LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)NAMElibpng - Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Reference Library
1.0.6
SYNOPSIS
#include <png.h>
int png_check_sig (png_bytep sig, int num);
void png_chunk_error (png_structp png_ptr, png_const_charp
error);
void png_chunk_warning (png_structp png_ptr,
png_const_charp message);
void png_convert_from_struct_tm (png_timep ptime, struct
tm FAR * ttime);
void png_convert_from_time_t (png_timep ptime, time_t
ttime);
png_charp png_convert_to_rfc1123 (png_structp png_ptr,
png_timep ptime);
png_infop png_create_info_struct (png_structp png_ptr);
png_structp png_create_read_struct (png_const_charp
user_png_ver, voidp error_ptr, png_error_ptr error_fn,
png_error_ptr warn_fn);
png_structp png_create_read_struct_2(png_const_charp
user_png_ver, png_voidp error_ptr, png_error_ptr error_fn,
png_error_ptr warn_fn, png_voidp mem_ptr, png_malloc_ptr
malloc_fn, png_free_ptr free_fn);
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png_structp png_create_write_struct (png_const_charp
user_png_ver, voidp error_ptr, png_error_ptr error_fn,
png_error_ptr warn_fn);
png_structp png_create_write_struct_2(png_const_charp
user_png_ver, png_voidp error_ptr, png_error_ptr error_fn,
png_error_ptr warn_fn, png_voidp mem_ptr, png_malloc_ptr
malloc_fn, png_free_ptr free_fn);
int png_debug(int level, png_const_charp message);
int png_debug1(int level, png_const_charp message, p1);
int png_debug2(int level, png_const_charp message, p1,
p2);
void png_destroy_info_struct (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infopp info_ptr_ptr);
void png_destroy_read_struct (png_structpp png_ptr_ptr,
png_infopp info_ptr_ptr, png_infopp end_info_ptr_ptr);
void png_destroy_write_struct (png_structpp png_ptr_ptr,
png_infopp info_ptr_ptr);
void png_error (png_structp png_ptr, png_const_charp
error);
void png_free (png_structp png_ptr, png_voidp ptr);
void png_free_chunk_list (png_structp png_ptr);
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void png_free_default(png_structp png_ptr, png_voidp ptr);
void png_free_data (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, int num);
png_byte png_get_bit_depth (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_bKGD (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_color_16p *background);
png_byte png_get_channels (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_cHRM (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, double *white_x, double *white_y, double *red_x,
double *red_y, double *green_x, double *green_y, double
*blue_x, double *blue_y);
png_uint_32 png_get_cHRM_fixed (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr, png_uint_32 *white_x, png_uint_32
*white_y, png_uint_32 *red_x, png_uint_32 *red_y,
png_uint_32 *green_x, png_uint_32 *green_y, png_uint_32
*blue_x, png_uint_32 *blue_y);
png_byte png_get_color_type (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_byte png_get_compression_type (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_byte png_get_copyright (png_structp png_ptr);
png_voidp png_get_error_ptr (png_structp png_ptr);
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png_byte png_get_filter_type (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_gAMA (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, double *file_gamma);
png_uint_32 png_get_gAMA_fixed (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr, png_uint_32 *int_file_gamma);
png_byte png_get_header_ver (png_structp png_ptr);
png_byte png_get_header_version (png_structp png_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_hIST (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_16p *hist);
png_uint_32 png_get_iCCP (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_charpp name, int *compression_type,
png_charpp profile, png_uint_32 *proflen);
png_uint_32 png_get_IHDR (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_32 *width, png_uint_32 *height, int
*bit_depth, int *color_type, int *interlace_type, int
*compression_type, int *filter_type);
png_uint_32 png_get_image_height (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_image_width (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_byte png_get_interlace_type (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
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png_voidp png_get_io_ptr (png_structp png_ptr);
png_byte png_get_libpng_ver (png_structp png_ptr);
png_voidp png_get_mem_ptr(png_structp png_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_oFFs (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_32 *offset_x, png_uint_32 *offset_y,
int *unit_type);
png_uint_32 png_get_pCAL (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_charp *purpose, png_int_32 *X0, png_int_32
*X1, int *type, int *nparams, png_charp *units, png_charpp
*params);
png_uint_32 png_get_pHYs (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_32 *res_x, png_uint_32 *res_y, int
*unit_type);
float png_get_pixel_aspect_ratio (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_pixels_per_meter (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_voidp png_get_progressive_ptr (png_structp png_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_PLTE (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_colorp *palette, int *num_palette);
png_byte png_get_rgb_to_gray_status (png_structp png_ptr)
png_uint_32 png_get_rowbytes (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
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png_bytepp png_get_rows (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_sBIT (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_color_8p *sig_bit);
png_bytep png_get_signature (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_sPLT (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_spalette_p *splt_ptr, int num);
png_uint_32 png_get_sRGB (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, int *intent);
