Animated PNGs

As you're probably aware, the GIF image format is quite "old" - however, it's still widely used throughout the Internet because a very simple, yet valuable, feature: animated GIFs.

These animated GIFs are part of Internet's History (for both Good and Bad) and are used in millions of web pages. Just check any forum, and you'll find GIF avatars with feature-length duration weighing several megabytes.... but we'll leave that for another day.

Well, it time to move ahead. The PNG (Portable Network Graphics) was created to overcome GIFs shortcomings, offering better compression rates, higher color depth, and now... animation as well. Soon, APNG (Animated PNGs) will replace current animated GIFs.

For now, just a couple of browsers support APNGs, namely FireFox 3 and Gran Paradiso Alpha 7, but other should soon follow.

Check more info and examples at AnimatedPNG.