1 libpng.txt - A description on how to use and modify libpng
3 libpng version 1.2.51 - February 6, 2014
4 Updated and distributed by Glenn Randers-Pehrson
5 <glennrp at users.sourceforge.net>
6 Copyright (c) 1998-2014 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
8 This document is released under the libpng license.
9 For conditions of distribution and use, see the disclaimer
14 libpng versions 0.97, January 1998, through 1.2.51 - February 6, 2014
15 Updated and distributed by Glenn Randers-Pehrson
16 Copyright (c) 1998-2014 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
18 libpng 1.0 beta 6 version 0.96 May 28, 1997
19 Updated and distributed by Andreas Dilger
20 Copyright (c) 1996, 1997 Andreas Dilger
22 libpng 1.0 beta 2 - version 0.88 January 26, 1996
23 For conditions of distribution and use, see copyright
24 notice in png.h. Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Guy Eric
25 Schalnat, Group 42, Inc.
27 Updated/rewritten per request in the libpng FAQ
28 Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Frank J. T. Wojcik
29 December 18, 1995 & January 20, 1996
33 This file describes how to use and modify the PNG reference library
34 (known as libpng) for your own use. There are five sections to this
35 file: introduction, structures, reading, writing, and modification and
36 configuration notes for various special platforms. In addition to this
37 file, example.c is a good starting point for using the library, as
38 it is heavily commented and should include everything most people
39 will need. We assume that libpng is already installed; see the
40 INSTALL file for instructions on how to install libpng.
42 For examples of libpng usage, see the files "example.c", "pngtest.c",
43 and the files in the "contrib" directory, all of which are included in
44 the libpng distribution.
46 Libpng was written as a companion to the PNG specification, as a way
47 of reducing the amount of time and effort it takes to support the PNG
48 file format in application programs.
50 The PNG specification (second edition), November 2003, is available as
51 a W3C Recommendation and as an ISO Standard (ISO/IEC 15948:2003 (E)) at
52 <http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-PNG-20031110/
53 The W3C and ISO documents have identical technical content.
55 The PNG-1.2 specification is available at
56 <http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/documents/>. It is technically equivalent
57 to the PNG specification (second edition) but has some additional material.
59 The PNG-1.0 specification is available
60 as RFC 2083 <http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/documents/> and as a
61 W3C Recommendation <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC.png.html>.
63 Some additional chunks are described in the special-purpose public chunks
64 documents at <http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/documents/>.
67 about PNG, and the latest version of libpng, can be found at the PNG home
68 page, <http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/>.
70 Most users will not have to modify the library significantly; advanced
71 users may want to modify it more. All attempts were made to make it as
72 complete as possible, while keeping the code easy to understand.
73 Currently, this library only supports C. Support for other languages
76 Libpng has been designed to handle multiple sessions at one time,
77 to be easily modifiable, to be portable to the vast majority of
78 machines (ANSI, K&R, 16-, 32-, and 64-bit) available, and to be easy
79 to use. The ultimate goal of libpng is to promote the acceptance of
80 the PNG file format in whatever way possible. While there is still
81 work to be done (see the TODO file), libpng should cover the
82 majority of the needs of its users.
84 Libpng uses zlib for its compression and decompression of PNG files.
85 Further information about zlib, and the latest version of zlib, can
86 be found at the zlib home page, <http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/>.
87 The zlib compression utility is a general purpose utility that is
88 useful for more than PNG files, and can be used without libpng.
89 See the documentation delivered with zlib for more details.
90 You can usually find the source files for the zlib utility wherever you
91 find the libpng source files.
93 Libpng is thread safe, provided the threads are using different
94 instances of the structures. Each thread should have its own
95 png_struct and png_info instances, and thus its own image.
96 Libpng does not protect itself against two threads using the
97 same instance of a structure.
101 There are two main structures that are important to libpng, png_struct
102 and png_info. The first, png_struct, is an internal structure that
103 will not, for the most part, be used by a user except as the first
104 variable passed to every libpng function call.
106 The png_info structure is designed to provide information about the
107 PNG file. At one time, the fields of png_info were intended to be
108 directly accessible to the user. However, this tended to cause problems
109 with applications using dynamically loaded libraries, and as a result
110 a set of interface functions for png_info (the png_get_*() and png_set_*()
111 functions) was developed. The fields of png_info are still available for
112 older applications, but it is suggested that applications use the new
113 interfaces if at all possible.
115 Applications that do make direct access to the members of png_struct (except
116 for png_ptr->jmpbuf) must be recompiled whenever the library is updated,
117 and applications that make direct access to the members of png_info must
118 be recompiled if they were compiled or loaded with libpng version 1.0.6,
119 in which the members were in a different order. In version 1.0.7, the
120 members of the png_info structure reverted to the old order, as they were
121 in versions 0.97c through 1.0.5. Starting with version 2.0.0, both
122 structures are going to be hidden, and the contents of the structures will
123 only be accessible through the png_get/png_set functions.
125 The png.h header file is an invaluable reference for programming with libpng.
126 And while I'm on the topic, make sure you include the libpng header file:
132 We'll now walk you through the possible functions to call when reading
133 in a PNG file sequentially, briefly explaining the syntax and purpose
134 of each one. See example.c and png.h for more detail. While
135 progressive reading is covered in the next section, you will still
136 need some of the functions discussed in this section to read a PNG
141 You will want to do the I/O initialization(*) before you get into libpng,
142 so if it doesn't work, you don't have much to undo. Of course, you
143 will also want to insure that you are, in fact, dealing with a PNG
144 file. Libpng provides a simple check to see if a file is a PNG file.
145 To use it, pass in the first 1 to 8 bytes of the file to the function
146 png_sig_cmp(), and it will return 0 (false) if the bytes match the
147 corresponding bytes of the PNG signature, or nonzero (true) otherwise.
148 Of course, the more bytes you pass in, the greater the accuracy of the
151 If you are intending to keep the file pointer open for use in libpng,
152 you must ensure you don't read more than 8 bytes from the beginning
153 of the file, and you also have to make a call to png_set_sig_bytes_read()
154 with the number of bytes you read from the beginning. Libpng will
155 then only check the bytes (if any) that your program didn't read.
157 (*): If you are not using the standard I/O functions, you will need
158 to replace them with custom functions. See the discussion under
162 FILE *fp = fopen(file_name, "rb");
167 fread(header, 1, number, fp);
168 is_png = !png_sig_cmp(header, 0, number);
175 Next, png_struct and png_info need to be allocated and initialized. In
176 order to ensure that the size of these structures is correct even with a
177 dynamically linked libpng, there are functions to initialize and
178 allocate the structures. We also pass the library version, optional
179 pointers to error handling functions, and a pointer to a data struct for
180 use by the error functions, if necessary (the pointer and functions can
181 be NULL if the default error handlers are to be used). See the section
182 on Changes to Libpng below regarding the old initialization functions.
183 The structure allocation functions quietly return NULL if they fail to
184 create the structure, so your application should check for that.
186 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_read_struct
187 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
188 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
192 png_infop info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
195 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr,
196 (png_infopp)NULL, (png_infopp)NULL);
200 png_infop end_info = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
203 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
208 If you want to use your own memory allocation routines,
209 define PNG_USER_MEM_SUPPORTED and use
210 png_create_read_struct_2() instead of png_create_read_struct():
212 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_read_struct_2
213 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
214 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn, (png_voidp)
215 user_mem_ptr, user_malloc_fn, user_free_fn);
217 The error handling routines passed to png_create_read_struct()
218 and the memory alloc/free routines passed to png_create_struct_2()
219 are only necessary if you are not using the libpng supplied error
220 handling and memory alloc/free functions.
222 When libpng encounters an error, it expects to longjmp back
223 to your routine. Therefore, you will need to call setjmp and pass
224 your png_jmpbuf(png_ptr). If you read the file from different
225 routines, you will need to update the jmpbuf field every time you enter
226 a new routine that will call a png_*() function.
228 See your documentation of setjmp/longjmp for your compiler for more
229 information on setjmp/longjmp. See the discussion on libpng error
230 handling in the Customizing Libpng section below for more information
231 on the libpng error handling. If an error occurs, and libpng longjmp's
232 back to your setjmp, you will want to call png_destroy_read_struct() to
235 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
237 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
243 If you would rather avoid the complexity of setjmp/longjmp issues,
244 you can compile libpng with PNG_SETJMP_NOT_SUPPORTED, in which case
245 errors will result in a call to PNG_ABORT() which defaults to abort().
247 Now you need to set up the input code. The default for libpng is to
248 use the C function fread(). If you use this, you will need to pass a
249 valid FILE * in the function png_init_io(). Be sure that the file is
250 opened in binary mode. If you wish to handle reading data in another
251 way, you need not call the png_init_io() function, but you must then
252 implement the libpng I/O methods discussed in the Customizing Libpng
255 png_init_io(png_ptr, fp);
257 If you had previously opened the file and read any of the signature from
258 the beginning in order to see if this was a PNG file, you need to let
259 libpng know that there are some bytes missing from the start of the file.
261 png_set_sig_bytes(png_ptr, number);
263 Setting up callback code
265 You can set up a callback function to handle any unknown chunks in the
266 input stream. You must supply the function
268 read_chunk_callback(png_ptr ptr,
269 png_unknown_chunkp chunk);
271 /* The unknown chunk structure contains your
272 chunk data, along with similar data for any other
279 /* Note that libpng has already taken care of
282 /* put your code here. Search for your chunk in the
283 unknown chunk structure, process it, and return one
286 return (-n); /* chunk had an error */
287 return (0); /* did not recognize */
288 return (n); /* success */
291 (You can give your function another name that you like instead of
292 "read_chunk_callback")
294 To inform libpng about your function, use
296 png_set_read_user_chunk_fn(png_ptr, user_chunk_ptr,
297 read_chunk_callback);
299 This names not only the callback function, but also a user pointer that
300 you can retrieve with
302 png_get_user_chunk_ptr(png_ptr);
304 If you call the png_set_read_user_chunk_fn() function, then all unknown
305 chunks will be saved when read, in case your callback function will need
306 one or more of them. This behavior can be changed with the
307 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks() function, described below.
309 At this point, you can set up a callback function that will be
310 called after each row has been read, which you can use to control
311 a progress meter or the like. It's demonstrated in pngtest.c.
312 You must supply a function
314 void read_row_callback(png_ptr ptr, png_uint_32 row,
317 /* put your code here */
320 (You can give it another name that you like instead of "read_row_callback")
322 To inform libpng about your function, use
324 png_set_read_status_fn(png_ptr, read_row_callback);
326 Unknown-chunk handling
328 Now you get to set the way the library processes unknown chunks in the
329 input PNG stream. Both known and unknown chunks will be read. Normal
330 behavior is that known chunks will be parsed into information in
331 various info_ptr members while unknown chunks will be discarded. This
332 behavior can be wasteful if your application will never use some known
333 chunk types. To change this, you can call:
335 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, keep,
336 chunk_list, num_chunks);
337 keep - 0: default unknown chunk handling
338 1: ignore; do not keep
339 2: keep only if safe-to-copy
340 3: keep even if unsafe-to-copy
341 You can use these definitions:
342 PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_AS_DEFAULT 0
343 PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_NEVER 1
344 PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_IF_SAFE 2
345 PNG_HANDLE_CHUNK_ALWAYS 3
346 chunk_list - list of chunks affected (a byte string,
347 five bytes per chunk, NULL or '\0' if
349 num_chunks - number of chunks affected; if 0, all
350 unknown chunks are affected. If nonzero,
351 only the chunks in the list are affected
353 Unknown chunks declared in this way will be saved as raw data onto a
354 list of png_unknown_chunk structures. If a chunk that is normally
355 known to libpng is named in the list, it will be handled as unknown,
356 according to the "keep" directive. If a chunk is named in successive
357 instances of png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(), the final instance will
358 take precedence. The IHDR and IEND chunks should not be named in
359 chunk_list; if they are, libpng will process them normally anyway.
361 Here is an example of the usage of png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(),
362 where the private "vpAg" chunk will later be processed by a user chunk
365 png_byte vpAg[5]={118, 112, 65, 103, (png_byte) '\0'};
367 #if defined(PNG_UNKNOWN_CHUNKS_SUPPORTED)
368 png_byte unused_chunks[]=
370 104, 73, 83, 84, (png_byte) '\0', /* hIST */
371 105, 84, 88, 116, (png_byte) '\0', /* iTXt */
372 112, 67, 65, 76, (png_byte) '\0', /* pCAL */
373 115, 67, 65, 76, (png_byte) '\0', /* sCAL */
374 115, 80, 76, 84, (png_byte) '\0', /* sPLT */
375 116, 73, 77, 69, (png_byte) '\0', /* tIME */
381 #if defined(PNG_UNKNOWN_CHUNKS_SUPPORTED)
382 /* ignore all unknown chunks: */
383 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(read_ptr, 1, NULL, 0);
384 /* except for vpAg: */
385 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(read_ptr, 2, vpAg, 1);
386 /* also ignore unused known chunks: */
387 png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(read_ptr, 1, unused_chunks,
388 (int)sizeof(unused_chunks)/5);
393 The PNG specification allows the width and height of an image to be as
394 large as 2^31-1 (0x7fffffff), or about 2.147 billion rows and columns.
395 Since very few applications really need to process such large images,
396 we have imposed an arbitrary 1-million limit on rows and columns.
397 Larger images will be rejected immediately with a png_error() call. If
398 you wish to override this limit, you can use
400 png_set_user_limits(png_ptr, width_max, height_max);
402 to set your own limits, or use width_max = height_max = 0x7fffffffL
403 to allow all valid dimensions (libpng may reject some very large images
404 anyway because of potential buffer overflow conditions).
406 You should put this statement after you create the PNG structure and
407 before calling png_read_info(), png_read_png(), or png_process_data().
408 If you need to retrieve the limits that are being applied, use
410 width_max = png_get_user_width_max(png_ptr);
411 height_max = png_get_user_height_max(png_ptr);
413 The PNG specification sets no limit on the number of ancillary chunks
414 allowed in a PNG datastream. You can impose a limit on the total number
415 of sPLT, tEXt, iTXt, zTXt, and unknown chunks that will be stored, with
417 png_set_chunk_cache_max(png_ptr, user_chunk_cache_max);
419 where 0x7fffffffL means unlimited. You can retrieve this limit with
421 chunk_cache_max = png_get_chunk_cache_max(png_ptr);
423 This limit also applies to the number of buffers that can be allocated
424 by png_decompress_chunk() while decompressing iTXt, zTXt, and iCCP chunks.