png_uint_32 png_get_text (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_textp *text_ptr, int *num_text);
png_uint_32 png_get_tIME (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_timep *mod_time);
png_uint_32 png_get_tRNS (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_bytep *trans, int *num_trans, png_color_16p
*trans_values);
png_uint_32 png_get_unknown_chunks (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr, png_unknown_chunkpp unknowns);
png_voidp png_get_user_chunk_ptr (png_structp png_ptr);
png_voidp png_get_user_transform_ptr (png_structp
png_ptr);
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png_uint_32 png_get_valid (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_32 flag);
png_uint_32 png_get_x_offset_microns (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_x_offset_pixels (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_x_pixels_per_meter (png_structp
png_ptr, png_infop info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_y_offset_microns (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_y_offset_pixels (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_get_y_pixels_per_meter (png_structp
png_ptr, png_infop info_ptr);
void png_info_init (png_infop info_ptr);
void png_init_io (png_structp png_ptr, FILE *fp);
png_voidp png_malloc (png_structp png_ptr, png_uint_32
size);
png_voidp png_malloc_default(png_structp png_ptr,
png_uint_32 size);
voidp png_memcpy (png_voidp s1, png_voidp s2, png_size_t
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size);
png_voidp png_memcpy_check (png_structp png_ptr, png_voidp
s1, png_voidp s2, png_uint_32 size);
voidp png_memset (png_voidp s1, int value, png_size_t
size);
png_voidp png_memset_check (png_structp png_ptr, png_voidp
s1, int value, png_uint_32 size);
void png_permit_empty_plte (png_structp png_ptr, int
empty_plte_permitted);
void png_process_data (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_bytep buffer, png_size_t buffer_size);
void png_progressive_combine_row (png_structp png_ptr,
png_bytep old_row, png_bytep new_row);
void png_read_destroy (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_infop end_info_ptr);
void png_read_end (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr);
void png_read_image (png_structp png_ptr, png_bytepp
image);
void png_read_info (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr);
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void png_read_png (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, int transforms, voidp params);
void png_read_row (png_structp png_ptr, png_bytep row,
png_bytep display_row);
void png_read_rows (png_structp png_ptr, png_bytepp row,
png_bytepp display_row, png_uint_32 num_rows);
void png_read_update_info (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr);
void png_set_background (png_structp png_ptr,
png_color_16p background_color, int background_gamma_code,
int need_expand, double background_gamma);
void png_set_bgr (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_bKGD (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_color_16p background);
void png_set_cHRM (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, double white_x, double white_y, double red_x,
double red_y, double green_x, double green_y, double
blue_x, double blue_y);
void png_set_cHRM_fixed (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_32 white_x, png_uint_32 white_y,
png_uint_32 red_x, png_uint_32 red_y, png_uint_32 green_x,
png_uint_32 green_y, png_uint_32 blue_x, png_uint_32
blue_y);
void png_set_compression_level (png_structp png_ptr, int
level);
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void png_set_compression_mem_level (png_structp png_ptr,
int mem_level);
void png_set_compression_method (png_structp png_ptr, int
method);
void png_set_compression_strategy (png_structp png_ptr,
int strategy);
void png_set_compression_window_bits (png_structp png_ptr,
int window_bits);
void png_set_crc_action (png_structp png_ptr, int
crit_action, int ancil_action);
void png_set_dither (png_structp png_ptr, png_colorp
palette, int num_palette, int maximum_colors, png_uint_16p
histogram, int full_dither);
void png_set_error_fn (png_structp png_ptr, png_voidp
error_ptr, png_error_ptr error_fn, png_error_ptr warn-
ing_fn);
void png_set_expand (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_filler (png_structp png_ptr, png_uint_32
filler, int flags);
void png_set_filter (png_structp png_ptr, int method, int
filters);
void png_set_filter_heuristics (png_structp png_ptr, int
heuristic_method, int num_weights, png_doublep fil-
ter_weights, png_doublep filter_costs);
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void png_set_flush (png_structp png_ptr, int nrows);
void png_set_gamma (png_structp png_ptr, double
screen_gamma, double default_file_gamma);
void png_set_gAMA (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, double file_gamma);
void png_set_gAMA_fixed (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_32 file_gamma);
void png_set_gray_1_2_4_to_8(png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_gray_to_rgb (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_hIST (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_16p hist);
void png_set_iCCP (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_charp name, int compression_type, png_charp
profile, png_uint_32 proflen);
int png_set_interlace_handling (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_invert_alpha (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_invert_mono (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_IHDR (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_32 width, png_uint_32 height, int
bit_depth, int color_type, int interlace_type, int com-
pression_type, int filter_type);
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void png_set_keep_unknown_chunks (png_structp png_ptr, int
keep, png_bytep chunk_list, int num_chunks);
