trans - array of transparent entries for
1738 palette (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
1739 trans_values - graylevel or color sample values of
1740 the single transparent color for
1741 non-paletted images (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
1742 num_trans - number of transparent entries
1745 png_set_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr, hist);
1747 hist - histogram of palette (array of
1750 png_set_tIME(png_ptr, info_ptr, mod_time);
1751 mod_time - time image was last modified
1754 png_set_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, background);
1755 background - background color (PNG_VALID_bKGD)
1757 png_set_text(png_ptr, info_ptr, text_ptr, num_text);
1758 text_ptr - array of png_text holding image
1760 text_ptr[i].compression - type of compression used
1761 on "text" PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
1762 PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
1763 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
1764 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
1765 text_ptr[i].key - keyword for comment. Must contain
1767 text_ptr[i].text - text comments for current
1768 keyword. Can be NULL or empty.
1769 text_ptr[i].text_length - length of text string,
1770 after decompression, 0 for iTXt
1771 text_ptr[i].itxt_length - length of itxt string,
1772 after decompression, 0 for tEXt/zTXt
1773 text_ptr[i].lang - language of comment (NULL or
1775 text_ptr[i].translated_keyword - keyword in UTF-8 (NULL
1776 or empty for unknown).
1777 num_text - number of comments
1779 png_set_sPLT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &palette_ptr,
1781 palette_ptr - array of png_sPLT_struct structures
1782 to be added to the list of palettes
1783 in the info structure.
1784 num_spalettes - number of palette structures to be
1787 png_set_oFFs(png_ptr, info_ptr, offset_x, offset_y,
1789 offset_x - positive offset from the left
1791 offset_y - positive offset from the top
1793 unit_type - PNG_OFFSET_PIXEL, PNG_OFFSET_MICROMETER
1795 png_set_pHYs(png_ptr, info_ptr, res_x, res_y,
1797 res_x - pixels/unit physical resolution
1799 res_y - pixels/unit physical resolution
1801 unit_type - PNG_RESOLUTION_UNKNOWN,
1802 PNG_RESOLUTION_METER
1804 png_set_sCAL(png_ptr, info_ptr, unit, width, height)
1805 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
1806 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
1807 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
1808 (width and height are doubles)
1810 png_set_sCAL_s(png_ptr, info_ptr, unit, width, height)
1811 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
1812 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
1813 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
1814 (width and height are strings like "2.54")
1816 png_set_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unknowns,
1818 unknowns - array of png_unknown_chunk
1819 structures holding unknown chunks
1820 unknowns[i].name - name of unknown chunk
1821 unknowns[i].data - data of unknown chunk
1822 unknowns[i].size - size of unknown chunk's data
1823 unknowns[i].location - position to write chunk in file
1824 0: do not write chunk
1825 PNG_HAVE_IHDR: before PLTE
1826 PNG_HAVE_PLTE: before IDAT
1827 PNG_AFTER_IDAT: after IDAT
1829 The "location" member is set automatically according to
1830 what part of the output file has already been written.
1831 You can change its value after calling png_set_unknown_chunks()
1832 as demonstrated in pngtest.c. Within each of the "locations",
1833 the chunks are sequenced according to their position in the
1834 structure (that is, the value of "i", which is the order in which
1835 the chunk was either read from the input file or defined with
1836 png_set_unknown_chunks).
1838 A quick word about text and num_text. text is an array of png_text
1839 structures. num_text is the number of valid structures in the array.
1840 Each png_text structure holds a language code, a keyword, a text value,
1841 and a compression type.
1843 The compression types have the same valid numbers as the compression
1844 types of the image data. Currently, the only valid number is zero.
1845 However, you can store text either compressed or uncompressed, unlike
1846 images, which always have to be compressed. So if you don't want the
1847 text compressed, set the compression type to PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE.
1848 Because tEXt and zTXt chunks don't have a language field, if you
1849 specify PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE or PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
1850 any language code or translated keyword will not be written out.
1852 Until text gets around 1000 bytes, it is not worth compressing it.
1853 After the text has been written out to the file, the compression type
1854 is set to PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE_WR or PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt_WR,
1855 so that it isn't written out again at the end (in case you are calling
1856 png_write_end() with the same struct.
1858 The keywords that are given in the PNG Specification are:
1860 Title Short (one line) title or
1862 Author Name of image's creator
1863 Description Description of image (possibly long)
1864 Copyright Copyright notice
1865 Creation Time Time of original image creation
1866 (usually RFC 1123 format, see below)
1867 Software Software used to create the image
1868 Disclaimer Legal disclaimer
1869 Warning Warning of nature of content
1870 Source Device used to create the image
1871 Comment Miscellaneous comment; conversion
1872 from other image format
1874 The keyword-text pairs work like this. Keywords should be short
1875 simple descriptions of what the comment is about. Some typical
1876 keywords are found in the PNG specification, as is some recommendations
1877 on keywords. You can repeat keywords in a file. You can even write
1878 some text before the image and some after. For example, you may want
1879 to put a description of the image before the image, but leave the
1880 disclaimer until after, so viewers working over modem connections
1881 don't have to wait for the disclaimer to go over the modem before
1882 they start seeing the image. Finally, keywords should be full
1883 words, not abbreviations. Keywords and text are in the ISO 8859-1
1884 (Latin-1) character set (a superset of regular ASCII) and can not
1885 contain NUL characters, and should not contain control or other
1886 unprintable characters. To make the comments widely readable, stick
1887 with basic ASCII, and avoid machine specific character set extensions
1888 like the IBM-PC character set. The keyword must be present, but
1889 you can leave off the text string on non-compressed pairs.
1890 Compressed pairs must have a text string, as only the text string
1891 is compressed anyway, so the compression would be meaningless.
1893 PNG supports modification time via the png_time structure. Two
1894 conversion routines are provided, png_convert_from_time_t() for
1895 time_t and png_convert_from_struct_tm() for struct tm. The
1896 time_t routine uses gmtime(). You don't have to use either of
1897 these, but if you wish to fill in the png_time structure directly,
1898 you should provide the time in universal time (GMT) if possible
1899 instead of your local time. Note that the year number is the full
1900 year (e.g. 1998, rather than 98 - PNG is year 2000 compliant!), and
1901 that months start with 1.