426 The high-level read interface
428 At this point there are two ways to proceed; through the high-level
429 read interface, or through a sequence of low-level read operations.
430 You can use the high-level interface if (a) you are willing to read
431 the entire image into memory, and (b) the input transformations
432 you want to do are limited to the following set:
434 PNG_TRANSFORM_IDENTITY No transformation
435 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_16 Strip 16-bit samples to
437 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_ALPHA Discard the alpha channel
438 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKING Expand 1, 2 and 4-bit
440 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKSWAP Change order of packed
442 PNG_TRANSFORM_EXPAND Perform set_expand()
443 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_MONO Invert monochrome images
444 PNG_TRANSFORM_SHIFT Normalize pixels to the
446 PNG_TRANSFORM_BGR Flip RGB to BGR, RGBA
448 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ALPHA Flip RGBA to ARGB or GA
450 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_ALPHA Change alpha from opacity
452 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ENDIAN Byte-swap 16-bit samples
453 PNG_TRANSFORM_GRAY_TO_RGB Expand grayscale samples
454 to RGB (or GA to RGBA)
456 (This excludes setting a background color, doing gamma transformation,
457 dithering, and setting filler.) If this is the case, simply do this:
459 png_read_png(png_ptr, info_ptr, png_transforms, NULL)
461 where png_transforms is an integer containing the bitwise OR of some
462 set of transformation flags. This call is equivalent to png_read_info(),
463 followed the set of transformations indicated by the transform mask,
464 then png_read_image(), and finally png_read_end().
466 (The final parameter of this call is not yet used. Someday it might point
467 to transformation parameters required by some future input transform.)
469 You must use png_transforms and not call any png_set_transform() functions
470 when you use png_read_png().
472 After you have called png_read_png(), you can retrieve the image data
475 row_pointers = png_get_rows(png_ptr, info_ptr);
477 where row_pointers is an array of pointers to the pixel data for each row:
479 png_bytep row_pointers[height];
481 If you know your image size and pixel size ahead of time, you can allocate
482 row_pointers prior to calling png_read_png() with
484 if (height > PNG_UINT_32_MAX/png_sizeof(png_byte))
486 "Image is too tall to process in memory");
487 if (width > PNG_UINT_32_MAX/pixel_size)
489 "Image is too wide to process in memory");
490 row_pointers = png_malloc(png_ptr,
491 height*png_sizeof(png_bytep));
492 for (int i=0; i<height, i++)
493 row_pointers[i]=NULL; /* security precaution */
494 for (int i=0; i<height, i++)
495 row_pointers[i]=png_malloc(png_ptr,
497 png_set_rows(png_ptr, info_ptr, &row_pointers);
499 Alternatively you could allocate your image in one big block and define
500 row_pointers[i] to point into the proper places in your block.
502 If you use png_set_rows(), the application is responsible for freeing
503 row_pointers (and row_pointers[i], if they were separately allocated).
505 If you don't allocate row_pointers ahead of time, png_read_png() will
506 do it, and it'll be free'ed when you call png_destroy_*().
508 The low-level read interface
510 If you are going the low-level route, you are now ready to read all
511 the file information up to the actual image data. You do this with a
512 call to png_read_info().
514 png_read_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
516 This will process all chunks up to but not including the image data.
518 Querying the info structure
520 Functions are used to get the information from the info_ptr once it
521 has been read. Note that these fields may not be completely filled
522 in until png_read_end() has read the chunk data following the image.
524 png_get_IHDR(png_ptr, info_ptr, &width, &height,
525 &bit_depth, &color_type, &interlace_type,
526 &compression_type, &filter_method);
528 width - holds the width of the image
529 in pixels (up to 2^31).
530 height - holds the height of the image
531 in pixels (up to 2^31).
532 bit_depth - holds the bit depth of one of the
533 image channels. (valid values are
534 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and depend also on
535 the color_type. See also
536 significant bits (sBIT) below).
537 color_type - describes which color/alpha channels
540 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8, 16)
541 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA
543 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE
544 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8)
547 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA
550 PNG_COLOR_MASK_PALETTE
554 filter_method - (must be PNG_FILTER_TYPE_BASE
555 for PNG 1.0, and can also be
556 PNG_INTRAPIXEL_DIFFERENCING if
557 the PNG datastream is embedded in
558 a MNG-1.0 datastream)
559 compression_type - (must be PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE
561 interlace_type - (PNG_INTERLACE_NONE or
564 Any or all of interlace_type, compression_type, or
565 filter_method can be NULL if you are
566 not interested in their values.
568 Note that png_get_IHDR() returns 32-bit data into
569 the application's width and height variables.
570 This is an unsafe situation if these are 16-bit
571 variables. In such situations, the
572 png_get_image_width() and png_get_image_height()
573 functions described below are safer.
575 width = png_get_image_width(png_ptr,
577 height = png_get_image_height(png_ptr,
579 bit_depth = png_get_bit_depth(png_ptr,
581 color_type = png_get_color_type(png_ptr,
583 filter_method = png_get_filter_type(png_ptr,
585 compression_type = png_get_compression_type(png_ptr,
587 interlace_type = png_get_interlace_type(png_ptr,
590 channels = png_get_channels(png_ptr, info_ptr);
591 channels - number of channels of info for the
592 color type (valid values are 1 (GRAY,
593 PALETTE), 2 (GRAY_ALPHA), 3 (RGB),
594 4 (RGB_ALPHA or RGB + filler byte))
595 rowbytes = png_get_rowbytes(png_ptr, info_ptr);
596 rowbytes - number of bytes needed to hold a row
598 signature = png_get_signature(png_ptr, info_ptr);
599 signature - holds the signature read from the
600 file (if any). The data is kept in
601 the same offset it would be if the
602 whole signature were read (i.e. if an
603 application had already read in 4
604 bytes of signature before starting
605 libpng, the remaining 4 bytes would
606 be in signature[4] through signature[7]
607 (see png_set_sig_bytes())).
609 These are also important, but their validity depends on whether the chunk
610 has been read. The png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr, PNG_INFO_<chunk>) and
611 png_get_<chunk>(png_ptr, info_ptr, ...) functions return non-zero if the
612 data has been read, or zero if it is missing. The parameters to the
613 png_get_<chunk> are set directly if they are simple data types, or a
614 pointer into the info_ptr is returned for any complex types.
616 png_get_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr, &palette,
618 palette - the palette for the file
620 num_palette - number of entries in the palette
622 png_get_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, &gamma);
623 gamma - the gamma the file is written
626 png_get_sRGB(png_ptr, info_ptr, &srgb_intent);
627 srgb_intent - the rendering intent (PNG_INFO_sRGB)
628 The presence of the sRGB chunk
629 means that the pixel data is in the
630 sRGB color space. This chunk also
631 implies specific values of gAMA and
634 png_get_iCCP(png_ptr, info_ptr, &name,
635 &compression_type, &profile, &proflen);
636 name - The profile name.
637 compression - The compression type; always
638 PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE for PNG 1.0.
639 You may give NULL to this argument to
641 profile - International Color Consortium color
642 profile data. May contain NULs.
643 proflen - length of profile data in bytes.
645 png_get_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit);
646 sig_bit - the number of significant bits for
647 (PNG_INFO_sBIT) each of the gray,
648 red, green, and blue channels,
649 whichever are appropriate for the
650 given color type (png_color_16)
652 png_get_tRNS(png_ptr, info_ptr, &trans, &num_trans,
654 trans - array of transparent
655 entries for palette (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
656 trans_values - graylevel or color sample values of
657 the single transparent color for
658 non-paletted images (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
659 num_trans - number of transparent entries
662 png_get_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr, &hist);
664 hist - histogram of palette (array of
667 png_get_tIME(png_ptr, info_ptr, &mod_time);
668 mod_time - time image was last modified
671 png_get_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, &background);
672 background - background color (PNG_VALID_bKGD)
673 valid 16-bit red, green and blue
674 values, regardless of color_type
676 num_comments = png_get_text(png_ptr, info_ptr,
677 &text_ptr, &num_text);
678 num_comments - number of comments
679 text_ptr - array of png_text holding image
681 text_ptr[i].compression - type of compression used
682 on "text" PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
683 PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
684 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
685 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
686 text_ptr[i].key - keyword for comment. Must contain
688 text_ptr[i].text - text comments for current
689 keyword. Can be empty.
690 text_ptr[i].text_length - length of text string,
691 after decompression, 0 for iTXt
692 text_ptr[i].itxt_length - length of itxt string,
693 after decompression, 0 for tEXt/zTXt
694 text_ptr[i].lang - language of comment (empty
696 text_ptr[i].lang_key - keyword in UTF-8
697 (empty string for unknown).
698 Note that the itxt_length, lang, and lang_key
699 members of the text_ptr structure only exist
700 when the library is built with iTXt chunk support.
702 num_text - number of comments (same as
703 num_comments; you can put NULL here
704 to avoid the duplication)
705 Note while png_set_text() will accept text, language,
706 and translated keywords that can be NULL pointers, the
707 structure returned by png_get_text will always contain
708 regular zero-terminated C strings. They might be
709 empty strings but they will never be NULL pointers.
711 num_spalettes = png_get_sPLT(png_ptr, info_ptr,
713 palette_ptr - array of palette structures holding
714 contents of one or more sPLT chunks
716 num_spalettes - number of sPLT chunks read.
718 png_get_oFFs(png_ptr, info_ptr, &offset_x, &offset_y,
720 offset_x - positive offset from the left edge
722 offset_y - positive offset from the top edge
724 unit_type - PNG_OFFSET_PIXEL, PNG_OFFSET_MICROMETER
726 png_get_pHYs(png_ptr, info_ptr, &res_x, &res_y,
728 res_x - pixels/unit physical resolution in
730 res_y - pixels/unit physical resolution in
732 unit_type - PNG_RESOLUTION_UNKNOWN,
735 png_get_sCAL(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unit, &width,
737 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
738 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
739 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
740 (width and height are doubles)
742 png_get_sCAL_s(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unit, &width,
744 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
745 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
746 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
747 (width and height are strings like "2.54")
749 num_unknown_chunks = png_get_unknown_chunks(png_ptr,
751 unknowns - array of png_unknown_chunk
752 structures holding unknown chunks
753 unknowns[i].name - name of unknown chunk
754 unknowns[i].data - data of unknown chunk
755 unknowns[i].size - size of unknown chunk's data
756 unknowns[i].location - position of chunk in file
758 The value of "i" corresponds to the order in which the
759 chunks were read from the PNG file or inserted with the
760 png_set_unknown_chunks() function.
762 The data from the pHYs chunk can be retrieved in several convenient
765 res_x = png_get_x_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
767 res_y = png_get_y_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
769 res_x_and_y = png_get_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
771 res_x = png_get_x_pixels_per_inch(png_ptr,
773 res_y = png_get_y_pixels_per_inch(png_ptr,
775 res_x_and_y = png_get_pixels_per_inch(png_ptr,
777 aspect_ratio = png_get_pixel_aspect_ratio(png_ptr,
780 (Each of these returns 0 [signifying "unknown"] if
781 the data is not present or if res_x is 0;
782 res_x_and_y is 0 if res_x != res_y)
784 The data from the oFFs chunk can be retrieved in several convenient
787 x_offset = png_get_x_offset_microns(png_ptr, info_ptr);
788 y_offset = png_get_y_offset_microns(png_ptr, info_ptr);
789 x_offset = png_get_x_offset_inches(png_ptr, info_ptr);
790 y_offset = png_get_y_offset_inches(png_ptr, info_ptr);
792 (Each of these returns 0 [signifying "unknown" if both
793 x and y are 0] if the data is not present or if the
794 chunk is present but the unit is the pixel)
796 For more information, see the png_info definition in png.h and the
797 PNG specification for chunk contents. Be careful with trusting
798 rowbytes, as some of the transformations could increase the space
799 needed to hold a row (expand, filler, gray_to_rgb, etc.).
800 See png_read_update_info(), below.
802 A quick word about text_ptr and num_text. PNG stores comments in
803 keyword/text pairs, one pair per chunk, with no limit on the number
804 of text chunks, and a 2^31 byte limit on their size. While there are
805 suggested keywords, there is no requirement to restrict the use to these
806 strings. It is strongly suggested that keywords and text be sensible
807 to humans (that's the point), so don't use abbreviations. Non-printing
808 symbols are not allowed. See the PNG specification for more details.
809 There is also no requirement to have text after the keyword.
811 Keywords should be limited to 79 Latin-1 characters without leading or
812 trailing spaces, but non-consecutive spaces are allowed within the
813 keyword. It is possible to have the same keyword any number of times.
814 The text_ptr is an array of png_text structures, each holding a
815 pointer to a language string, a pointer to a keyword and a pointer to
816 a text string. The text string, language code, and translated
817 keyword may be empty or NULL pointers. The keyword/text
818 pairs are put into the array in the order that they are received.
819 However, some or all of the text chunks may be after the image, so, to
820 make sure you have read all the text chunks, don't mess with these
821 until after you read the stuff after the image. This will be
822 mentioned again below in the discussion that goes with png_read_end().
824 Input transformations
826 After you've read the header information, you can set up the library
827 to handle any special transformations of the image data. The various
828 ways to transform the data will be described in the order that they
829 should occur. This is important, as some of these change the color
830 type and/or bit depth of the data, and some others only work on
831 certain color types and bit depths. Even though each transformation
832 checks to see if it has data that it can do something with, you should
833 make sure to only enable a transformation if it will be valid for the
834 data. For example, don't swap red and blue on grayscale data.
836 The colors used for the background and transparency values should be
837 supplied in the same format/depth as the current image data. They
838 are stored in the same format/depth as the image data in a bKGD or tRNS
839 chunk, so this is what libpng expects for this data. The colors are
840 transformed to keep in sync with the image data when an application
841 calls the png_read_update_info() routine (see below).
843 Data will be decoded into the supplied row buffers packed into bytes
844 unless the library has been told to transform it into another format.
845 For example, 4 bit/pixel paletted or grayscale data will be returned
846 2 pixels/byte with the leftmost pixel in the high-order bits of the
847 byte, unless png_set_packing() is called. 8-bit RGB data will be stored
848 in RGB RGB RGB format unless png_set_filler() or png_set_add_alpha()
849 is called to insert filler bytes, either before or after each RGB triplet.
850 16-bit RGB data will be returned RRGGBB RRGGBB, with the most significant
851 byte of the color value first, unless png_set_strip_16() is called to
852 transform it to regular RGB RGB triplets, or png_set_filler() or
853 png_set_add alpha() is called to insert filler bytes, either before or
854 after each RRGGBB triplet. Similarly, 8-bit or 16-bit grayscale data can
856 png_set_filler(), png_set_add_alpha(), or png_set_strip_16().
