PNG compression

[Fusion]

Is there any software out, that supports 24bit Alpha, and compresses better than Photoshop 7?

[Fusion]

Another thing. How accurate is the download thingy in PS?

Example I have a 50Kb file, PS says it takes 10 secs to dl. I make it 7 though. 50,000bits *8= 400,000bytes, then 400,000/56,000=7 secs.

Opinions?

[greg]

the dl thing is accurate. if you notice it says like 10 seconds @ 28k

this is either based on exactly 28k or the average internet speed of a 28k modem. You can not just be inacurate as far as the raw numbers go. it could simply be that your connection is slighty faster or a variety of other things different about your computer. it is usually right on with me

[Fusion]

What about png compression? Any other software compress the bits better? The dl speed I was talking about is for a 56k modem.

[Distorted]

I believe that Macromedia Fireworks does a better job of compressing png's than Photoshop does.

[Fusion]

hey what about saving in photoshop then in Fireworks then?

[Distorted]

You could flatten your image and import it straight into Fireworks.

If you just import the image without flattening it first, there will most likely be some conversion problems.

[JuggoPop]

maybe it's just me, but I don't see how compressing it over and over is going to make enough difference to deal with it... if it could be compressed more to start with, do you really thinnk they would not do it?...

I mean, so a programmer at adobe or macromedia decides to only compress the files during output to 50% of what they could really compress them down to? What would be the point...

It just reminds me of people zipping zip files, thinking that they are going to cut the size down even more...

[Fusion]

Its a bit different, it depends on the algorithm. Maybe like Distorted said, Fireworks compresses the file better than PS, because the algorithm is better.

[Distorted]

Well, he was asking about compressing png's. Photoshop seems to do a wonderful job of compressing anything but png's.

Png is Fireworks native format, so it does a lovely job. I've tried comparing png's compressed in PS and Fireworks, and I believe that the images compressed with Fireworks looked better, and had smaller file sizes. By "looked better", I mean that the dithering looked better, and the colors seemed to be more clear.

[Fusion]

Well a question; is it time to switch to PNG 24? With the impending copyright issues regarding JPEG and GIF, should we be looking to switch now? I presume all browsers support the full transparency levels of PNG 24?

[Distorted]

IE does a really bad job of supporting PNG transparency. If you just use pngs as a replacement for gifs, then you'll be ok, but don't try any uber cool effects unless you're target audience Will be using a browser that can render it correctly.

Hope this helps.