1903 If you want to store the time of the original image creation, you should
1904 use a plain tEXt chunk with the "Creation Time" keyword. This is
1905 necessary because the "creation time" of a PNG image is somewhat vague,
1906 depending on whether you mean the PNG file, the time the image was
1907 created in a non-PNG format, a still photo from which the image was
1908 scanned, or possibly the subject matter itself. In order to facilitate
1909 machine-readable dates, it is recommended that the "Creation Time"
1910 tEXt chunk use RFC 1123 format dates (e.g. "22 May 1997 18:07:10 GMT"),
1911 although this isn't a requirement. Unlike the tIME chunk, the
1912 "Creation Time" tEXt chunk is not expected to be automatically changed
1913 by the software. To facilitate the use of RFC 1123 dates, a function
1914 png_convert_to_rfc1123(png_timep) is provided to convert from PNG
1915 time to an RFC 1123 format string.
1917 Writing unknown chunks
1919 You can use the png_set_unknown_chunks function to queue up chunks
1920 for writing. You give it a chunk name, raw data, and a size; that's
1921 all there is to it. The chunks will be written by the next following
1922 png_write_info_before_PLTE, png_write_info, or png_write_end function.
1923 Any chunks previously read into the info structure's unknown-chunk
1924 list will also be written out in a sequence that satisfies the PNG
1925 specification's ordering rules.
1927 The high-level write interface
1929 At this point there are two ways to proceed; through the high-level
1930 write interface, or through a sequence of low-level write operations.
1931 You can use the high-level interface if your image data is present
1932 in the info structure. All defined output
1933 transformations are permitted, enabled by the following masks.
1935 PNG_TRANSFORM_IDENTITY No transformation
1936 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKING Pack 1, 2 and 4-bit samples
1937 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKSWAP Change order of packed
1939 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_MONO Invert monochrome images
1940 PNG_TRANSFORM_SHIFT Normalize pixels to the
1942 PNG_TRANSFORM_BGR Flip RGB to BGR, RGBA
1944 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ALPHA Flip RGBA to ARGB or GA
1946 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_ALPHA Change alpha from opacity
1948 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ENDIAN Byte-swap 16-bit samples
1949 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_FILLER Strip out filler bytes.
1951 If you have valid image data in the info structure (you can use
1952 png_set_rows() to put image data in the info structure), simply do this:
1954 png_write_png(png_ptr, info_ptr, png_transforms, NULL)
1956 where png_transforms is an integer containing the logical OR of some set of
1957 transformation flags. This call is equivalent to png_write_info(),
1958 followed the set of transformations indicated by the transform mask,
1959 then png_write_image(), and finally png_write_end().
1961 (The final parameter of this call is not yet used. Someday it might point
1962 to transformation parameters required by some future output transform.)
1964 The low-level write interface
1966 If you are going the low-level route instead, you are now ready to
1967 write all the file information up to the actual image data. You do
1968 this with a call to png_write_info().
1970 png_write_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1972 Note that there is one transformation you may need to do before
1973 png_write_info(). In PNG files, the alpha channel in an image is the
1974 level of opacity. If your data is supplied as a level of
1975 transparency, you can invert the alpha channel before you write it, so
1976 that 0 is fully transparent and 255 (in 8-bit or paletted images) or
1977 65535 (in 16-bit images) is fully opaque, with
1979 png_set_invert_alpha(png_ptr);
1981 This must appear before png_write_info() instead of later with the
1982 other transformations because in the case of paletted images the tRNS
1983 chunk data has to be inverted before the tRNS chunk is written. If
1984 your image is not a paletted image, the tRNS data (which in such cases
1985 represents a single color to be rendered as transparent) won't need to
1986 be changed, and you can safely do this transformation after your
1987 png_write_info() call.
1989 If you need to write a private chunk that you want to appear before
1990 the PLTE chunk when PLTE is present, you can write the PNG info in
1991 two steps, and insert code to write your own chunk between them:
1993 png_write_info_before_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1994 png_set_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, info_ptr, ...);
1995 png_write_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1997 After you've written the file information, you can set up the library
1998 to handle any special transformations of the image data. The various
1999 ways to transform the data will be described in the order that they
2000 should occur. This is important, as some of these change the color
2001 type and/or bit depth of the data, and some others only work on
2002 certain color types and bit depths. Even though each transformation
2003 checks to see if it has data that it can do something with, you should
2004 make sure to only enable a transformation if it will be valid for the
2005 data. For example, don't swap red and blue on grayscale data.
2007 PNG files store RGB pixels packed into 3 or 6 bytes. This code tells
2008 the library to strip input data that has 4 or 8 bytes per pixel down
2009 to 3 or 6 bytes (or strip 2 or 4-byte grayscale+filler data to 1 or 2
2012 png_set_filler(png_ptr, 0, PNG_FILLER_BEFORE);
2014 where the 0 is unused, and the location is either PNG_FILLER_BEFORE or
2015 PNG_FILLER_AFTER, depending upon whether the filler byte in the pixel
2016 is stored XRGB or RGBX.
2018 PNG files pack pixels of bit depths 1, 2, and 4 into bytes as small as
2019 they can, resulting in, for example, 8 pixels per byte for 1 bit files.
2020 If the data is supplied at 1 pixel per byte, use this code, which will
2021 correctly pack the pixels into a single byte:
2023 png_set_packing(png_ptr);
2025 PNG files reduce possible bit depths to 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16. If your
2026 data is of another bit depth, you can write an sBIT chunk into the
2027 file so that decoders can recover the original data if desired.