858 The following code transforms grayscale images of less than 8 to 8 bits,
859 changes paletted images to RGB, and adds a full alpha channel if there is
860 transparency information in a tRNS chunk. This is most useful on
861 grayscale images with bit depths of 2 or 4 or if there is a multiple-image
862 viewing application that wishes to treat all images in the same way.
864 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE)
865 png_set_palette_to_rgb(png_ptr);
867 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY &&
868 bit_depth < 8) png_set_expand_gray_1_2_4_to_8(png_ptr);
870 if (png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr,
871 PNG_INFO_tRNS)) png_set_tRNS_to_alpha(png_ptr);
873 These three functions are actually aliases for png_set_expand(), added
874 in libpng version 1.0.4, with the function names expanded to improve code
875 readability. In some future version they may actually do different
878 As of libpng version 1.2.9, png_set_expand_gray_1_2_4_to_8() was
879 added. It expands the sample depth without changing tRNS to alpha.
881 As of libpng version 1.2.51, not all possible expansions are supported.
883 In the following table, the 01 means grayscale with depth<8, 31 means
884 indexed with depth<8, other numerals represent the color type, "T" means
885 the tRNS chunk is present, A means an alpha channel is present, and O
886 means tRNS or alpha is present but all pixels in the image are opaque.
888 FROM 01 31 0 0T 0O 2 2T 2O 3 3T 3O 4A 4O 6A 6O
907 "-" means the transformation is not supported.
908 "X" means the transformation is obtained by png_set_expand().
909 "1" means the transformation is obtained by
910 png_set_expand_gray_1_2_4_to_8
911 "G" means the transformation is obtained by
912 png_set_gray_to_rgb().
913 "P" means the transformation is obtained by
914 png_set_expand_palette_to_rgb().
915 "T" means the transformation is obtained by
916 png_set_tRNS_to_alpha().
918 PNG can have files with 16 bits per channel. If you only can handle
919 8 bits per channel, this will strip the pixels down to 8 bit.
922 png_set_strip_16(png_ptr);
924 If, for some reason, you don't need the alpha channel on an image,
925 and you want to remove it rather than combining it with the background
926 (but the image author certainly had in mind that you *would* combine
927 it with the background, so that's what you should probably do):
929 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA)
930 png_set_strip_alpha(png_ptr);
932 In PNG files, the alpha channel in an image
933 is the level of opacity. If you need the alpha channel in an image to
934 be the level of transparency instead of opacity, you can invert the
935 alpha channel (or the tRNS chunk data) after it's read, so that 0 is
936 fully opaque and 255 (in 8-bit or paletted images) or 65535 (in 16-bit
937 images) is fully transparent, with
939 png_set_invert_alpha(png_ptr);
941 The PNG format only supports pixels with postmultiplied alpha.
942 If you want to replace the pixels, after reading them, with pixels
943 that have premultiplied color samples, you can do this with
945 png_set_premultiply_alpha(png_ptr);
947 If you do this, any input with a tRNS chunk will be expanded to
948 have an alpha channel.
950 PNG files pack pixels of bit depths 1, 2, and 4 into bytes as small as
951 they can, resulting in, for example, 8 pixels per byte for 1 bit
952 files. This code expands to 1 pixel per byte without changing the
953 values of the pixels:
956 png_set_packing(png_ptr);
958 PNG files have possible bit depths of 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16. All pixels
959 stored in a PNG image have been "scaled" or "shifted" up to the next
960 higher possible bit depth (e.g. from 5 bits/sample in the range [0,31]
961 to 8 bits/sample in the range [0, 255]). However, it is also possible
962 to convert the PNG pixel data back to the original bit depth of the
963 image. This call reduces the pixels back down to the original bit depth:
965 png_color_8p sig_bit;
967 if (png_get_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit))
968 png_set_shift(png_ptr, sig_bit);
970 PNG files store 3-color pixels in red, green, blue order. This code
971 changes the storage of the pixels to blue, green, red:
973 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB ||
974 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
975 png_set_bgr(png_ptr);
977 PNG files store RGB pixels packed into 3 or 6 bytes. This code expands them
978 into 4 or 8 bytes for windowing systems that need them in this format:
980 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB)
981 png_set_filler(png_ptr, filler, PNG_FILLER_BEFORE);
983 where "filler" is the 8 or 16-bit number to fill with, and the location is
984 either PNG_FILLER_BEFORE or PNG_FILLER_AFTER, depending upon whether
985 you want the filler before the RGB or after. This transformation
986 does not affect images that already have full alpha channels. To add an
987 opaque alpha channel, use filler=0xff or 0xffff and PNG_FILLER_AFTER which
988 will generate RGBA pixels.
990 Note that png_set_filler() does not change the color type. If you want
991 to do that, you can add a true alpha channel with
993 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB ||
994 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY)
995 png_set_add_alpha(png_ptr, filler, PNG_FILLER_AFTER);
997 where "filler" contains the alpha value to assign to each pixel.
998 This function was added in libpng-1.2.7.
1000 If you are reading an image with an alpha channel, and you need the
1001 data as ARGB instead of the normal PNG format RGBA:
1003 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
1004 png_set_swap_alpha(png_ptr);
1006 For some uses, you may want a grayscale image to be represented as
1007 RGB. This code will do that conversion:
1009 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY ||
1010 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA)
1011 png_set_gray_to_rgb(png_ptr);
1013 Conversely, you can convert an RGB or RGBA image to grayscale or grayscale
1016 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB ||
1017 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
1018 png_set_rgb_to_gray_fixed(png_ptr, error_action,
1019 int red_weight, int green_weight);
1021 error_action = 1: silently do the conversion
1022 error_action = 2: issue a warning if the original
1023 image has any pixel where
1024 red != green or red != blue
1025 error_action = 3: issue an error and abort the
1026 conversion if the original
1027 image has any pixel where
1028 red != green or red != blue
1030 red_weight: weight of red component times 100000
1031 green_weight: weight of green component times 100000
1032 If either weight is negative, default
1033 weights (21268, 71514) are used.
1035 If you have set error_action = 1 or 2, you can
1036 later check whether the image really was gray, after processing
1037 the image rows, with the png_get_rgb_to_gray_status(png_ptr) function.
1038 It will return a png_byte that is zero if the image was gray or
1039 1 if there were any non-gray pixels. bKGD and sBIT data
1040 will be silently converted to grayscale, using the green channel
1041 data, regardless of the error_action setting.
1043 With red_weight+green_weight<=100000,
1044 the normalized graylevel is computed:
1046 int rw = red_weight * 65536;
1047 int gw = green_weight * 65536;
1048 int bw = 65536 - (rw + gw);
1049 gray = (rw*red + gw*green + bw*blue)/65536;
1051 The default values approximate those recommended in the Charles
1052 Poynton's Color FAQ, <http://www.inforamp.net/~poynton/>
1053 Copyright (c) 1998-01-04 Charles Poynton <poynton at inforamp.net>
1055 Y = 0.212671 * R + 0.715160 * G + 0.072169 * B
1057 Libpng approximates this with
1059 Y = 0.21268 * R + 0.7151 * G + 0.07217 * B
1061 which can be expressed with integers as
1063 Y = (6969 * R + 23434 * G + 2365 * B)/32768
1065 The calculation is done in a linear colorspace, if the image gamma
1068 If you have a grayscale and you are using png_set_expand_depth(),
1069 png_set_expand(), or png_set_gray_to_rgb to change to truecolor or to
1070 a higher bit-depth, you must either supply the background color as a gray
1071 value at the original file bit-depth (need_expand = 1) or else supply the
1072 background color as an RGB triplet at the final, expanded bit depth
1073 (need_expand = 0). Similarly, if you are reading a paletted image, you
1074 must either supply the background color as a palette index (need_expand = 1)
1075 or as an RGB triplet that may or may not be in the palette (need_expand = 0).
1077 png_color_16 my_background;
1078 png_color_16p image_background;
1080 if (png_get_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, &image_background))
1081 png_set_background(png_ptr, image_background,
1082 PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_FILE, 1, 1.0);
1084 png_set_background(png_ptr, &my_background,
1085 PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_SCREEN, 0, 1.0);
1087 The png_set_background() function tells libpng to composite images
1088 with alpha or simple transparency against the supplied background
1089 color. If the PNG file contains a bKGD chunk (PNG_INFO_bKGD valid),
1090 you may use this color, or supply another color more suitable for
1091 the current display (e.g., the background color from a web page). You
1092 need to tell libpng whether the color is in the gamma space of the
1093 display (PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_SCREEN for colors you supply), the file
1094 (PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_FILE for colors from the bKGD chunk), or one
1095 that is neither of these gammas (PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_UNIQUE - I don't
1096 know why anyone would use this, but it's here).
1098 To properly display PNG images on any kind of system, the application needs
1099 to know what the display gamma is. Ideally, the user will know this, and
1100 the application will allow them to set it. One method of allowing the user
1101 to set the display gamma separately for each system is to check for a
1102 SCREEN_GAMMA or DISPLAY_GAMMA environment variable, which will hopefully be
1105 Note that display_gamma is the overall gamma correction required to produce
1106 pleasing results, which depends on the lighting conditions in the surrounding
1107 environment. In a dim or brightly lit room, no compensation other than
1108 the physical gamma exponent of the monitor is needed, while in a dark room
1109 a slightly smaller exponent is better.
1111 double gamma, screen_gamma;
1113 if (/* We have a user-defined screen
1116 screen_gamma = user_defined_screen_gamma;
1118 /* One way that applications can share the same
1119 screen gamma value */
1120 else if ((gamma_str = getenv("SCREEN_GAMMA"))
1123 screen_gamma = (double)atof(gamma_str);
1125 /* If we don't have another value */
1128 screen_gamma = 2.2; /* A good guess for a
1129 PC monitor in a bright office or a dim room */
1130 screen_gamma = 2.0; /* A good guess for a
1131 PC monitor in a dark room */
1132 screen_gamma = 1.7 or 1.0; /* A good
1133 guess for Mac systems */
1136 The png_set_gamma() function handles gamma transformations of the data.
1137 Pass both the file gamma and the current screen_gamma. If the file does
1138 not have a gamma value, you can pass one anyway if you have an idea what
1139 it is (usually 0.45455 is a good guess for GIF images on PCs). Note
1140 that file gammas are inverted from screen gammas. See the discussions
1141 on gamma in the PNG specification for an excellent description of what
1142 gamma is, and why all applications should support it. It is strongly
1143 recommended that PNG viewers support gamma correction.
1145 if (png_get_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, &gamma))
1146 png_set_gamma(png_ptr, screen_gamma, gamma);
1148 png_set_gamma(png_ptr, screen_gamma, 0.45455);
1150 If you need to reduce an RGB file to a paletted file, or if a paletted
1151 file has more entries then will fit on your screen, png_set_dither()
1152 will do that. Note that this is a simple match dither that merely
1153 finds the closest color available. This should work fairly well with
1154 optimized palettes, and fairly badly with linear color cubes. If you
1155 pass a palette that is larger then maximum_colors, the file will
1156 reduce the number of colors in the palette so it will fit into
1157 maximum_colors. If there is a histogram, it will use it to make
1158 more intelligent choices when reducing the palette. If there is no
1159 histogram, it may not do as good a job.
1161 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR)
1163 if (png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr,
1166 png_uint_16p histogram = NULL;
1168 png_get_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr,
1170 png_set_dither(png_ptr, palette, num_palette,
1171 max_screen_colors, histogram, 1);
1175 png_color std_color_cube[MAX_SCREEN_COLORS] =
1178 png_set_dither(png_ptr, std_color_cube,
1179 MAX_SCREEN_COLORS, MAX_SCREEN_COLORS,
1184 PNG files describe monochrome as black being zero and white being one.
1185 The following code will reverse this (make black be one and white be
1188 if (bit_depth == 1 && color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY)
1189 png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
1191 This function can also be used to invert grayscale and gray-alpha images:
1193 if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY ||
1194 color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA)
1195 png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
1197 PNG files store 16 bit pixels in network byte order (big-endian,
1198 ie. most significant bits first). This code changes the storage to the
1199 other way (little-endian, i.e. least significant bits first, the
1200 way PCs store them):
1202 if (bit_depth == 16)
1203 png_set_swap(png_ptr);
1205 If you are using packed-pixel images (1, 2, or 4 bits/pixel), and you
1206 need to change the order the pixels are packed into bytes, you can use:
1209 png_set_packswap(png_ptr);
1211 Finally, you can write your own transformation function if none of
1212 the existing ones meets your needs. This is done by setting a callback
1215 png_set_read_user_transform_fn(png_ptr,
1218 You must supply the function
1220 void read_transform_fn(png_ptr ptr, row_info_ptr
1221 row_info, png_bytep data)
1223 See pngtest.c for a working example. Your function will be called
1224 after all of the other transformations have been processed.
1226 You can also set up a pointer to a user structure for use by your
1227 callback function, and you can inform libpng that your transform
1228 function will change the number of channels or bit depth with the
1231 png_set_user_transform_info(png_ptr, user_ptr,
1232 user_depth, user_channels);
1234 The user's application, not libpng, is responsible for allocating and
1235 freeing any memory required for the user structure.
1237 You can retrieve the pointer via the function
1238 png_get_user_transform_ptr(). For example:
1240 voidp read_user_transform_ptr =
1241 png_get_user_transform_ptr(png_ptr);
1243 The last thing to handle is interlacing; this is covered in detail below,
1244 but you must call the function here if you want libpng to handle expansion
1245 of the interlaced image.
1247 number_of_passes = png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
1249 After setting the transformations, libpng can update your png_info
1250 structure to reflect any transformations you've requested with this
1251 call. This is most useful to update the info structure's rowbytes
1252 field so you can use it to allocate your image memory. This function
1253 will also update your palette with the correct screen_gamma and
1254 background if these have been given with the calls above.
1256 png_read_update_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
1258 After you call png_read_update_info(), you can allocate any
1259 memory you need to hold the image. The row data is simply
1260 raw byte data for all forms of images. As the actual allocation
1261 varies among applications, no example will be given. If you
1262 are allocating one large chunk, you will need to build an
1263 array of pointers to each row, as it will be needed for some
1264 of the functions below.
1268 After you've allocated memory, you can read the image data.
1269 The simplest way to do this is in one function call. If you are
1270 allocating enough memory to hold the whole image, you can just
1271 call png_read_image() and libpng will read in all the image data
1272 and put it in the memory area supplied. You will need to pass in
1273 an array of pointers to each row.
1275 This function automatically handles interlacing, so you don't need
1276 to call png_set_interlace_handling() or call this function multiple
1277 times, or any of that other stuff necessary with png_read_rows().
1279 png_read_image(png_ptr, row_pointers);
1281 where row_pointers is:
1283 png_bytep row_pointers[height];
1285 You can point to void or char or whatever you use for pixels.
1287 If you don't want to read in the whole image at once, you can
1288 use png_read_rows() instead. If there is no interlacing (check
1289 interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_NONE), this is simple:
1291 png_read_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers, NULL,
1294 where row_pointers is the same as in the png_read_image() call.
1296 If you are doing this just one row at a time, you can do this with
1297 a single row_pointer instead of an array of row_pointers:
1299 png_bytep row_pointer = row;
1300 png_read_row(png_ptr, row_pointer, NULL);
1302 If the file is interlaced (interlace_type != 0 in the IHDR chunk), things
1303 get somewhat harder. The only current (PNG Specification version 1.2)
1304 interlacing type for PNG is (interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7)
1305 is a somewhat complicated 2D interlace scheme, known as Adam7, that
1306 breaks down an image into seven smaller images of varying size, based
1309 libpng can fill out those images or it can give them to you "as is".
1310 If you want them filled out, there are two ways to do that. The one
1311 mentioned in the PNG specification is to expand each pixel to cover
1312 those pixels that have not been read yet (the "rectangle" method).
1313 This results in a blocky image for the first pass, which gradually
1314 smooths out as more pixels are read. The other method is the "sparkle"
1315 method, where pixels are drawn only in their final locations, with the
1316 rest of the image remaining whatever colors they were initialized to
1317 before the start of the read. The first method usually looks better,
1318 but tends to be slower, as there are more pixels to put in the rows.
1320 If you don't want libpng to handle the interlacing details, just call
1321 png_read_rows() seven times to read in all seven images. Each of the
1322 images is a valid image by itself, or they can all be combined on an
1323 8x8 grid to form a single image (although if you intend to combine them
1324 you would be far better off using the libpng interlace handling).
1326 The first pass will return an image 1/8 as wide as the entire image
1327 (every 8th column starting in column 0) and 1/8 as high as the original
1328 (every 8th row starting in row 0), the second will be 1/8 as wide
1329 (starting in column 4) and 1/8 as high (also starting in row 0). The
1330 third pass will be 1/4 as wide (every 4th pixel starting in column 0) and
1331 1/8 as high (every 8th row starting in row 4), and the fourth pass will
1332 be 1/4 as wide and 1/4 as high (every 4th column starting in column 2,
1333 and every 4th row starting in row 0). The fifth pass will return an
1334 image 1/2 as wide, and 1/4 as high (starting at column 0 and row 2),
1335 while the sixth pass will be 1/2 as wide and 1/2 as high as the original
1336 (starting in column 1 and row 0). The seventh and final pass will be as
1337 wide as the original, and 1/2 as high, containing all of the odd
1338 numbered scanlines. Phew!
1340 If you want libpng to expand the images, call this before calling
1341 png_start_read_image() or png_read_update_info():
1343 if (interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7)
1345 = png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
1347 This will return the number of passes needed. Currently, this
1348 is seven, but may change if another interlace type is added.
1349 This function can be called even if the file is not interlaced,
1350 where it will return one pass.
1352 If you are not going to display the image after each pass, but are
1353 going to wait until the entire image is read in, use the sparkle
1354 effect. This effect is faster and the end result of either method
1355 is exactly the same. If you are planning on displaying the image
1356 after each pass, the "rectangle" effect is generally considered the
1359 If you only want the "sparkle" effect, just call png_read_rows() as
1360 normal, with the third parameter NULL. Make sure you make pass over
1361 the image number_of_passes times, and you don't change the data in the
1362 rows between calls. You can change the locations of the data, just
1363 not the data. Each pass only writes the pixels appropriate for that
1364 pass, and assumes the data from previous passes is still valid.
1366 png_read_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers, NULL,
1369 If you only want the first effect (the rectangles), do the same as
1370 before except pass the row buffer in the third parameter, and leave
1371 the second parameter NULL.
1373 png_read_rows(png_ptr, NULL, row_pointers,
1376 Finishing a sequential read
1378 After you are finished reading the image through the
1379 low-level interface, you can finish reading the file. If you are
1380 interested in comments or time, which may be stored either before or
1381 after the image data, you should pass the separate png_info struct if
1382 you want to keep the comments from before and after the image
1383 separate. If you are not interested, you can pass NULL.
1385 png_read_end(png_ptr, end_info);
1387 When you are done, you can free all memory allocated by libpng like this:
1389 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
1392 It is also possible to individually free the info_ptr members that
1393 point to libpng-allocated storage with the following function:
1395 png_free_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, mask, seq)
1396 mask - identifies data to be freed, a mask
1397 containing the bitwise OR of one or
1399 PNG_FREE_PLTE, PNG_FREE_TRNS,
1400 PNG_FREE_HIST, PNG_FREE_ICCP,
1401 PNG_FREE_PCAL, PNG_FREE_ROWS,
1402 PNG_FREE_SCAL, PNG_FREE_SPLT,
1403 PNG_FREE_TEXT, PNG_FREE_UNKN,
1404 or simply PNG_FREE_ALL
1405 seq - sequence number of item to be freed
1408 This function may be safely called when the relevant storage has
1409 already been freed, or has not yet been allocated, or was allocated
1410 by the user and not by libpng, and will in those cases do nothing.
1411 The "seq" parameter is ignored if only one item of the selected data
1412 type, such as PLTE, is allowed. If "seq" is not -1, and multiple items
1413 are allowed for the data type identified in the mask, such as text or
1414 sPLT, only the n'th item in the structure is freed, where n is "seq".
1416 The default behavior is only to free data that was allocated internally
1417 by libpng. This can be changed, so that libpng will not free the data,
1418 or so that it will free data that was allocated by the user with png_malloc()
1419 or png_zalloc() and passed in via a png_set_*() function, with
1421 png_data_freer(png_ptr, info_ptr, freer, mask)
1422 mask - which data elements are affected
1423 same choices as in png_free_data()
1425 PNG_DESTROY_WILL_FREE_DATA
1426 PNG_SET_WILL_FREE_DATA
1427 PNG_USER_WILL_FREE_DATA
1429 This function only affects data that has already been allocated.
1430 You can call this function after reading the PNG data but before calling
1431 any png_set_*() functions, to control whether the user or the png_set_*()
1432 function is responsible for freeing any existing data that might be present,
1433 and again after the png_set_*() functions to control whether the user
1434 or png_destroy_*() is supposed to free the data. When the user assumes
1435 responsibility for libpng-allocated data, the application must use
1436 png_free() to free it, and when the user transfers responsibility to libpng
1437 for data that the user has allocated, the user must have used png_malloc()
1438 or png_zalloc() to allocate it.
1440 If you allocated your row_pointers in a single block, as suggested above in
1441 the description of the high level read interface, you must not transfer
1442 responsibility for freeing it to the png_set_rows or png_read_destroy function,
1443 because they would also try to free the individual row_pointers[i].
1445 If you allocated text_ptr.text, text_ptr.lang, and text_ptr.translated_keyword
1446 separately, do not transfer responsibility for freeing text_ptr to libpng,
1447 because when libpng fills a png_text structure it combines these members with
1448 the key member, and png_free_data() will free only text_ptr.key. Similarly,
1449 if you transfer responsibility for free'ing text_ptr from libpng to your
1450 application, your application must not separately free those members.
1452 The png_free_data() function will turn off the "valid" flag for anything
1453 it frees. If you need to turn the flag off for a chunk that was freed by
1454 your application instead of by libpng, you can use
1456 png_set_invalid(png_ptr, info_ptr, mask);
1457 mask - identifies the chunks to be made invalid,
1458 containing the bitwise OR of one or
1460 PNG_INFO_gAMA, PNG_INFO_sBIT,
1461 PNG_INFO_cHRM, PNG_INFO_PLTE,
1462 PNG_INFO_tRNS, PNG_INFO_bKGD,
1463 PNG_INFO_hIST, PNG_INFO_pHYs,
1464 PNG_INFO_oFFs, PNG_INFO_tIME,
1465 PNG_INFO_pCAL, PNG_INFO_sRGB,
1466 PNG_INFO_iCCP, PNG_INFO_sPLT,
1467 PNG_INFO_sCAL, PNG_INFO_IDAT
1469 For a more compact example of reading a PNG image, see the file example.c.
1471 Reading PNG files progressively
1473 The progressive reader is slightly different then the non-progressive
1474 reader. Instead of calling png_read_info(), png_read_rows(), and
1475 png_read_end(), you make one call to png_process_data(), which calls
1476 callbacks when it has the info, a row, or the end of the image. You
1477 set up these callbacks with png_set_progressive_read_fn(). You don't
1478 have to worry about the input/output functions of libpng, as you are
1479 giving the library the data directly in png_process_data(). I will
1480 assume that you have read the section on reading PNG files above,
1481 so I will only highlight the differences (although I will show
1484 png_structp png_ptr;
1487 /* An example code fragment of how you would
1488 initialize the progressive reader in your
1491 initialize_png_reader()
1493 png_ptr = png_create_read_struct
1494 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
1495 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
1498 info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
1501 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, (png_infopp)NULL,
1506 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
1508 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
1513 /* This one's new. You can provide functions
1514 to be called when the header info is valid,
1515 when each row is completed, and when the image
1516 is finished. If you aren't using all functions,
1517 you can specify NULL parameters. Even when all
1518 three functions are NULL, you need to call
1519 png_set_progressive_read_fn(). You can use
1520 any struct as the user_ptr (cast to a void pointer
1521 for the function call), and retrieve the pointer
1522 from inside the callbacks using the function
1524 png_get_progressive_ptr(png_ptr);
1526 which will return a void pointer, which you have
1527 to cast appropriately.
1529 png_set_progressive_read_fn(png_ptr, (void *)user_ptr,
1530 info_callback, row_callback, end_callback);
1535 /* A code fragment that you call as you receive blocks
1538 process_data(png_bytep buffer, png_uint_32 length)
1540 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
1542 png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
1547 /* This one's new also. Simply give it a chunk
1548 of data from the file stream (in order, of
1549 course). On machines with segmented memory
1550 models machines, don't give it any more than
1551 64K. The library seems to run fine with sizes
1552 of 4K. Although you can give it much less if
1553 necessary (I assume you can give it chunks of
1554 1 byte, I haven't tried less then 256 bytes
1555 yet). When this function returns, you may
1556 want to display any rows that were generated
1557 in the row callback if you don't already do
1560 png_process_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, buffer, length);
1564 /* This function is called (as set by
1565 png_set_progressive_read_fn() above) when enough data
1566 has been supplied so all of the header has been
1570 info_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_infop info)
1572 /* Do any setup here, including setting any of
1573 the transformations mentioned in the Reading
1574 PNG files section. For now, you _must_ call
1575 either png_start_read_image() or
1576 png_read_update_info() after all the
1577 transformations are set (even if you don't set
1578 any). You may start getting rows before
1579 png_process_data() returns, so this is your
1580 last chance to prepare for that.
1584 /* This function is called when each row of image
1587 row_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_bytep new_row,
1588 png_uint_32 row_num, int pass)
1590 /* If the image is interlaced, and you turned
1591 on the interlace handler, this function will
1592 be called for every row in every pass. Some
1593 of these rows will not be changed from the
1594 previous pass. When the row is not changed,
1595 the new_row variable will be NULL. The rows
1596 and passes are called in order, so you don't
1597 really need the row_num and pass, but I'm
1598 supplying them because it may make your life
1601 For the non-NULL rows of interlaced images,
1602 you must call png_progressive_combine_row()
1603 passing in the row and the old row. You can
1604 call this function for NULL rows (it will just
1605 return) and for non-interlaced images (it just
1606 does the memcpy for you) if it will make the
1607 code easier. Thus, you can just do this for
1611 png_progressive_combine_row(png_ptr, old_row,
1614 /* where old_row is what was displayed for
1615 previously for the row. Note that the first
1616 pass (pass == 0, really) will completely cover
1617 the old row, so the rows do not have to be
1618 initialized. After the first pass (and only
1619 for interlaced images), you will have to pass
1620 the current row, and the function will combine
1621 the old row and the new row.
1626 end_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_infop info)
1628 /* This function is called after the whole image
1629 has been read, including any chunks after the
1630 image (up to and including the IEND). You
1631 will usually have the same info chunk as you
1632 had in the header, although some data may have
1633 been added to the comments and time fields.
1635 Most people won't do much here, perhaps setting
1636 a flag that marks the image as finished.
1644 Much of this is very similar to reading. However, everything of
1645 importance is repeated here, so you won't have to constantly look
1646 back up in the reading section to understand writing.
1650 You will want to do the I/O initialization before you get into libpng,
1651 so if it doesn't work, you don't have anything to undo. If you are not
1652 using the standard I/O functions, you will need to replace them with
1653 custom writing functions. See the discussion under Customizing libpng.
1655 FILE *fp = fopen(file_name, "wb");
1661 Next, png_struct and png_info need to be allocated and initialized.
1662 As these can be both relatively large, you may not want to store these
1663 on the stack, unless you have stack space to spare. Of course, you
1664 will want to check if they return NULL. If you are also reading,
1665 you won't want to name your read structure and your write structure
1666 both "png_ptr"; you can call them anything you like, such as
1667 "read_ptr" and "write_ptr". Look at pngtest.c, for example.
1669 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_write_struct
1670 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
1671 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
1675 png_infop info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
1678 png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr,
1683 If you want to use your own memory allocation routines,
1684 define PNG_USER_MEM_SUPPORTED and use
1685 png_create_write_struct_2() instead of png_create_write_struct():
1687 png_structp png_ptr = png_create_write_struct_2
1688 (PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
1689 user_error_fn, user_warning_fn, (png_voidp)
1690 user_mem_ptr, user_malloc_fn, user_free_fn);
1692 After you have these structures, you will need to set up the
1693 error handling. When libpng encounters an error, it expects to
1694 longjmp() back to your routine. Therefore, you will need to call
1695 setjmp() and pass the png_jmpbuf(png_ptr). If you
1696 write the file from different routines, you will need to update
1697 the png_jmpbuf(png_ptr) every time you enter a new routine that will
1698 call a png_*() function. See your documentation of setjmp/longjmp
1699 for your compiler for more information on setjmp/longjmp. See
1700 the discussion on libpng error handling in the Customizing Libpng
1701 section below for more information on the libpng error handling.