2029 /* Set the true bit depth of the image data */
2030 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR)
2032 sig_bit.red = true_bit_depth;
2033 sig_bit.green = true_bit_depth;
2034 sig_bit.blue = true_bit_depth;
2038 sig_bit.gray = true_bit_depth;
2040 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA)
2042 sig_bit.alpha = true_bit_depth;
2045 png_set_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit);
2047 If the data is stored in the row buffer in a bit depth other than
2048 one supported by PNG (e.g. 3 bit data in the range 0-7 for a 4-bit PNG),
2049 this will scale the values to appear to be the correct bit depth as
2052 png_set_shift(png_ptr, &sig_bit);
2054 PNG files store 16 bit pixels in network byte order (big-endian,
2055 ie. most significant bits first). This code would be used if they are
2056 supplied the other way (little-endian, i.e. least significant bits
2057 first, the way PCs store them):
2060 png_set_swap(png_ptr);
2062 If you are using packed-pixel images (1, 2, or 4 bits/pixel), and you
2063 need to change the order the pixels are packed into bytes, you can use:
2066 png_set_packswap(png_ptr);
2068 PNG files store 3 color pixels in red, green, blue order. This code
2069 would be used if they are supplied as blue, green, red:
2071 png_set_bgr(png_ptr);
2073 PNG files describe monochrome as black being zero and white being
2074 one. This code would be used if the pixels are supplied with this reversed
2075 (black being one and white being zero):
2077 png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
2079 Finally, you can write your own transformation function if none of
2080 the existing ones meets your needs. This is done by setting a callback
2083 png_set_write_user_transform_fn(png_ptr,
2084 write_transform_fn);
2086 You must supply the function
2088 void write_transform_fn(png_ptr ptr, row_info_ptr
2089 row_info, png_bytep data)
2091 See pngtest.c for a working example. Your function will be called
2092 before any of the other transformations are processed.
2094 You can also set up a pointer to a user structure for use by your
2097 png_set_user_transform_info(png_ptr, user_ptr, 0, 0);
2099 The user_channels and user_depth parameters of this function are ignored
2100 when writing; you can set them to zero as shown.
2102 You can retrieve the pointer via the function png_get_user_transform_ptr().
2105 voidp write_user_transform_ptr =
2106 png_get_user_transform_ptr(png_ptr);
2108 It is possible to have libpng flush any pending output, either manually,
2109 or automatically after a certain number of lines have been written. To
2110 flush the output stream a single time call:
2112 png_write_flush(png_ptr);
2114 and to have libpng flush the output stream periodically after a certain
2115 number of scanlines have been written, call:
2117 png_set_flush(png_ptr, nrows);
2119 Note that the distance between rows is from the last time png_write_flush()
2120 was called, or the first row of the image if it has never been called.
2121 So if you write 50 lines, and then png_set_flush 25, it will flush the
2122 output on the next scanline, and every 25 lines thereafter, unless
2123 png_write_flush() is called before 25 more lines have been written.
2124 If nrows is too small (less than about 10 lines for a 640 pixel wide
2125 RGB image) the image compression may decrease noticeably (although this
2126 may be acceptable for real-time applications). Infrequent flushing will
2127 only degrade the compression performance by a few percent over images
2128 that do not use flushing.
2130 Writing the image data
2132 That's it for the transformations. Now you can write the image data.
2133 The simplest way to do this is in one function call. If you have the
2134 whole image in memory, you can just call png_write_image() and libpng
2135 will write the image. You will need to pass in an array of pointers to
2136 each row. This function automatically handles interlacing, so you don't
2137 need to call png_set_interlace_handling() or call this function multiple
2138 times, or any of that other stuff necessary with png_write_rows().
2140 png_write_image(png_ptr, row_pointers);
2142 where row_pointers is:
2144 png_byte *row_pointers[height];
2146 You can point to void or char or whatever you use for pixels.
2148 If you don't want to write the whole image at once, you can
2149 use png_write_rows() instead. If the file is not interlaced,
2152 png_write_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers,
2155 row_pointers is the same as in the png_write_image() call.
2157 If you are just writing one row at a time, you can do this with
2158 a single row_pointer instead of an array of row_pointers:
2160 png_bytep row_pointer = row;
2162 png_write_row(png_ptr, row_pointer);
2164 When the file is interlaced, things can get a good deal more
2165 complicated. The only currently (as of the PNG Specification
2166 version 1.2, dated July 1999) defined interlacing scheme for PNG files
2167 is the "Adam7" interlace scheme, that breaks down an
2168 image into seven smaller images of varying size. libpng will build
2169 these images for you, or you can do them yourself. If you want to
2170 build them yourself, see the PNG specification for details of which
2171 pixels to write when.
2173 If you don't want libpng to handle the interlacing details, just
2174 use png_set_interlace_handling() and call png_write_rows() the
2175 correct number of times to write all seven sub-images.
2177 If you want libpng to build the sub-images, call this before you start
2181 png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
2183 This will return the number of passes needed. Currently, this
2184 is seven, but may change if another interlace type is added.
2186 Then write the complete image number_of_passes times.
2188 png_write_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers,
2191 As some of these rows are not used, and thus return immediately,
2192 you may want to read about interlacing in the PNG specification,
2193 and only update the rows that are actually used.
2195 Finishing a sequential write
2197 After you are finished writing the image, you should finish writing
2198 the file. If you are interested in writing comments or time, you should
2199 pass an appropriately filled png_info pointer. If you are not interested,
2202 png_write_end(png_ptr, info_ptr);
2204 When you are done, you can free all memory used by libpng like this:
2206 png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);
2208 It is also possible to individually free the info_ptr members that
2209 point to libpng-allocated storage with the following function:
2211 png_free_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, mask, seq)
2212 mask - identifies data to be freed, a mask
2213 containing the logical OR of one or
2215 PNG_FREE_PLTE, PNG_FREE_TRNS,
2216 PNG_FREE_HIST, PNG_FREE_ICCP,
2217 PNG_FREE_PCAL, PNG_FREE_ROWS,
2218 PNG_FREE_SCAL, PNG_FREE_SPLT,
2219 PNG_FREE_TEXT, PNG_FREE_UNKN,
2220 or simply PNG_FREE_ALL
2221 seq - sequence number of item to be freed
2224 This function may be safely called when the relevant storage has
2225 already been freed, or has not yet been allocated, or was allocated
2226 by the user and not by libpng, and will in those
2227 cases do nothing. The "seq" parameter is ignored if only one item
2228 of the selected data type, such as PLTE, is allowed. If "seq" is not
2229 -1, and multiple items are allowed for the data type identified in
2230 the mask, such as text or sPLT, only the n'th item in the structure
2231 is freed, where n is "seq".