1703 if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
1705 png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);
1712 If you would rather avoid the complexity of setjmp/longjmp issues,
1713 you can compile libpng with PNG_SETJMP_NOT_SUPPORTED, in which case
1714 errors will result in a call to PNG_ABORT() which defaults to abort().
1716 Now you need to set up the output code. The default for libpng is to
1717 use the C function fwrite(). If you use this, you will need to pass a
1718 valid FILE * in the function png_init_io(). Be sure that the file is
1719 opened in binary mode. Again, if you wish to handle writing data in
1720 another way, see the discussion on libpng I/O handling in the Customizing
1721 Libpng section below.
1723 png_init_io(png_ptr, fp);
1725 If you are embedding your PNG into a datastream such as MNG, and don't
1726 want libpng to write the 8-byte signature, or if you have already
1727 written the signature in your application, use
1729 png_set_sig_bytes(png_ptr, 8);
1731 to inform libpng that it should not write a signature.
1735 At this point, you can set up a callback function that will be
1736 called after each row has been written, which you can use to control
1737 a progress meter or the like. It's demonstrated in pngtest.c.
1738 You must supply a function
1740 void write_row_callback(png_ptr, png_uint_32 row,
1743 /* put your code here */
1746 (You can give it another name that you like instead of "write_row_callback")
1748 To inform libpng about your function, use
1750 png_set_write_status_fn(png_ptr, write_row_callback);
1752 You now have the option of modifying how the compression library will
1753 run. The following functions are mainly for testing, but may be useful
1754 in some cases, like if you need to write PNG files extremely fast and
1755 are willing to give up some compression, or if you want to get the
1756 maximum possible compression at the expense of slower writing. If you
1757 have no special needs in this area, let the library do what it wants by
1758 not calling this function at all, as it has been tuned to deliver a good
1759 speed/compression ratio. The second parameter to png_set_filter() is
1760 the filter method, for which the only valid values are 0 (as of the
1761 July 1999 PNG specification, version 1.2) or 64 (if you are writing
1762 a PNG datastream that is to be embedded in a MNG datastream). The third
1763 parameter is a flag that indicates which filter type(s) are to be tested
1764 for each scanline. See the PNG specification for details on the specific
1768 /* turn on or off filtering, and/or choose
1769 specific filters. You can use either a single
1770 PNG_FILTER_VALUE_NAME or the bitwise OR of one
1771 or more PNG_FILTER_NAME masks. */
1772 png_set_filter(png_ptr, 0,
1773 PNG_FILTER_NONE | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_NONE |
1774 PNG_FILTER_SUB | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_SUB |
1775 PNG_FILTER_UP | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_UP |
1776 PNG_FILTER_AVG | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_AVG |
1777 PNG_FILTER_PAETH | PNG_FILTER_VALUE_PAETH|
1781 wants to start and stop using particular filters during compression,
1782 it should start out with all of the filters (to ensure that the previous
1783 row of pixels will be stored in case it's needed later), and then add
1784 and remove them after the start of compression.
1786 If you are writing a PNG datastream that is to be embedded in a MNG
1787 datastream, the second parameter can be either 0 or 64.
1789 The png_set_compression_*() functions interface to the zlib compression
1790 library, and should mostly be ignored unless you really know what you are
1791 doing. The only generally useful call is png_set_compression_level()
1792 which changes how much time zlib spends on trying to compress the image
1793 data. See the Compression Library (zlib.h and algorithm.txt, distributed
1794 with zlib) for details on the compression levels.
1796 /* set the zlib compression level */
1797 png_set_compression_level(png_ptr,
1798 Z_BEST_COMPRESSION);
1800 /* set other zlib parameters */
1801 png_set_compression_mem_level(png_ptr, 8);
1802 png_set_compression_strategy(png_ptr,
1803 Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY);
1804 png_set_compression_window_bits(png_ptr, 15);
1805 png_set_compression_method(png_ptr, 8);
1806 png_set_compression_buffer_size(png_ptr, 8192)
1808 extern PNG_EXPORT(void,png_set_zbuf_size)
1810 Setting the contents of info for output
1812 You now need to fill in the png_info structure with all the data you
1813 wish to write before the actual image. Note that the only thing you
1814 are allowed to write after the image is the text chunks and the time
1815 chunk (as of PNG Specification 1.2, anyway). See png_write_end() and
1816 the latest PNG specification for more information on that. If you
1817 wish to write them before the image, fill them in now, and flag that
1818 data as being valid. If you want to wait until after the data, don't
1819 fill them until png_write_end(). For all the fields in png_info and
1820 their data types, see png.h. For explanations of what the fields
1821 contain, see the PNG specification.
1823 Some of the more important parts of the png_info are:
1825 png_set_IHDR(png_ptr, info_ptr, width, height,
1826 bit_depth, color_type, interlace_type,
1827 compression_type, filter_method)
1828 width - holds the width of the image
1829 in pixels (up to 2^31).
1830 height - holds the height of the image
1831 in pixels (up to 2^31).
1832 bit_depth - holds the bit depth of one of the
1834 (valid values are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16
1835 and depend also on the
1836 color_type. See also significant
1838 color_type - describes which color/alpha
1839 channels are present.
1841 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8, 16)
1842 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA
1844 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE
1845 (bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8)
1848 PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA
1851 PNG_COLOR_MASK_PALETTE
1852 PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR
1853 PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA
1855 interlace_type - PNG_INTERLACE_NONE or
1857 compression_type - (must be
1858 PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_DEFAULT)
1859 filter_method - (must be PNG_FILTER_TYPE_DEFAULT
1860 or, if you are writing a PNG to
1861 be embedded in a MNG datastream,
1863 PNG_INTRAPIXEL_DIFFERENCING)
1865 If you call png_set_IHDR(), the call must appear before any of the
1866 other png_set_*() functions, because they might require access to some of
1867 the IHDR settings. The remaining png_set_*() functions can be called
1870 If you wish, you can reset the compression_type, interlace_type, or
1871 filter_method later by calling png_set_IHDR() again; if you do this, the
1872 width, height, bit_depth, and color_type must be the same in each call.
1874 png_set_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr, palette,
1876 palette - the palette for the file
1877 (array of png_color)
1878 num_palette - number of entries in the palette
1880 png_set_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, gamma);
1881 gamma - the gamma the image was created
1884 png_set_sRGB(png_ptr, info_ptr, srgb_intent);
1885 srgb_intent - the rendering intent
1886 (PNG_INFO_sRGB) The presence of
1887 the sRGB chunk means that the pixel
1888 data is in the sRGB color space.
1889 This chunk also implies specific
1890 values of gAMA and cHRM. Rendering
1891 intent is the CSS-1 property that
1892 has been defined by the International
1894 (http://www.color.org).
1896 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_SATURATION,
1897 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_PERCEPTUAL,
1898 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_ABSOLUTE, or
1899 PNG_sRGB_INTENT_RELATIVE.
1902 png_set_sRGB_gAMA_and_cHRM(png_ptr, info_ptr,
1904 srgb_intent - the rendering intent
1905 (PNG_INFO_sRGB) The presence of the
1906 sRGB chunk means that the pixel
1907 data is in the sRGB color space.
1908 This function also causes gAMA and
1909 cHRM chunks with the specific values
1910 that are consistent with sRGB to be
1913 png_set_iCCP(png_ptr, info_ptr, name, compression_type,
1915 name - The profile name.
1916 compression - The compression type; always
1917 PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE for PNG 1.0.
1918 You may give NULL to this argument to
1920 profile - International Color Consortium color
1921 profile data. May contain NULs.
1922 proflen - length of profile data in bytes.
1924 png_set_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, sig_bit);
1925 sig_bit - the number of significant bits for
1926 (PNG_INFO_sBIT) each of the gray, red,
1927 green, and blue channels, whichever are
1928 appropriate for the given color type
1931 png_set_tRNS(png_ptr, info_ptr, trans, num_trans,
1933 trans - array of transparent
1934 entries for palette (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
1935 trans_values - graylevel or color sample values
1936 (in order red, green, blue) of the
1937 single transparent color for
1938 non-paletted images (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
1939 num_trans - number of transparent entries
1942 png_set_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr, hist);
1944 hist - histogram of palette (array of
1947 png_set_tIME(png_ptr, info_ptr, mod_time);
1948 mod_time - time image was last modified
1951 png_set_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, background);
1952 background - background color (PNG_VALID_bKGD)
1954 png_set_text(png_ptr, info_ptr, text_ptr, num_text);
1955 text_ptr - array of png_text holding image
1957 text_ptr[i].compression - type of compression used
1958 on "text" PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
1959 PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
1960 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
1961 PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
1962 text_ptr[i].key - keyword for comment. Must contain
1964 text_ptr[i].text - text comments for current
1965 keyword. Can be NULL or empty.
1966 text_ptr[i].text_length - length of text string,
1967 after decompression, 0 for iTXt
1968 text_ptr[i].itxt_length - length of itxt string,
1969 after decompression, 0 for tEXt/zTXt
1970 text_ptr[i].lang - language of comment (NULL or
1972 text_ptr[i].translated_keyword - keyword in UTF-8 (NULL
1973 or empty for unknown).
1974 Note that the itxt_length, lang, and lang_key
1975 members of the text_ptr structure only exist
1976 when the library is built with iTXt chunk support.
1978 num_text - number of comments
1980 png_set_sPLT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &palette_ptr,
1982 palette_ptr - array of png_sPLT_struct structures
1983 to be added to the list of palettes
1984 in the info structure.
1985 num_spalettes - number of palette structures to be
1988 png_set_oFFs(png_ptr, info_ptr, offset_x, offset_y,
1990 offset_x - positive offset from the left
1992 offset_y - positive offset from the top
1994 unit_type - PNG_OFFSET_PIXEL, PNG_OFFSET_MICROMETER
1996 png_set_pHYs(png_ptr, info_ptr, res_x, res_y,
1998 res_x - pixels/unit physical resolution
2000 res_y - pixels/unit physical resolution
2002 unit_type - PNG_RESOLUTION_UNKNOWN,
2003 PNG_RESOLUTION_METER
2005 png_set_sCAL(png_ptr, info_ptr, unit, width, height)
2006 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
2007 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
2008 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
2009 (width and height are doubles)
2011 png_set_sCAL_s(png_ptr, info_ptr, unit, width, height)
2012 unit - physical scale units (an integer)
2013 width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
2014 height - height of a pixel in physical scale units
2015 (width and height are strings like "2.54")
2017 png_set_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unknowns,
2019 unknowns - array of png_unknown_chunk
2020 structures holding unknown chunks
2021 unknowns[i].name - name of unknown chunk
2022 unknowns[i].data - data of unknown chunk
2023 unknowns[i].size - size of unknown chunk's data
2024 unknowns[i].location - position to write chunk in file
2025 0: do not write chunk
2026 PNG_HAVE_IHDR: before PLTE
2027 PNG_HAVE_PLTE: before IDAT
2028 PNG_AFTER_IDAT: after IDAT
2030 The "location" member is set automatically according to
2031 what part of the output file has already been written.
2032 You can change its value after calling png_set_unknown_chunks()
2033 as demonstrated in pngtest.c. Within each of the "locations",
2034 the chunks are sequenced according to their position in the
2035 structure (that is, the value of "i", which is the order in which
2036 the chunk was either read from the input file or defined with
2037 png_set_unknown_chunks).
2039 A quick word about text and num_text. text is an array of png_text
2040 structures. num_text is the number of valid structures in the array.
2041 Each png_text structure holds a language code, a keyword, a text value,
2042 and a compression type.
2044 The compression types have the same valid numbers as the compression
2045 types of the image data. Currently, the only valid number is zero.
2046 However, you can store text either compressed or uncompressed, unlike
2047 images, which always have to be compressed. So if you don't want the
2048 text compressed, set the compression type to PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE.
2049 Because tEXt and zTXt chunks don't have a language field, if you
2050 specify PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE or PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
2051 any language code or translated keyword will not be written out.
2053 Until text gets around 1000 bytes, it is not worth compressing it.
2054 After the text has been written out to the file, the compression type
2055 is set to PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE_WR or PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt_WR,
2056 so that it isn't written out again at the end (in case you are calling
2057 png_write_end() with the same struct.
2059 The keywords that are given in the PNG Specification are:
2061 Title Short (one line) title or
2063 Author Name of image's creator
2064 Description Description of image (possibly long)
2065 Copyright Copyright notice
2066 Creation Time Time of original image creation
2067 (usually RFC 1123 format, see below)
2068 Software Software used to create the image
2069 Disclaimer Legal disclaimer
2070 Warning Warning of nature of content
2071 Source Device used to create the image
2072 Comment Miscellaneous comment; conversion
2073 from other image format
2075 The keyword-text pairs work like this. Keywords should be short
2076 simple descriptions of what the comment is about. Some typical
2077 keywords are found in the PNG specification, as is some recommendations
2078 on keywords. You can repeat keywords in a file. You can even write
2079 some text before the image and some after. For example, you may want
2080 to put a description of the image before the image, but leave the
2081 disclaimer until after, so viewers working over modem connections
2082 don't have to wait for the disclaimer to go over the modem before
2083 they start seeing the image. Finally, keywords should be full
2084 words, not abbreviations. Keywords and text are in the ISO 8859-1
2085 (Latin-1) character set (a superset of regular ASCII) and can not
2086 contain NUL characters, and should not contain control or other
2087 unprintable characters. To make the comments widely readable, stick
2088 with basic ASCII, and avoid machine specific character set extensions
2089 like the IBM-PC character set. The keyword must be present, but
2090 you can leave off the text string on non-compressed pairs.
2091 Compressed pairs must have a text string, as only the text string
2092 is compressed anyway, so the compression would be meaningless.
2094 PNG supports modification time via the png_time structure. Two
2095 conversion routines are provided, png_convert_from_time_t() for
2096 time_t and png_convert_from_struct_tm() for struct tm. The
2097 time_t routine uses gmtime(). You don't have to use either of
2098 these, but if you wish to fill in the png_time structure directly,
2099 you should provide the time in universal time (GMT) if possible
2100 instead of your local time. Note that the year number is the full
2101 year (e.g. 1998, rather than 98 - PNG is year 2000 compliant!), and
2102 that months start with 1.
2104 If you want to store the time of the original image creation, you should
2105 use a plain tEXt chunk with the "Creation Time" keyword. This is
2106 necessary because the "creation time" of a PNG image is somewhat vague,
2107 depending on whether you mean the PNG file, the time the image was
2108 created in a non-PNG format, a still photo from which the image was
2109 scanned, or possibly the subject matter itself. In order to facilitate
2110 machine-readable dates, it is recommended that the "Creation Time"
2111 tEXt chunk use RFC 1123 format dates (e.g. "22 May 1997 18:07:10 GMT"),
2112 although this isn't a requirement. Unlike the tIME chunk, the
2113 "Creation Time" tEXt chunk is not expected to be automatically changed
2114 by the software. To facilitate the use of RFC 1123 dates, a function
2115 png_convert_to_rfc1123(png_timep) is provided to convert from PNG
2116 time to an RFC 1123 format string.
2118 Writing unknown chunks
2120 You can use the png_set_unknown_chunks function to queue up chunks
2121 for writing. You give it a chunk name, raw data, and a size; that's
2122 all there is to it. The chunks will be written by the next following
2123 png_write_info_before_PLTE, png_write_info, or png_write_end function.
2124 Any chunks previously read into the info structure's unknown-chunk
2125 list will also be written out in a sequence that satisfies the PNG
2126 specification's ordering rules.
2128 The high-level write interface
2130 At this point there are two ways to proceed; through the high-level
2131 write interface, or through a sequence of low-level write operations.
2132 You can use the high-level interface if your image data is present
2133 in the info structure. All defined output
2134 transformations are permitted, enabled by the following masks.
2136 PNG_TRANSFORM_IDENTITY No transformation
2137 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKING Pack 1, 2 and 4-bit samples
2138 PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKSWAP Change order of packed
2140 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_MONO Invert monochrome images
2141 PNG_TRANSFORM_SHIFT Normalize pixels to the
2143 PNG_TRANSFORM_BGR Flip RGB to BGR, RGBA
2145 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ALPHA Flip RGBA to ARGB or GA
2147 PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_ALPHA Change alpha from opacity
2149 PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ENDIAN Byte-swap 16-bit samples
2150 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_FILLER Strip out filler
2152 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_FILLER_BEFORE Strip out leading
2154 PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_FILLER_AFTER Strip out trailing
2157 If you have valid image data in the info structure (you can use
2158 png_set_rows() to put image data in the info structure), simply do this:
2160 png_write_png(png_ptr, info_ptr, png_transforms, NULL)
2162 where png_transforms is an integer containing the bitwise OR of some set of
2163 transformation flags. This call is equivalent to png_write_info(),
2164 followed the set of transformations indicated by the transform mask,
2165 then png_write_image(), and finally png_write_end().
2167 (The final parameter of this call is not yet used. Someday it might point
2168 to transformation parameters required by some future output transform.)
2170 You must use png_transforms and not call any png_set_transform() functions
2171 when you use png_write_png().
2173 The low-level write interface
2175 If you are going the low-level route instead, you are now ready to
2176 write all the file information up to the actual image data. You do
2177 this with a call to png_write_info().
2179 png_write_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
2181 Note that there is one transformation you may need to do before
2182 png_write_info(). In PNG files, the alpha channel in an image is the
2183 level of opacity. If your data is supplied as a level of transparency,
2184 you can invert the alpha channel before you write it, so that 0 is
2185 fully transparent and 255 (in 8-bit or paletted images) or 65535
2186 (in 16-bit images) is fully opaque, with
2188 png_set_invert_alpha(png_ptr);
2190 This must appear before png_write_info() instead of later with the
2191 other transformations because in the case of paletted images the tRNS
2192 chunk data has to be inverted before the tRNS chunk is written. If
2193 your image is not a paletted image, the tRNS data (which in such cases
2194 represents a single color to be rendered as transparent) won't need to
2195 be changed, and you can safely do this transformation after your
2196 png_write_info() call.
2198 If you need to write a private chunk that you want to appear before
2199 the PLTE chunk when PLTE is present, you can write the PNG info in
2200 two steps, and insert code to write your own chunk between them:
2202 png_write_info_before_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr);
2203 png_set_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, info_ptr, ...);
2204 png_write_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
2206 After you've written the file information, you can set up the library
2207 to handle any special transformations of the image data. The various
2208 ways to transform the data will be described in the order that they
2209 should occur. This is important, as some of these change the color
2210 type and/or bit depth of the data, and some others only work on
2211 certain color types and bit depths. Even though each transformation
2212 checks to see if it has data that it can do something with, you should
2213 make sure to only enable a transformation if it will be valid for the
2214 data. For example, don't swap red and blue on grayscale data.
2216 PNG files store RGB pixels packed into 3 or 6 bytes. This code tells
2217 the library to strip input data that has 4 or 8 bytes per pixel down
2218 to 3 or 6 bytes (or strip 2 or 4-byte grayscale+filler data to 1 or 2
2221 png_set_filler(png_ptr, 0, PNG_FILLER_BEFORE);
2223 where the 0 is unused, and the location is either PNG_FILLER_BEFORE or
2224 PNG_FILLER_AFTER, depending upon whether the filler byte in the pixel
2225 is stored XRGB or RGBX.
2227 PNG files pack pixels of bit depths 1, 2, and 4 into bytes as small as
2228 they can, resulting in, for example, 8 pixels per byte for 1 bit files.
2229 If the data is supplied at 1 pixel per byte, use this code, which will
2230 correctly pack the pixels into a single byte:
2232 png_set_packing(png_ptr);
2234 PNG files reduce possible bit depths to 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16. If your
2235 data is of another bit depth, you can write an sBIT chunk into the
2236 file so that decoders can recover the original data if desired.
2238 /* Set the true bit depth of the image data */
2239 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR)
2241 sig_bit.red = true_bit_depth;
2242 sig_bit.green = true_bit_depth;
2243 sig_bit.blue = true_bit_depth;
2247 sig_bit.gray = true_bit_depth;
2249 if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA)
2251 sig_bit.alpha = true_bit_depth;
2254 png_set_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit);
2256 If the data is stored in the row buffer in a bit depth other than
2257 one supported by PNG (e.g. 3 bit data in the range 0-7 for a 4-bit PNG),
2258 this will scale the values to appear to be the correct bit depth as
2261 png_set_shift(png_ptr, &sig_bit);
2263 PNG files store 16 bit pixels in network byte order (big-endian,
2264 ie. most significant bits first). This code would be used if they are
2265 supplied the other way (little-endian, i.e. least significant bits
2266 first, the way PCs store them):
2269 png_set_swap(png_ptr);
2271 If you are using packed-pixel images (1, 2, or 4 bits/pixel), and you
2272 need to change the order the pixels are packed into bytes, you can use:
2275 png_set_packswap(png_ptr);
2277 PNG files store 3 color pixels in red, green, blue order. This code
2278 would be used if they are supplied as blue, green, red:
2280 png_set_bgr(png_ptr);
2282 PNG files describe monochrome as black being zero and white being
2283 one. This code would be used if the pixels are supplied with this reversed
2284 (black being one and white being zero):
2286 png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
2288 Finally, you can write your own transformation function if none of
2289 the existing ones meets your needs. This is done by setting a callback
2292 png_set_write_user_transform_fn(png_ptr,
2293 write_transform_fn);
2295 You must supply the function
2297 void write_transform_fn(png_ptr ptr, row_info_ptr
2298 row_info, png_bytep data)
2300 See pngtest.c for a working example. Your function will be called
2301 before any of the other transformations are processed.
2303 You can also set up a pointer to a user structure for use by your
2306 png_set_user_transform_info(png_ptr, user_ptr, 0, 0);
2308 The user_channels and user_depth parameters of this function are ignored
2309 when writing; you can set them to zero as shown.
2311 You can retrieve the pointer via the function png_get_user_transform_ptr().
2314 voidp write_user_transform_ptr =
2315 png_get_user_transform_ptr(png_ptr);
2317 It is possible to have libpng flush any pending output, either manually,
2318 or automatically after a certain number of lines have been written. To
2319 flush the output stream a single time call:
2321 png_write_flush(png_ptr);
2323 and to have libpng flush the output stream periodically after a certain
2324 number of scanlines have been written, call:
2326 png_set_flush(png_ptr, nrows);
2328 Note that the distance between rows is from the last time png_write_flush()
2329 was called, or the first row of the image if it has never been called.
2330 So if you write 50 lines, and then png_set_flush 25, it will flush the
2331 output on the next scanline, and every 25 lines thereafter, unless
2332 png_write_flush() is called before 25 more lines have been written.
2333 If nrows is too small (less than about 10 lines for a 640 pixel wide
2334 RGB image) the image compression may decrease noticeably (although this
2335 may be acceptable for real-time applications). Infrequent flushing will
2336 only degrade the compression performance by a few percent over images
2337 that do not use flushing.
2339 Writing the image data
2341 That's it for the transformations. Now you can write the image data.
2342 The simplest way to do this is in one function call. If you have the
2343 whole image in memory, you can just call png_write_image() and libpng
2344 will write the image. You will need to pass in an array of pointers to
2345 each row. This function automatically handles interlacing, so you don't
2346 need to call png_set_interlace_handling() or call this function multiple
2347 times, or any of that other stuff necessary with png_write_rows().
2349 png_write_image(png_ptr, row_pointers);
2351 where row_pointers is:
2353 png_byte *row_pointers[height];
2355 You can point to void or char or whatever you use for pixels.
2357 If you don't want to write the whole image at once, you can
2358 use png_write_rows() instead. If the file is not interlaced,
2361 png_write_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers,
2364 row_pointers is the same as in the png_write_image() call.
2366 If you are just writing one row at a time, you can do this with
2367 a single row_pointer instead of an array of row_pointers:
2369 png_bytep row_pointer = row;
2371 png_write_row(png_ptr, row_pointer);
2373 When the file is interlaced, things can get a good deal more complicated.
2374 The only currently (as of the PNG Specification version 1.2, dated July
2375 1999) defined interlacing scheme for PNG files is the "Adam7" interlace
2376 scheme, that breaks down an image into seven smaller images of varying
2377 size. libpng will build these images for you, or you can do them
2378 yourself. If you want to build them yourself, see the PNG specification
2379 for details of which pixels to write when.
2381 If you don't want libpng to handle the interlacing details, just
2382 use png_set_interlace_handling() and call png_write_rows() the
2383 correct number of times to write all seven sub-images.
2385 If you want libpng to build the sub-images, call this before you start
2389 png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
2391 This will return the number of passes needed. Currently, this is seven,
2392 but may change if another interlace type is added.
2394 Then write the complete image number_of_passes times.
2396 png_write_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers,
2399 As some of these rows are not used, and thus return immediately, you may
2400 want to read about interlacing in the PNG specification, and only update
2401 the rows that are actually used.
2403 Finishing a sequential write
2405 After you are finished writing the image, you should finish writing
2406 the file. If you are interested in writing comments or time, you should
2407 pass an appropriately filled png_info pointer. If you are not interested,
2410 png_write_end(png_ptr, info_ptr);
2412 When you are done, you can free all memory used by libpng like this:
2414 png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);
2416 It is also possible to individually free the info_ptr members that
2417 point to libpng-allocated storage with the following function:
2419 png_free_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, mask, seq)
2420 mask - identifies data to be freed, a mask
2421 containing the bitwise OR of one or
2423 PNG_FREE_PLTE, PNG_FREE_TRNS,
2424 PNG_FREE_HIST, PNG_FREE_ICCP,
2425 PNG_FREE_PCAL, PNG_FREE_ROWS,
2426 PNG_FREE_SCAL, PNG_FREE_SPLT,
2427 PNG_FREE_TEXT, PNG_FREE_UNKN,
2428 or simply PNG_FREE_ALL
2429 seq - sequence number of item to be freed
2432 This function may be safely called when the relevant storage has
2433 already been freed, or has not yet been allocated, or was allocated
2434 by the user and not by libpng, and will in those cases do nothing.
2435 The "seq" parameter is ignored if only one item of the selected data
2436 type, such as PLTE, is allowed. If "seq" is not -1, and multiple items
2437 are allowed for the data type identified in the mask, such as text or
2438 sPLT, only the n'th item in the structure is freed, where n is "seq".
2440 If you allocated data such as a palette that you passed in to libpng
2441 with png_set_*, you must not free it until just before the call to
2442 png_destroy_write_struct().
2444 The default behavior is only to free data that was allocated internally
2445 by libpng. This can be changed, so that libpng will not free the data,
2446 or so that it will free data that was allocated by the user with png_malloc()
2447 or png_zalloc() and passed in via a png_set_*() function, with
2449 png_data_freer(png_ptr, info_ptr, freer, mask)
2450 mask - which data elements are affected
2451 same choices as in png_free_data()
2453 PNG_DESTROY_WILL_FREE_DATA
2454 PNG_SET_WILL_FREE_DATA
2455 PNG_USER_WILL_FREE_DATA
2457 For example, to transfer responsibility for some data from a read structure
2458 to a write structure, you could use
2460 png_data_freer(read_ptr, read_info_ptr,
2461 PNG_USER_WILL_FREE_DATA,
2462 PNG_FREE_PLTE|PNG_FREE_tRNS|PNG_FREE_hIST)
2463 png_data_freer(write_ptr, write_info_ptr,
2464 PNG_DESTROY_WILL_FREE_DATA,
2465 PNG_FREE_PLTE|PNG_FREE_tRNS|PNG_FREE_hIST)
2467 thereby briefly reassigning responsibility for freeing to the user but
2468 immediately afterwards reassigning it once more to the write_destroy
2469 function. Having done this, it would then be safe to destroy the read
2470 structure and continue to use the PLTE, tRNS, and hIST data in the write
2473 This function only affects data that has already been allocated.
2474 You can call this function before calling after the png_set_*() functions
2475 to control whether the user or png_destroy_*() is supposed to free the data.
2476 When the user assumes responsibility for libpng-allocated data, the
2477 application must use
2478 png_free() to free it, and when the user transfers responsibility to libpng
2479 for data that the user has allocated, the user must have used png_malloc()
2480 or png_zalloc() to allocate it.
2482 If you allocated text_ptr.text, text_ptr.lang, and text_ptr.translated_keyword
2483 separately, do not transfer responsibility for freeing text_ptr to libpng,
2484 because when libpng fills a png_text structure it combines these members with
2485 the key member, and png_free_data() will free only text_ptr.key. Similarly,
2486 if you transfer responsibility for free'ing text_ptr from libpng to your
2487 application, your application must not separately free those members.
2488 For a more compact example of writing a PNG image, see the file example.c.
2490 V. Modifying/Customizing libpng:
2492 There are two issues here. The first is changing how libpng does
2493 standard things like memory allocation, input/output, and error handling.
2494 The second deals with more complicated things like adding new chunks,
2495 adding new transformations, and generally changing how libpng works.
2496 Both of those are compile-time issues; that is, they are generally
2497 determined at the time the code is written, and there is rarely a need
2498 to provide the user with a means of changing them.