2233 If you allocated data such as a palette that you passed
2234 in to libpng with png_set_*, you must not free it until just before the call to
2235 png_destroy_write_struct().
2237 The default behavior is only to free data that was allocated internally
2238 by libpng. This can be changed, so that libpng will not free the data,
2239 or so that it will free data that was allocated by the user with png_malloc()
2240 or png_zalloc() and passed in via a png_set_*() function, with
2242 png_data_freer(png_ptr, info_ptr, freer, mask)
2243 mask - which data elements are affected
2244 same choices as in png_free_data()
2246 PNG_DESTROY_WILL_FREE_DATA
2247 PNG_SET_WILL_FREE_DATA
2248 PNG_USER_WILL_FREE_DATA
2250 For example, to transfer responsibility for some data from a read structure
2251 to a write structure, you could use
2253 png_data_freer(read_ptr, read_info_ptr,
2254 PNG_USER_WILL_FREE_DATA,
2255 PNG_FREE_PLTE|PNG_FREE_tRNS|PNG_FREE_hIST)
2256 png_data_freer(write_ptr, write_info_ptr,
2257 PNG_DESTROY_WILL_FREE_DATA,
2258 PNG_FREE_PLTE|PNG_FREE_tRNS|PNG_FREE_hIST)
2260 thereby briefly reassigning responsibility for freeing to the user but
2261 immediately afterwards reassigning it once more to the write_destroy
2262 function. Having done this, it would then be safe to destroy the read
2263 structure and continue to use the PLTE, tRNS, and hIST data in the write
2266 This function only affects data that has already been allocated.
2267 You can call this function before calling after the png_set_*() functions
2268 to control whether the user or png_destroy_*() is supposed to free the data.
2269 When the user assumes responsibility for libpng-allocated data, the
2270 application must use
2271 png_free() to free it, and when the user transfers responsibility to libpng
2272 for data that the user has allocated, the user must have used png_malloc()
2273 or png_zalloc() to allocate it.
2275 If you allocated text_ptr.text, text_ptr.lang, and text_ptr.translated_keyword
2276 separately, do not transfer responsibility for freeing text_ptr to libpng,
2277 because when libpng fills a png_text structure it combines these members with
2278 the key member, and png_free_data() will free only text_ptr.key. Similarly,
2279 if you transfer responsibility for free'ing text_ptr from libpng to your
2280 application, your application must not separately free those members.
2281 For a more compact example of writing a PNG image, see the file example.c.
2283 V. Modifying/Customizing libpng:
2285 There are three issues here. The first is changing how libpng does
2286 standard things like memory allocation, input/output, and error handling.
2287 The second deals with more complicated things like adding new chunks,
2288 adding new transformations, and generally changing how libpng works.
2289 Both of those are compile-time issues; that is, they are generally
2290 determined at the time the code is written, and there is rarely a need
2291 to provide the user with a means of changing them. The third is a
2292 run-time issue: choosing between and/or tuning one or more alternate
2293 versions of computationally intensive routines; specifically, optimized
2294 assembly-language (and therefore compiler- and platform-dependent)
2297 Memory allocation, input/output, and error handling
2299 All of the memory allocation, input/output, and error handling in libpng
2300 goes through callbacks that are user-settable. The default routines are
2301 in pngmem.c, pngrio.c, pngwio.c, and pngerror.c, respectively. To change
2302 these functions, call the appropriate png_set_*_fn() function.
2304 Memory allocation is done through the functions png_malloc()
2305 and png_free(). These currently just call the standard C functions. If
2306 your pointers can't access more then 64K at a time, you will want to set
2307 MAXSEG_64K in zlib.h. Since it is unlikely that the method of handling
2308 memory allocation on a platform will change between applications, these
2309 functions must be modified in the library at compile time. If you prefer
2310 to use a different method of allocating and freeing data, you can use
2311 png_create_read_struct_2() or png_create_write_struct_2() to register
2312 your own functions as described above.
2314 These functions also provide a void pointer that can be retrieved via
2316 mem_ptr=png_get_mem_ptr(png_ptr);
2318 Your replacement memory functions must have prototypes as follows:
2320 png_voidp malloc_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
2322 void free_fn(png_structp png_ptr, png_voidp ptr);
2324 Your malloc_fn() should return NULL in case of failure. The png_malloc()
2325 function will call png_error() if it receives a NULL from the system
2326 memory allocator or from your replacement malloc_fn().
2328 Input/Output in libpng is done through png_read() and png_write(),
2329 which currently just call fread() and fwrite(). The FILE * is stored in
2330 png_struct and is initialized via png_init_io(). If you wish to change
2331 the method of I/O, the library supplies callbacks that you can set
2332 through the function png_set_read_fn() and png_set_write_fn() at run
2333 time, instead of calling the png_init_io() function. These functions
2334 also provide a void pointer that can be retrieved via the function
2335 png_get_io_ptr(). For example:
2337 png_set_read_fn(png_structp read_ptr,
2338 voidp read_io_ptr, png_rw_ptr read_data_fn)
2340 png_set_write_fn(png_structp write_ptr,
2341 voidp write_io_ptr, png_rw_ptr write_data_fn,
2342 png_flush_ptr output_flush_fn);
2344 voidp read_io_ptr = png_get_io_ptr(read_ptr);
2345 voidp write_io_ptr = png_get_io_ptr(write_ptr);
2347 The replacement I/O functions must have prototypes as follows:
2349 void user_read_data(png_structp png_ptr,
2350 png_bytep data, png_size_t length);
2351 void user_write_data(png_structp png_ptr,
2352 png_bytep data, png_size_t length);
2353 void user_flush_data(png_structp png_ptr);
2355 Supplying NULL for the read, write, or flush functions sets them back
2356 to using the default C stream functions. It is an error to read from
2357 a write stream, and vice versa.