2500 Memory allocation, input/output, and error handling
2502 All of the memory allocation, input/output, and error handling in libpng
2503 goes through callbacks that are user-settable. The default routines are
2504 in pngmem.c, pngrio.c, pngwio.c, and pngerror.c, respectively. To change
2505 these functions, call the appropriate png_set_*_fn() function.
2507 Memory allocation is done through the functions png_malloc(), png_calloc(),
2508 and png_free(). These currently just call the standard C functions.
2509 png_calloc() calls png_malloc() and then png_memset() to clear the newly
2510 allocated memory to zero. If your pointers can't access more then 64K
2511 at a time, you will want to set MAXSEG_64K in zlib.h. Since it is
2512 unlikely that the method of handling memory allocation on a platform
2513 will change between applications, these functions must be modified in
2514 the library at compile time. If you prefer to use a different method
2515 of allocating and freeing data, you can use png_create_read_struct_2() or
2516 png_create_write_struct_2() to register your own functions as described
2517 above. These functions also provide a void pointer that can be retrieved
2520 mem_ptr=png_get_mem_ptr(png_ptr);
2522 Your replacement memory functions must have prototypes as follows:
2524 png_voidp malloc_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
2526 void free_fn(png_structp png_ptr, png_voidp ptr);
2528 Your malloc_fn() must return NULL in case of failure. The png_malloc()
2529 function will normally call png_error() if it receives a NULL from the
2530 system memory allocator or from your replacement malloc_fn().
2532 Your free_fn() will never be called with a NULL ptr, since libpng's
2533 png_free() checks for NULL before calling free_fn().
2535 Input/Output in libpng is done through png_read() and png_write(),
2536 which currently just call fread() and fwrite(). The FILE * is stored in
2537 png_struct and is initialized via png_init_io(). If you wish to change
2538 the method of I/O, the library supplies callbacks that you can set
2539 through the function png_set_read_fn() and png_set_write_fn() at run
2540 time, instead of calling the png_init_io() function. These functions
2541 also provide a void pointer that can be retrieved via the function
2542 png_get_io_ptr(). For example:
2544 png_set_read_fn(png_structp read_ptr,
2545 voidp read_io_ptr, png_rw_ptr read_data_fn)
2547 png_set_write_fn(png_structp write_ptr,
2548 voidp write_io_ptr, png_rw_ptr write_data_fn,
2549 png_flush_ptr output_flush_fn);
2551 voidp read_io_ptr = png_get_io_ptr(read_ptr);
2552 voidp write_io_ptr = png_get_io_ptr(write_ptr);
2554 The replacement I/O functions must have prototypes as follows:
2556 void user_read_data(png_structp png_ptr,
2557 png_bytep data, png_size_t length);
2558 void user_write_data(png_structp png_ptr,
2559 png_bytep data, png_size_t length);
2560 void user_flush_data(png_structp png_ptr);
2562 The user_read_data() function is responsible for detecting and
2563 handling end-of-data errors.
2565 Supplying NULL for the read, write, or flush functions sets them back
2566 to using the default C stream functions, which expect the io_ptr to
2567 point to a standard *FILE structure. It is probably a mistake
2568 to use NULL for one of write_data_fn and output_flush_fn but not both
2569 of them, unless you have built libpng with PNG_NO_WRITE_FLUSH defined.
2570 It is an error to read from a write stream, and vice versa.
2572 Error handling in libpng is done through png_error() and png_warning().
2573 Errors handled through png_error() are fatal, meaning that png_error()
2574 should never return to its caller. Currently, this is handled via
2575 setjmp() and longjmp() (unless you have compiled libpng with
2576 PNG_SETJMP_NOT_SUPPORTED, in which case it is handled via PNG_ABORT()),
2577 but you could change this to do things like exit() if you should wish.
2579 On non-fatal errors, png_warning() is called
2580 to print a warning message, and then control returns to the calling code.
2581 By default png_error() and png_warning() print a message on stderr via
2582 fprintf() unless the library is compiled with PNG_NO_CONSOLE_IO defined
2583 (because you don't want the messages) or PNG_NO_STDIO defined (because
2584 fprintf() isn't available). If you wish to change the behavior of the error
2585 functions, you will need to set up your own message callbacks. These
2586 functions are normally supplied at the time that the png_struct is created.
2587 It is also possible to redirect errors and warnings to your own replacement
2588 functions after png_create_*_struct() has been called by calling:
2590 png_set_error_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
2591 png_voidp error_ptr, png_error_ptr error_fn,
2592 png_error_ptr warning_fn);
2594 png_voidp error_ptr = png_get_error_ptr(png_ptr);
2596 If NULL is supplied for either error_fn or warning_fn, then the libpng
2597 default function will be used, calling fprintf() and/or longjmp() if a
2598 problem is encountered. The replacement error functions should have
2599 parameters as follows:
2601 void user_error_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
2602 png_const_charp error_msg);
2603 void user_warning_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
2604 png_const_charp warning_msg);
2606 The motivation behind using setjmp() and longjmp() is the C++ throw and
2607 catch exception handling methods. This makes the code much easier to write,
2608 as there is no need to check every return code of every function call.
2609 However, there are some uncertainties about the status of local variables
2610 after a longjmp, so the user may want to be careful about doing anything
2611 after setjmp returns non-zero besides returning itself. Consult your
2612 compiler documentation for more details. For an alternative approach, you
2613 may wish to use the "cexcept" facility (see http://cexcept.sourceforge.net).
2617 If you need to read or write custom chunks, you may need to get deeper
2618 into the libpng code. The library now has mechanisms for storing
2619 and writing chunks of unknown type; you can even declare callbacks
2620 for custom chunks. However, this may not be good enough if the
2621 library code itself needs to know about interactions between your
2622 chunk and existing `intrinsic' chunks.
2624 If you need to write a new intrinsic chunk, first read the PNG
2625 specification. Acquire a first level of understanding of how it works.
2626 Pay particular attention to the sections that describe chunk names,
2627 and look at how other chunks were designed, so you can do things
2628 similarly. Second, check out the sections of libpng that read and
2629 write chunks. Try to find a chunk that is similar to yours and use
2630 it as a template. More details can be found in the comments inside
2631 the code. It is best to handle unknown chunks in a generic method,
2632 via callback functions, instead of by modifying libpng functions.
2634 If you wish to write your own transformation for the data, look through
2635 the part of the code that does the transformations, and check out some of
2636 the simpler ones to get an idea of how they work. Try to find a similar
2637 transformation to the one you want to add and copy off of it. More details
2638 can be found in the comments inside the code itself.
2640 Configuring for 16 bit platforms
2642 You will want to look into zconf.h to tell zlib (and thus libpng) that
2643 it cannot allocate more then 64K at a time. Even if you can, the memory
2644 won't be accessible. So limit zlib and libpng to 64K by defining MAXSEG_64K.
2648 For DOS users who only have access to the lower 640K, you will
2649 have to limit zlib's memory usage via a png_set_compression_mem_level()
2650 call. See zlib.h or zconf.h in the zlib library for more information.
2652 Configuring for Medium Model
2654 Libpng's support for medium model has been tested on most of the popular
2655 compilers. Make sure MAXSEG_64K gets defined, USE_FAR_KEYWORD gets
2656 defined, and FAR gets defined to far in pngconf.h, and you should be
2657 all set. Everything in the library (except for zlib's structure) is
2658 expecting far data. You must use the typedefs with the p or pp on
2659 the end for pointers (or at least look at them and be careful). Make
2660 note that the rows of data are defined as png_bytepp, which is an
2661 unsigned char far * far *.
2663 Configuring for gui/windowing platforms:
2665 You will need to write new error and warning functions that use the GUI
2666 interface, as described previously, and set them to be the error and
2667 warning functions at the time that png_create_*_struct() is called,
2668 in order to have them available during the structure initialization.
2669 They can be changed later via png_set_error_fn(). On some compilers,
2670 you may also have to change the memory allocators (png_malloc, etc.).
2672 Configuring for compiler xxx:
2674 All includes for libpng are in pngconf.h. If you need to add, change
2675 or delete an include, this is the place to do it.
2676 The includes that are not needed outside libpng are protected by the
2677 PNG_INTERNAL definition, which is only defined for those routines inside
2678 libpng itself. The files in libpng proper only include png.h, which
2683 There are special functions to configure the compression. Perhaps the
2684 most useful one changes the compression level, which currently uses
2685 input compression values in the range 0 - 9. The library normally
2686 uses the default compression level (Z_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION = 6). Tests
2687 have shown that for a large majority of images, compression values in
2688 the range 3-6 compress nearly as well as higher levels, and do so much
2689 faster. For online applications it may be desirable to have maximum speed
2690 (Z_BEST_SPEED = 1). With versions of zlib after v0.99, you can also
2691 specify no compression (Z_NO_COMPRESSION = 0), but this would create
2692 files larger than just storing the raw bitmap. You can specify the
2693 compression level by calling:
2695 png_set_compression_level(png_ptr, level);
2697 Another useful one is to reduce the memory level used by the library.
2698 The memory level defaults to 8, but it can be lowered if you are
2699 short on memory (running DOS, for example, where you only have 640K).
2700 Note that the memory level does have an effect on compression; among
2701 other things, lower levels will result in sections of incompressible
2702 data being emitted in smaller stored blocks, with a correspondingly
2703 larger relative overhead of up to 15% in the worst case.
2705 png_set_compression_mem_level(png_ptr, level);
2707 The other functions are for configuring zlib. They are not recommended
2708 for normal use and may result in writing an invalid PNG file. See
2709 zlib.h for more information on what these mean.
2711 png_set_compression_strategy(png_ptr,
2713 png_set_compression_window_bits(png_ptr,
2715 png_set_compression_method(png_ptr, method);
2716 png_set_compression_buffer_size(png_ptr, size);
2718 Controlling row filtering
2720 If you want to control whether libpng uses filtering or not, which
2721 filters are used, and how it goes about picking row filters, you
2722 can call one of these functions. The selection and configuration
2723 of row filters can have a significant impact on the size and
2724 encoding speed and a somewhat lesser impact on the decoding speed
2725 of an image. Filtering is enabled by default for RGB and grayscale
2726 images (with and without alpha), but not for paletted images nor
2727 for any images with bit depths less than 8 bits/pixel.
2729 The 'method' parameter sets the main filtering method, which is
2730 currently only '0' in the PNG 1.2 specification. The 'filters'
2731 parameter sets which filter(s), if any, should be used for each
2732 scanline. Possible values are PNG_ALL_FILTERS and PNG_NO_FILTERS
2733 to turn filtering on and off, respectively.
2735 Individual filter types are PNG_FILTER_NONE, PNG_FILTER_SUB,
2736 PNG_FILTER_UP, PNG_FILTER_AVG, PNG_FILTER_PAETH, which can be bitwise
2737 ORed together with '|' to specify one or more filters to use.
2738 These filters are described in more detail in the PNG specification.
2739 If you intend to change the filter type during the course of writing
2740 the image, you should start with flags set for all of the filters
2741 you intend to use so that libpng can initialize its internal
2742 structures appropriately for all of the filter types. (Note that this
2743 means the first row must always be adaptively filtered, because libpng
2744 currently does not allocate the filter buffers until png_write_row()
2745 is called for the first time.)
2747 filters = PNG_FILTER_NONE | PNG_FILTER_SUB
2748 PNG_FILTER_UP | PNG_FILTER_AVG |
2749 PNG_FILTER_PAETH | PNG_ALL_FILTERS;
2751 png_set_filter(png_ptr, PNG_FILTER_TYPE_BASE,
2753 The second parameter can also be
2754 PNG_INTRAPIXEL_DIFFERENCING if you are
2755 writing a PNG to be embedded in a MNG
2756 datastream. This parameter must be the
2757 same as the value of filter_method used
2760 It is also possible to influence how libpng chooses from among the
2761 available filters. This is done in one or both of two ways - by
2762 telling it how important it is to keep the same filter for successive
2763 rows, and by telling it the relative computational costs of the filters.
2765 double weights[3] = {1.5, 1.3, 1.1},
2766 costs[PNG_FILTER_VALUE_LAST] =
2767 {1.0, 1.3, 1.3, 1.5, 1.7};
2769 png_set_filter_heuristics(png_ptr,
2770 PNG_FILTER_HEURISTIC_WEIGHTED, 3,
2773 The weights are multiplying factors that indicate to libpng that the
2774 row filter should be the same for successive rows unless another row filter
2775 is that many times better than the previous filter. In the above example,
2776 if the previous 3 filters were SUB, SUB, NONE, the SUB filter could have a
2777 "sum of absolute differences" 1.5 x 1.3 times higher than other filters
2778 and still be chosen, while the NONE filter could have a sum 1.1 times
2779 higher than other filters and still be chosen. Unspecified weights are
2780 taken to be 1.0, and the specified weights should probably be declining
2781 like those above in order to emphasize recent filters over older filters.
2783 The filter costs specify for each filter type a relative decoding cost
2784 to be considered when selecting row filters. This means that filters
2785 with higher costs are less likely to be chosen over filters with lower
2786 costs, unless their "sum of absolute differences" is that much smaller.
2787 The costs do not necessarily reflect the exact computational speeds of
2788 the various filters, since this would unduly influence the final image
2791 Note that the numbers above were invented purely for this example and
2792 are given only to help explain the function usage. Little testing has
2793 been done to find optimum values for either the costs or the weights.
2795 Removing unwanted object code
2797 There are a bunch of #define's in pngconf.h that control what parts of
2798 libpng are compiled. All the defines end in _SUPPORTED. If you are
2799 never going to use a capability, you can change the #define to #undef
2800 before recompiling libpng and save yourself code and data space, or
2801 you can turn off individual capabilities with defines that begin with
2804 You can also turn all of the transforms and ancillary chunk capabilities
2805 off en masse with compiler directives that define
2806 PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_TRANSFORMS, or PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_ANCILLARY_CHUNKS,
2808 along with directives to turn on any of the capabilities that you do
2809 want. The PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_TRANSFORMS directives disable the extra
2810 transformations but still leave the library fully capable of reading
2811 and writing PNG files with all known public chunks. Use of the
2812 PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_ANCILLARY_CHUNKS directive produces a library
2813 that is incapable of reading or writing ancillary chunks. If you are
2814 not using the progressive reading capability, you can turn that off
2815 with PNG_NO_PROGRESSIVE_READ (don't confuse this with the INTERLACING
2816 capability, which you'll still have).
2818 All the reading and writing specific code are in separate files, so the
2819 linker should only grab the files it needs. However, if you want to
2820 make sure, or if you are building a stand alone library, all the
2821 reading files start with pngr and all the writing files start with
2822 pngw. The files that don't match either (like png.c, pngtrans.c, etc.)
2823 are used for both reading and writing, and always need to be included.
2824 The progressive reader is in pngpread.c
2826 If you are creating or distributing a dynamically linked library (a .so
2827 or DLL file), you should not remove or disable any parts of the library,
2828 as this will cause applications linked with different versions of the
2829 library to fail if they call functions not available in your library.
2830 The size of the library itself should not be an issue, because only
2831 those sections that are actually used will be loaded into memory.
2833 Requesting debug printout
2835 The macro definition PNG_DEBUG can be used to request debugging
2836 printout. Set it to an integer value in the range 0 to 3. Higher
2837 numbers result in increasing amounts of debugging information. The
2838 information is printed to the "stderr" file, unless another file
2839 name is specified in the PNG_DEBUG_FILE macro definition.
2841 When PNG_DEBUG > 0, the following functions (macros) become available:
2843 png_debug(level, message)
2844 png_debug1(level, message, p1)
2845 png_debug2(level, message, p1, p2)
2847 in which "level" is compared to PNG_DEBUG to decide whether to print
2848 the message, "message" is the formatted string to be printed,
2849 and p1 and p2 are parameters that are to be embedded in the string
2850 according to printf-style formatting directives. For example,
2852 png_debug1(2, "foo=%d", foo);
2857 fprintf(PNG_DEBUG_FILE, "foo=%d\n", foo);
2859 When PNG_DEBUG is defined but is zero, the macros aren't defined, but you
2860 can still use PNG_DEBUG to control your own debugging:
2866 When PNG_DEBUG = 1, the macros are defined, but only png_debug statements
2867 having level = 0 will be printed. There aren't any such statements in
2868 this version of libpng, but if you insert some they will be printed.
2872 The MNG specification (available at http://www.libpng.org/pub/mng) allows
2873 certain extensions to PNG for PNG images that are embedded in MNG datastreams.
2874 Libpng can support some of these extensions. To enable them, use the
2875 png_permit_mng_features() function:
2877 feature_set = png_permit_mng_features(png_ptr, mask)
2878 mask is a png_uint_32 containing the bitwise OR of the
2879 features you want to enable. These include
2880 PNG_FLAG_MNG_EMPTY_PLTE
2881 PNG_FLAG_MNG_FILTER_64
2882 PNG_ALL_MNG_FEATURES
2883 feature_set is a png_uint_32 that is the bitwise AND of
2884 your mask with the set of MNG features that is
2885 supported by the version of libpng that you are using.
2887 It is an error to use this function when reading or writing a standalone
2888 PNG file with the PNG 8-byte signature. The PNG datastream must be wrapped
2889 in a MNG datastream. As a minimum, it must have the MNG 8-byte signature
2890 and the MHDR and MEND chunks. Libpng does not provide support for these
2891 or any other MNG chunks; your application must provide its own support for
2892 them. You may wish to consider using libmng (available at
2893 http://www.libmng.com) instead.
2895 VII. Changes to Libpng from version 0.88
2897 It should be noted that versions of libpng later than 0.96 are not
2898 distributed by the original libpng author, Guy Schalnat, nor by
2899 Andreas Dilger, who had taken over from Guy during 1996 and 1997, and
2900 distributed versions 0.89 through 0.96, but rather by another member
2901 of the original PNG Group, Glenn Randers-Pehrson. Guy and Andreas are
2902 still alive and well, but they have moved on to other things.
2904 The old libpng functions png_read_init(), png_write_init(),
2905 png_info_init(), png_read_destroy(), and png_write_destroy() have been
2906 moved to PNG_INTERNAL in version 0.95 to discourage their use. These
2907 functions will be removed from libpng version 2.0.0.
2909 The preferred method of creating and initializing the libpng structures is
2910 via the png_create_read_struct(), png_create_write_struct(), and
2911 png_create_info_struct() because they isolate the size of the structures
2912 from the application, allow version error checking, and also allow the
2913 use of custom error handling routines during the initialization, which
2914 the old functions do not. The functions png_read_destroy() and
2915 png_write_destroy() do not actually free the memory that libpng
2916 allocated for these structs, but just reset the data structures, so they
2917 can be used instead of png_destroy_read_struct() and
2918 png_destroy_write_struct() if you feel there is too much system overhead
2919 allocating and freeing the png_struct for each image read.
2921 Setting the error callbacks via png_set_message_fn() before
2922 png_read_init() as was suggested in libpng-0.88 is no longer supported
2923 because this caused applications that do not use custom error functions
2924 to fail if the png_ptr was not initialized to zero. It is still possible
2925 to set the error callbacks AFTER png_read_init(), or to change them with
2926 png_set_error_fn(), which is essentially the same function, but with a new
2927 name to force compilation errors with applications that try to use the old
2930 Support for the sCAL, iCCP, iTXt, and sPLT chunks was added at libpng-1.0.6;
2931 however, iTXt support was not enabled by default.
2933 Starting with version 1.0.7, you can find out which version of the library
2934 you are using at run-time:
2936 png_uint_32 libpng_vn = png_access_version_number();
2938 The number libpng_vn is constructed from the major version, minor
2939 version with leading zero, and release number with leading zero,
2940 (e.g., libpng_vn for version 1.0.7 is 10007).
2942 You can also check which version of png.h you used when compiling your
2945 png_uint_32 application_vn = PNG_LIBPNG_VER;
2947 VIII. Changes to Libpng from version 1.0.x to 1.2.x
2949 Support for user memory management was enabled by default. To
2950 accomplish this, the functions png_create_read_struct_2(),
2951 png_create_write_struct_2(), png_set_mem_fn(), png_get_mem_ptr(),
2952 png_malloc_default(), and png_free_default() were added.
2954 Support for the iTXt chunk has been enabled by default as of
2957 Support for certain MNG features was enabled.
2959 Support for numbered error messages was added. However, we never got
2960 around to actually numbering the error messages. The function
2961 png_set_strip_error_numbers() was added (Note: the prototype for this
2962 function was inadvertently removed from png.h in PNG_NO_ASSEMBLER_CODE
2963 builds of libpng-1.2.15. It was restored in libpng-1.2.36).
2965 The png_malloc_warn() function was added at libpng-1.2.3. This issues
2966 a png_warning and returns NULL instead of aborting when it fails to
2967 acquire the requested memory allocation.
2969 Support for setting user limits on image width and height was enabled
2970 by default. The functions png_set_user_limits(), png_get_user_width_max(),
2971 and png_get_user_height_max() were added at libpng-1.2.6.
2973 The png_set_add_alpha() function was added at libpng-1.2.7.
2975 The function png_set_expand_gray_1_2_4_to_8() was added at libpng-1.2.9.
2976 Unlike png_set_gray_1_2_4_to_8(), the new function does not expand the
2977 tRNS chunk to alpha. The png_set_gray_1_2_4_to_8() function is
2980 A number of macro definitions in support of runtime selection of
2981 assembler code features (especially Intel MMX code support) were
2982 added at libpng-1.2.0:
2984 PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_SUPPORT_COMPILED
2985 PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_SUPPORT_IN_CPU
2986 PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_COMBINE_ROW
2987 PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_INTERLACE
2988 PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_SUB
2989 PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_UP
2990 PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_AVG
2991 PNG_ASM_FLAG_MMX_READ_FILTER_PAETH
2992 PNG_ASM_FLAGS_INITIALIZED
2998 We added the following functions in support of runtime
2999 selection of assembler code features:
3001 png_get_mmx_flagmask()
3002 png_set_mmx_thresholds()
3004 png_get_mmx_bitdepth_threshold()
3005 png_get_mmx_rowbytes_threshold()
3008 We replaced all of these functions with simple stubs in libpng-1.2.20,
3009 when the Intel assembler code was removed due to a licensing issue.
3011 These macros are deprecated:
3013 PNG_READ_TRANSFORMS_NOT_SUPPORTED
3014 PNG_PROGRESSIVE_READ_NOT_SUPPORTED
3015 PNG_NO_SEQUENTIAL_READ_SUPPORTED
3016 PNG_WRITE_TRANSFORMS_NOT_SUPPORTED
3017 PNG_READ_ANCILLARY_CHUNKS_NOT_SUPPORTED
3018 PNG_WRITE_ANCILLARY_CHUNKS_NOT_SUPPORTED
3020 They have been replaced, respectively, by:
3022 PNG_NO_READ_TRANSFORMS
3023 PNG_NO_PROGRESSIVE_READ
3024 PNG_NO_SEQUENTIAL_READ
3025 PNG_NO_WRITE_TRANSFORMS
3026 PNG_NO_READ_ANCILLARY_CHUNKS
3027 PNG_NO_WRITE_ANCILLARY_CHUNKS
3029 PNG_MAX_UINT was replaced with PNG_UINT_31_MAX. It has been
3030 deprecated since libpng-1.0.16 and libpng-1.2.6.
3033 png_check_sig(sig, num)
3035 !png_sig_cmp(sig, 0, num)
3036 It has been deprecated since libpng-0.90.
3039 png_set_gray_1_2_4_to_8()
3040 which also expands tRNS to alpha was replaced with
3041 png_set_expand_gray_1_2_4_to_8()
3042 which does not. It has been deprecated since libpng-1.0.18 and 1.2.9.
3049 The png_get_io_ptr() function has been present since libpng-0.88, has never
3050 changed, and is unaffected by conditional compilation macros. It is the
3051 best choice for use in configure scripts for detecting the presence of any
3052 libpng version since 0.88. In an autoconf "configure.in" you could use
3054 AC_CHECK_LIB(png, png_get_io_ptr, ...
3056 XI. Source code repository
3058 Since about February 2009, version 1.2.34, libpng has been under "git" source
3059 control. The git repository was built from old libpng-x.y.z.tar.gz files
3060 going back to version 0.70. You can access the git repository (read only)
3063 git://git.code.sf.net/p/libpng/code
3065 or you can browse it with a web browser by selecting the "code" button at
3067 https://sourceforge.net/projects/libpng/
3069 Patches can be sent to glennrp at users.sourceforge.net or to
3070 png-mng-implement at lists.sourceforge.net or you can upload them to
3071 the libpng bug tracker at
3073 http://libpng.sourceforge.net
3077 Our coding style is similar to the "Allman" style, with curly
3078 braces on separate lines:
3085 else if (another condition)
3090 The braces can be omitted from simple one-line actions:
3095 We use 3-space indentation, except for continued statements which
3096 are usually indented the same as the first line of the statement
3097 plus four more spaces.
3099 For macro definitions we use 2-space indentation, always leaving the "#"
3100 in the first column.
3102 #ifndef PNG_NO_FEATURE
3103 # ifndef PNG_FEATURE_SUPPORTED
3104 # define PNG_FEATURE_SUPPORTED
3108 Comments appear with the leading "/*" at the same indentation as
3109 the statement that follows the comment:
3111 /* Single-line comment */
3119 Very short comments can be placed at the end of the statement
3120 to which they pertain:
3122 statement; /* comment */
3124 We don't use C++ style ("//") comments. We have, however,
3125 used them in the past in some now-abandoned MMX assembler
3128 Functions and their curly braces are not indented, and
3129 exported functions are marked with PNGAPI:
3131 /* This is a public function that is visible to
3132 * application programers. It does thus-and-so.
3135 png_exported_function(png_ptr, png_info, foo)
3140 The prototypes for all exported functions appear in png.h,
3141 above the comment that says
3143 /* Maintainer: Put new public prototypes here ... */
3145 We mark all non-exported functions with "/* PRIVATE */"":
3148 png_non_exported_function(png_ptr, png_info, foo)
3153 The prototypes for non-exported functions (except for those in
3155 the PNG_INTERNAL section of png.h
3156 above the comment that says
3158 /* Maintainer: Put new private prototypes here ^ and in libpngpf.3 */
3160 The names of all exported functions and variables begin
3161 with "png_", and all publicly visible C preprocessor
3162 macros begin with "PNG".
3164 We put a space after each comma and after each semicolon
3165 in "for" statments, and we put spaces before and after each
3166 C binary operator and after "for" or "while". We don't
3167 put a space between a typecast and the expression being
3168 cast, nor do we put one between a function name and the
3169 left parenthesis that follows it:
3171 for (i = 2; i > 0; --i)
3172 y[i] = a(x) + (int)b;
3174 We prefer #ifdef and #ifndef to #if defined() and if !defined()
3175 when there is only one macro being tested.
3177 We do not use the TAB character for indentation in the C sources.
3179 Lines do not exceed 80 characters.
3181 Other rules can be inferred by inspecting the libpng source.
3183 XIII. Y2K Compliance in libpng
3187 Since the PNG Development group is an ad-hoc body, we can't make
3188 an official declaration.
3190 This is your unofficial assurance that libpng from version 0.71 and
3191 upward through 1.2.51 are Y2K compliant. It is my belief that earlier
3192 versions were also Y2K compliant.
3194 Libpng only has three year fields. One is a 2-byte unsigned integer that
3195 will hold years up to 65535. The other two hold the date in text
3196 format, and will hold years up to 9999.
3199 "png_uint_16 year" in png_time_struct.
3202 "png_charp time_buffer" in png_struct and
3203 "near_time_buffer", which is a local character string in png.c.
3205 There are seven time-related functions:
3207 png_convert_to_rfc_1123() in png.c
3208 (formerly png_convert_to_rfc_1152() in error)
3209 png_convert_from_struct_tm() in pngwrite.c, called
3211 png_convert_from_time_t() in pngwrite.c
3212 png_get_tIME() in pngget.c
3213 png_handle_tIME() in pngrutil.c, called in pngread.c
3214 png_set_tIME() in pngset.c
3215 png_write_tIME() in pngwutil.c, called in pngwrite.c
3217 All appear to handle dates properly in a Y2K environment. The
3218 png_convert_from_time_t() function calls gmtime() to convert from system
3219 clock time, which returns (year - 1900), which we properly convert to
3220 the full 4-digit year. There is a possibility that applications using
3221 libpng are not passing 4-digit years into the png_convert_to_rfc_1123()
3222 function, or that they are incorrectly passing only a 2-digit year
3223 instead of "year - 1900" into the png_convert_from_struct_tm() function,
3224 but this is not under our control. The libpng documentation has always
3225 stated that it works with 4-digit years, and the APIs have been
3228 The tIME chunk itself is also Y2K compliant. It uses a 2-byte unsigned
3229 integer to hold the year, and can hold years as large as 65535.
3231 zlib, upon which libpng depends, is also Y2K compliant. It contains
3232 no date-related code.
3235 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
3237 PNG Development Group