2359 Error handling in libpng is done through png_error() and png_warning().
2360 Errors handled through png_error() are fatal, meaning that png_error()
2361 should never return to its caller. Currently, this is handled via
2362 setjmp() and longjmp() (unless you have compiled libpng with
2363 PNG_SETJMP_NOT_SUPPORTED, in which case it is handled via PNG_ABORT()),
2364 but you could change this to do things like exit() if you should wish.
2366 On non-fatal errors, png_warning() is called
2367 to print a warning message, and then control returns to the calling code.
2368 By default png_error() and png_warning() print a message on stderr via
2369 fprintf() unless the library is compiled with PNG_NO_CONSOLE_IO defined
2370 (because you don't want the messages) or PNG_NO_STDIO defined (because
2371 fprintf() isn't available). If you wish to change the behavior of the error
2372 functions, you will need to set up your own message callbacks. These
2373 functions are normally supplied at the time that the png_struct is created.
2374 It is also possible to redirect errors and warnings to your own replacement
2375 functions after png_create_*_struct() has been called by calling:
2377 png_set_error_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
2378 png_voidp error_ptr, png_error_ptr error_fn,
2379 png_error_ptr warning_fn);
2381 png_voidp error_ptr = png_get_error_ptr(png_ptr);
2383 If NULL is supplied for either error_fn or warning_fn, then the libpng
2384 default function will be used, calling fprintf() and/or longjmp() if a
2385 problem is encountered. The replacement error functions should have
2386 parameters as follows:
2388 void user_error_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
2389 png_const_charp error_msg);
2390 void user_warning_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
2391 png_const_charp warning_msg);
2393 The motivation behind using setjmp() and longjmp() is the C++ throw and
2394 catch exception handling methods. This makes the code much easier to write,
2395 as there is no need to check every return code of every function call.
2396 However, there are some uncertainties about the status of local variables
2397 after a longjmp, so the user may want to be careful about doing anything after
2398 setjmp returns non-zero besides returning itself. Consult your compiler
2399 documentation for more details. For an alternative approach, you may wish
2400 to use the "cexcept" facility (see http://cexcept.sourceforge.net).
2404 If you need to read or write custom chunks, you may need to get deeper
2405 into the libpng code. The library now has mechanisms for storing
2406 and writing chunks of unknown type; you can even declare callbacks
2407 for custom chunks. Hoewver, this may not be good enough if the
2408 library code itself needs to know about interactions between your
2409 chunk and existing `intrinsic' chunks.
2411 If you need to write a new intrinsic chunk, first read the PNG
2412 specification. Acquire a first level of
2413 understanding of how it works. Pay particular attention to the
2414 sections that describe chunk names, and look at how other chunks were
2415 designed, so you can do things similarly. Second, check out the
2416 sections of libpng that read and write chunks. Try to find a chunk
2417 that is similar to yours and use it as a template. More details can
2418 be found in the comments inside the code. It is best to handle unknown
2419 chunks in a generic method, via callback functions, instead of by
2420 modifying libpng functions.
2422 If you wish to write your own transformation for the data, look through
2423 the part of the code that does the transformations, and check out some of
2424 the simpler ones to get an idea of how they work. Try to find a similar
2425 transformation to the one you want to add and copy off of it. More details
2426 can be found in the comments inside the code itself.
2428 Configuring for 16 bit platforms
2430 You will want to look into zconf.h to tell zlib (and thus libpng) that
2431 it cannot allocate more then 64K at a time. Even if you can, the memory
2432 won't be accessible. So limit zlib and libpng to 64K by defining MAXSEG_64K.
2436 For DOS users who only have access to the lower 640K, you will
2437 have to limit zlib's memory usage via a png_set_compression_mem_level()
2438 call. See zlib.h or zconf.h in the zlib library for more information.
2440 Configuring for Medium Model
2442 Libpng's support for medium model has been tested on most of the popular
2443 compilers. Make sure MAXSEG_64K gets defined, USE_FAR_KEYWORD gets
2444 defined, and FAR gets defined to far in pngconf.h, and you should be
2445 all set. Everything in the library (except for zlib's structure) is
2446 expecting far data. You must use the typedefs with the p or pp on
2447 the end for pointers (or at least look at them and be careful). Make
2448 note that the rows of data are defined as png_bytepp, which is an
2449 unsigned char far * far *.
2451 Configuring for gui/windowing platforms:
2453 You will need to write new error and warning functions that use the GUI
2454 interface, as described previously, and set them to be the error and
2455 warning functions at the time that png_create_*_struct() is called,
2456 in order to have them available during the structure initialization.
2457 They can be changed later via png_set_error_fn(). On some compilers,
2458 you may also have to change the memory allocators (png_malloc, etc.).
2460 Configuring for compiler xxx:
2462 All includes for libpng are in pngconf.h. If you need to add/change/delete
2463 an include, this is the place to do it. The includes that are not
2464 needed outside libpng are protected by the PNG_INTERNAL definition,
2465 which is only defined for those routines inside libpng itself. The
2466 files in libpng proper only include png.h, which includes pngconf.h.
2470 There are special functions to configure the compression. Perhaps the
2471 most useful one changes the compression level, which currently uses
2472 input compression values in the range 0 - 9. The library normally
2473 uses the default compression level (Z_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION = 6). Tests
2474 have shown that for a large majority of images, compression values in
2475 the range 3-6 compress nearly as well as higher levels, and do so much
2476 faster. For online applications it may be desirable to have maximum speed
2477 (Z_BEST_SPEED = 1). With versions of zlib after v0.99, you can also
2478 specify no compression (Z_NO_COMPRESSION = 0), but this would create
2479 files larger than just storing the raw bitmap. You can specify the
2480 compression level by calling:
2482 png_set_compression_level(png_ptr, level);
2484 Another useful one is to reduce the memory level used by the library.
2485 The memory level defaults to 8, but it can be lowered if you are
2486 short on memory (running DOS, for example, where you only have 640K).
2487 Note that the memory level does have an effect on compression; among
2488 other things, lower levels will result in sections of incompressible
2489 data being emitted in smaller stored blocks, with a correspondingly
2490 larger relative overhead of up to 15% in the worst case.
2492 png_set_compression_mem_level(png_ptr, level);
2494 The other functions are for configuring zlib. They are not recommended
2495 for normal use and may result in writing an invalid PNG file. See
2496 zlib.h for more information on what these mean.
2498 png_set_compression_strategy(png_ptr,
2500 png_set_compression_window_bits(png_ptr,
2502 png_set_compression_method(png_ptr, method);
2503 png_set_compression_buffer_size(png_ptr, size);
2505 Controlling row filtering
2507 If you want to control whether libpng uses filtering or not, which
2508 filters are used, and how it goes about picking row filters, you
2509 can call one of these functions. The selection and configuration
2510 of row filters can have a significant impact on the size and
2511 encoding speed and a somewhat lesser impact on the decoding speed
2512 of an image. Filtering is enabled by default for RGB and grayscale
2513 images (with and without alpha), but not for paletted images nor
2514 for any images with bit depths less than 8 bits/pixel.
2516 The 'method' parameter sets the main filtering method, which is
2517 currently only '0' in the PNG 1.2 specification. The 'filters'
2518 parameter sets which filter(s), if any, should be used for each
2519 scanline. Possible values are PNG_ALL_FILTERS and PNG_NO_FILTERS
2520 to turn filtering on and off, respectively.
2522 Individual filter types are PNG_FILTER_NONE, PNG_FILTER_SUB,
2523 PNG_FILTER_UP, PNG_FILTER_AVG, PNG_FILTER_PAETH, which can be bitwise
2524 ORed together with '|' to specify one or more filters to use.
2525 These filters are described in more detail in the PNG specification.
2526 If you intend to change the filter type during the course of writing
2527 the image, you should start with flags set for all of the filters
2528 you intend to use so that libpng can initialize its internal
2529 structures appropriately for all of the filter types. (Note that this
2530 means the first row must always be adaptively filtered, because libpng
2531 currently does not allocate the filter buffers until png_write_row()
2532 is called for the first time.)
2534 filters = PNG_FILTER_NONE | PNG_FILTER_SUB
2535 PNG_FILTER_UP | PNG_FILTER_AVE |
2536 PNG_FILTER_PAETH | PNG_ALL_FILTERS;
2538 png_set_filter(png_ptr, PNG_FILTER_TYPE_BASE,
2540 The second parameter can also be
2541 PNG_INTRAPIXEL_DIFFERENCING if you are
2542 writing a PNG to be embedded in a MNG
2543 datastream. This parameter must be the
2544 same as the value of filter_method used
2547 It is also possible to influence how libpng chooses from among the
2548 available filters. This is done in one or both of two ways - by
2549 telling it how important it is to keep the same filter for successive
2550 rows, and by telling it the relative computational costs of the filters.
2552 double weights[3] = {1.5, 1.3, 1.1},
2553 costs[PNG_FILTER_VALUE_LAST] =
2554 {1.0, 1.3, 1.3, 1.5, 1.7};
2556 png_set_filter_heuristics(png_ptr,
2557 PNG_FILTER_HEURISTIC_WEIGHTED, 3,
2560 The weights are multiplying factors that indicate to libpng that the
2561 row filter should be the same for successive rows unless another row filter
2562 is that many times better than the previous filter. In the above example,
2563 if the previous 3 filters were SUB, SUB, NONE, the SUB filter could have a
2564 "sum of absolute differences" 1.5 x 1.3 times higher than other filters
2565 and still be chosen, while the NONE filter could have a sum 1.1 times
2566 higher than other filters and still be chosen. Unspecified weights are
2567 taken to be 1.0, and the specified weights should probably be declining
2568 like those above in order to emphasize recent filters over older filters.
2570 The filter costs specify for each filter type a relative decoding cost
2571 to be considered when selecting row filters. This means that filters
2572 with higher costs are less likely to be chosen over filters with lower
2573 costs, unless their "sum of absolute differences" is that much smaller.
2574 The costs do not necessarily reflect the exact computational speeds of
2575 the various filters, since this would unduly influence the final image
2578 Note that the numbers above were invented purely for this example and
2579 are given only to help explain the function usage. Little testing has
2580 been done to find optimum values for either the costs or the weights.
2582 Removing unwanted object code
2584 There are a bunch of #define's in pngconf.h that control what parts of
2585 libpng are compiled. All the defines end in _SUPPORTED. If you are
2586 never going to use a capability, you can change the #define to #undef
2587 before recompiling libpng and save yourself code and data space, or
2588 you can turn off individual capabilities with defines that begin with
2591 You can also turn all of the transforms and ancillary chunk capabilities
2592 off en masse with compiler directives that define
2593 PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_TRANSFORMS, or PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_ANCILLARY_CHUNKS,
2595 along with directives to turn on any of the capabilities that you do
2596 want. The PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_TRANSFORMS directives disable
2597 the extra transformations but still leave the library fully capable of reading
2598 and writing PNG files with all known public chunks
2599 Use of the PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_ANCILLARY_CHUNKS directive
2600 produces a library that is incapable of reading or writing ancillary chunks.
2601 If you are not using the progressive reading capability, you can
2602 turn that off with PNG_NO_PROGRESSIVE_READ (don't confuse
2603 this with the INTERLACING capability, which you'll still have).
2605 All the reading and writing specific code are in separate files, so the
2606 linker should only grab the files it needs. However, if you want to
2607 make sure, or if you are building a stand alone library, all the
2608 reading files start with pngr and all the writing files start with
2609 pngw. The files that don't match either (like png.c, pngtrans.c, etc.)
2610 are used for both reading and writing, and always need to be included.
2611 The progressive reader is in pngpread.c
2613 If you are creating or distributing a dynamically linked library (a .so
2614 or DLL file), you should not remove or disable any parts of the library,
2615 as this will cause applications linked with different versions of the
2616 library to fail if they call functions not available in your library.
2617 The size of the library itself should not be an issue, because only
2618 those sections that are actually used will be loaded into memory.
2620 Requesting debug printout
2622 The macro definition PNG_DEBUG can be used to request debugging
2623 printout. Set it to an integer value in the range 0 to 3. Higher
2624 numbers result in increasing amounts of debugging information. The
2625 information is printed to the "stderr" file, unless another file
2626 name is specified in the PNG_DEBUG_FILE macro definition.
2628 When PNG_DEBUG > 0, the following functions (macros) become available:
2630 png_debug(level, message)
2631 png_debug1(level, message, p1)
2632 png_debug2(level, message, p1, p2)
2634 in which "level" is compared to PNG_DEBUG to decide whether to print
2635 the message, "message" is the formatted string to be printed,
2636 and p1 and p2 are parameters that are to be embedded in the string
2637 according to printf-style formatting directives. For example,
2639 png_debug1(2, "foo=%d\n", foo);
2644 fprintf(PNG_DEBUG_FILE, "foo=%d\n", foo);
2646 When PNG_DEBUG is defined but is zero, the macros aren't defined, but you
2647 can still use PNG_DEBUG to control your own debugging:
2653 When PNG_DEBUG = 1, the macros are defined, but only png_debug statements
2654 having level = 0 will be printed. There aren't any such statements in
2655 this version of libpng, but if you insert some they will be printed.
2657 VI. Runtime optimization
2659 A new feature in libpng 1.2.0 is the ability to dynamically switch between
2660 standard and optimized versions of some routines. Currently these are
2661 limited to three computationally intensive tasks when reading PNG files:
2662 decoding row filters, expanding interlacing, and combining interlaced or
2663 transparent row data with previous row data. Currently the optimized
2664 versions are available only for x86 (Intel, AMD, etc.) platforms with
2665 MMX support, though this may change in future versions. (For example,
2666 the non-MMX assembler optimizations for zlib might become similarly
2667 runtime-selectable in future releases, in which case libpng could be
2668 extended to support them. Alternatively, the compile-time choice of
2669 floating-point versus integer routines for gamma correction might become
2670 runtime-selectable.)
2672 Because such optimizations tend to be very platform- and compiler-dependent,
2673 both in how they are written and in how they perform, the new runtime code
2674 in libpng has been written to allow programs to query, enable, and disable
2675 either specific optimizations or all such optimizations. For example, to
2676 enable all possible optimizations (bearing in mind that some "optimizations"
2677 may actually run more slowly in rare cases):
2679 #if defined(PNG_LIBPNG_VER) && (PNG_LIBPNG_VER >= 10200)
2680 png_uint_32 mask, flags;
2682 flags = png_get_asm_flags(png_ptr);
2683 mask = png_get_asm_flagmask(PNG_SELECT_READ | PNG_SELECT_WRITE);
2684 png_set_asm_flags(png_ptr, flags | mask);
2687 To enable only optimizations relevant to reading PNGs, use PNG_SELECT_READ
2688 by itself when calling png_get_asm_flagmask(); similarly for optimizing
2689 only writing. To disable all optimizations:
2691 #if defined(PNG_LIBPNG_VER) && (PNG_LIBPNG_VER >= 10200)
2692 flags = png_get_asm_flags(png_ptr);
2693 mask = png_get_asm_flagmask(PNG_SELECT_READ | PNG_SELECT_WRITE);
2694 png_set_asm_flags(png_ptr, flags & ~mask);
2697 To enable or disable only MMX-related features, use png_get_mmx_flagmask()
2698 in place of png_get_asm_flagmask(). The mmx version takes one additional
2701 #if defined(PNG_LIBPNG_VER) && (PNG_LIBPNG_VER >= 10200)
2702 int selection = PNG_SELECT_READ | PNG_SELECT_WRITE;
2705 mask = png_get_mmx_flagmask(selection, &compilerID);
2708 On return, compilerID will indicate which version of the MMX assembler
2709 optimizations was compiled. Currently two flavors exist: Microsoft
2710 Visual C++ (compilerID == 1) and GNU C (a.k.a. gcc/gas, compilerID == 2).
2711 On non-x86 platforms or on systems compiled without MMX optimizations, a
2712 value of -1 is used.
2714 Note that both png_get_asm_flagmask() and png_get_mmx_flagmask() return
2715 all valid, settable optimization bits for the version of the library that's
2716 currently in use. In the case of shared (dynamically linked) libraries,
2717 this may include optimizations that did not exist at the time the code was
2718 written and compiled. It is also possible, of course, to enable only known,
2719 specific optimizations; for example:
2721 #if defined(PNG_LIBPNG_VER) && (PNG_LIBPNG_VER >= 10200)
2722 flags = PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_COMBINE_ROW \
2723 | PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_INTERLACE \
2724 | PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_SUB \
2725 | PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_UP \
2726 | PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_AVG \
2727 | PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_PAETH ;
2728 png_set_asm_flags(png_ptr, flags);
2731 This method would enable only the MMX read-optimizations available at the
2732 time of libpng 1.2.0's release, regardless of whether a later version of
2733 the DLL were actually being used. (Also note that these functions did not
2734 exist in versions older than 1.2.0, so any attempt to run a dynamically
2735 linked app on such an older version would fail.)
2737 To determine whether the processor supports MMX instructions at all, use
2738 the png_mmx_support() function:
2740 #if defined(PNG_LIBPNG_VER) && (PNG_LIBPNG_VER >= 10200)
2741 mmxsupport = png_mmx_support();
2744 It returns -1 if MMX support is not compiled into libpng, 0 if MMX code
2745 is compiled but MMX is not supported by the processor, or 1 if MMX support
2746 is fully available. Note that png_mmx_support(), png_get_mmx_flagmask(),
2747 and png_get_asm_flagmask() all may be called without allocating and ini-
2748 tializing any PNG structures (for example, as part of a usage screen or
2751 The following code can be used to prevent an application from using the
2752 thread_unsafe features, even if libpng was built with PNG_THREAD_UNSAFE_OK
2755 #if defined(PNG_USE_PNGGCCRD) && defined(PNG_ASSEMBLER_CODE_SUPPORTED) \
2756 && defined(PNG_THREAD_UNSAFE_OK)
2757 /* Disable thread-unsafe features of pnggccrd */
2758 if (png_access_version() >= 10200)
2760 png_uint_32 mmx_disable_mask = 0;
2761 png_uint_32 asm_flags;
2763 mmx_disable_mask |= ( PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_COMBINE_ROW \
2764 | PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_SUB \
2765 | PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_AVG \
2766 | PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_PAETH );
2767 asm_flags = png_get_asm_flags(png_ptr);
2768 png_set_asm_flags(png_ptr, asm_flags & ~mmx_disable_mask);
2772 For more extensive examples of runtime querying, enabling and disabling
2773 of optimized features, see contrib/gregbook/readpng2.c in the libpng
2774 source-code distribution.
2779 The MNG specification (available at http://www.libpng.org/pub/mng) allows
2780 certain extensions to PNG for PNG images that are embedded in MNG datastreams.
2781 Libpng can support some of these extensions. To enable them, use the
2782 png_permit_mng_features() function:
2784 feature_set = png_permit_mng_features(png_ptr, mask)
2785 mask is a png_uint_32 containing the logical OR of the
2786 features you want to enable. These include
2787 PNG_FLAG_MNG_EMPTY_PLTE
2788 PNG_FLAG_MNG_FILTER_64
2789 PNG_ALL_MNG_FEATURES
2790 feature_set is a png_32_uint that is the logical AND of
2791 your mask with the set of MNG features that is
2792 supported by the version of libpng that you are using.
2794 It is an error to use this function when reading or writing a standalone
2795 PNG file with the PNG 8-byte signature. The PNG datastream must be wrapped
2796 in a MNG datastream. As a minimum, it must have the MNG 8-byte signature
2797 and the MHDR and MEND chunks. Libpng does not provide support for these
2798 or any other MNG chunks; your application must provide its own support for
2799 them. You may wish to consider using libmng (available at
2800 http://www.libmng.com) instead.
2802 VIII. Changes to Libpng from version 0.88
2804 It should be noted that versions of libpng later than 0.96 are not
2805 distributed by the original libpng author, Guy Schalnat, nor by
2806 Andreas Dilger, who had taken over from Guy during 1996 and 1997, and
2807 distributed versions 0.89 through 0.96, but rather by another member
2808 of the original PNG Group, Glenn Randers-Pehrson. Guy and Andreas are
2809 still alive and well, but they have moved on to other things.
2811 The old libpng functions png_read_init(), png_write_init(),
2812 png_info_init(), png_read_destroy(), and png_write_destroy() have been
2813 moved to PNG_INTERNAL in version 0.95 to discourage their use. These
2814 functions will be removed from libpng version 2.0.0.
2816 The preferred method of creating and initializing the libpng structures is
2817 via the png_create_read_struct(), png_create_write_struct(), and
2818 png_create_info_struct() because they isolate the size of the structures
2819 from the application, allow version error checking, and also allow the
2820 use of custom error handling routines during the initialization, which
2821 the old functions do not. The functions png_read_destroy() and
2822 png_write_destroy() do not actually free the memory that libpng
2823 allocated for these structs, but just reset the data structures, so they
2824 can be used instead of png_destroy_read_struct() and
2825 png_destroy_write_struct() if you feel there is too much system overhead
2826 allocating and freeing the png_struct for each image read.
2828 Setting the error callbacks via png_set_message_fn() before
2829 png_read_init() as was suggested in libpng-0.88 is no longer supported
2830 because this caused applications that do not use custom error functions
2831 to fail if the png_ptr was not initialized to zero. It is still possible
2832 to set the error callbacks AFTER png_read_init(), or to change them with
2833 png_set_error_fn(), which is essentially the same function, but with a new
2834 name to force compilation errors with applications that try to use the old
2837 Starting with version 1.0.7, you can find out which version of the library
2838 you are using at run-time:
2840 png_uint_32 libpng_vn = png_access_version_number();
2842 The number libpng_vn is constructed from the major version, minor
2843 version with leading zero, and release number with leading zero,
2844 (e.g., libpng_vn for version 1.0.7 is 10007).
2846 You can also check which version of png.h you used when compiling your
2849 png_uint_32 application_vn = PNG_LIBPNG_VER;
2851 IX. Y2K Compliance in libpng
2855 Since the PNG Development group is an ad-hoc body, we can't make
2856 an official declaration.
2858 This is your unofficial assurance that libpng from version 0.71 and
2859 upward through 1.2.5 are Y2K compliant. It is my belief that earlier
2860 versions were also Y2K compliant.
2862 Libpng only has three year fields. One is a 2-byte unsigned integer that
2863 will hold years up to 65535. The other two hold the date in text
2864 format, and will hold years up to 9999.
2867 "png_uint_16 year" in png_time_struct.
2870 "png_charp time_buffer" in png_struct and
2871 "near_time_buffer", which is a local character string in png.c.
2873 There are seven time-related functions:
2875 png_convert_to_rfc_1123() in png.c
2876 (formerly png_convert_to_rfc_1152() in error)
2877 png_convert_from_struct_tm() in pngwrite.c, called
2879 png_convert_from_time_t() in pngwrite.c
2880 png_get_tIME() in pngget.c
2881 png_handle_tIME() in pngrutil.c, called in pngread.c
2882 png_set_tIME() in pngset.c
2883 png_write_tIME() in pngwutil.c, called in pngwrite.c
2885 All appear to handle dates properly in a Y2K environment. The
2886 png_convert_from_time_t() function calls gmtime() to convert from system
2887 clock time, which returns (year - 1900), which we properly convert to
2888 the full 4-digit year. There is a possibility that applications using
2889 libpng are not passing 4-digit years into the png_convert_to_rfc_1123()
2890 function, or that they are incorrectly passing only a 2-digit year
2891 instead of "year - 1900" into the png_convert_from_struct_tm() function,
2892 but this is not under our control. The libpng documentation has always
2893 stated that it works with 4-digit years, and the APIs have been
2896 The tIME chunk itself is also Y2K compliant. It uses a 2-byte unsigned
2897 integer to hold the year, and can hold years as large as 65535.
2899 zlib, upon which libpng depends, is also Y2K compliant. It contains
2900 no date-related code.
2903 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
2905 PNG Development Group