void png_set_mem_fn(png_structp png_ptr, png_voidp
mem_ptr, png_malloc_ptr malloc_fn, png_free_ptr free_fn);
void png_set_oFFs (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_32 offset_x, png_uint_32 offset_y, int
unit_type);
void png_set_packing (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_packswap (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_palette_to_rgb(png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_pCAL (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_charp purpose, png_int_32 X0, png_int_32 X1,
int type, int nparams, png_charp units, png_charpp
params);
void png_set_pHYs (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_uint_32 res_x, png_uint_32 res_y, int
unit_type);
void png_set_progressive_read_fn (png_structp png_ptr,
png_voidp progressive_ptr, png_progressive_info_ptr
info_fn, png_progressive_row_ptr row_fn, png_progres-
sive_end_ptr end_fn);
void png_set_PLTE (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_colorp palette, int num_palette);
void png_set_read_fn (png_structp png_ptr, png_voidp
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io_ptr, png_rw_ptr read_data_fn);
void png_set_read_status_fn (png_structp png_ptr,
png_read_status_ptr read_row_fn);
void png_set_read_user_transform_fn (png_structp png_ptr,
png_user_transform_ptr read_user_transform_fn);
void png_set_rgb_to_gray (png_structp png_ptr, int
error_action, double red, double green);
void png_set_rgb_to_gray_fixed (png_structp png_ptr, int
error_action png_fixed_point red, png_fixed_point green);
void png_set_rows (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_bytepp row_pointers);
void png_set_sBIT (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_color_8p sig_bit);
void png_set_sCAL (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_charp unit, double width, double height);
void png_set_shift (png_structp png_ptr, png_color_8p
true_bits);
void png_set_sig_bytes (png_structp png_ptr, int
num_bytes);
void png_set_sPLT (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_spalette_p splt_ptr, int num_spalettes);
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void png_set_sRGB (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, int intent);
void png_set_sRGB_gAMA_and_cHRM (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr, int intent);
void png_set_strip_16 (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_strip_alpha (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_swap (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_swap_alpha (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_set_text (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_textp text_ptr, int num_text);
void png_set_tIME (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_timep mod_time);
void png_set_tRNS (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, png_bytep trans, int num_trans, png_color_16p
trans_values);
void png_set_tRNS_to_alpha(png_structp png_ptr);
png_uint_32 png_set_unknown_chunks (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr, png_unknown_chunkp unknowns, int num,
int location);
void png_set_read_user_chunk_fn (png_structp png_ptr,
png_voidp user_chunk_ptr, png_user_chunk_ptr
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read_user_chunk_fn);
void png_set_user_transform_info (png_structp png_ptr,
png_voidp user_transform_ptr, int user_transform_depth,
int user_transform_channels);
void png_set_write_fn (png_structp png_ptr, png_voidp
io_ptr, png_rw_ptr write_data_fn, png_flush_ptr out-
put_flush_fn);
void png_set_write_status_fn (png_structp png_ptr,
png_write_status_ptr write_row_fn);
void png_set_write_user_transform_fn (png_structp png_ptr,
png_user_transform_ptr write_user_transform_fn);
int png_sig_cmp (png_bytep sig, png_size_t start,
png_size_t num_to_check);
void png_start_read_image (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_warning (png_structp png_ptr, png_const_charp
message);
void png_write_chunk (png_structp png_ptr, png_bytep
chunk_name, png_bytep data, png_size_t length);
void png_write_chunk_data (png_structp png_ptr, png_bytep
data, png_size_t length);
void png_write_chunk_end (png_structp png_ptr);
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void png_write_chunk_start (png_structp png_ptr, png_bytep
chunk_name, png_uint_32 length);
void png_write_destroy (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_write_destroy_info (png_infop info_ptr);
void png_write_end (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr);
void png_write_flush (png_structp png_ptr);
void png_write_image (png_structp png_ptr, png_bytepp
image);
void png_write_info (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr);
void png_write_info_before_PLTE (png_structp png_ptr,
png_infop info_ptr);
void png_write_png (png_structp png_ptr, png_infop
info_ptr, int transforms, voidp params);
void png_write_row (png_structp png_ptr, png_bytep row);
void png_write_rows (png_structp png_ptr, png_bytepp row,
png_uint_32 num_rows);
DESCRIPTION
The libpng library supports encoding, decoding, and
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various manipulations of the Portable Network Graphics
(PNG) format image files. It uses the zlib(3) compression
library. Following is a copy of the libpng.txt file that
accompanies libpng.
LIBPNG.TXT
libpng.txt - A description on how to use and modify libpng
libpng version 1.0.6 - March 21, 2000
Updated and distributed by Glenn Randers-Pehrson
<randeg@alum.rpi.edu>
Copyright (c) 1998, 1999, 2000 Glenn Randers-Pehrson
For conditions of distribution and use, see copyright
notice in png.h.
based on:
libpng 1.0 beta 6 version 0.96 May 28, 1997
Updated and distributed by Andreas Dilger
Copyright (c) 1996, 1997 Andreas Dilger
libpng 1.0 beta 2 - version 0.88 January 26, 1996
For conditions of distribution and use, see copyright
notice in png.h. Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Guy Eric
Schalnat, Group 42, Inc.
Updated/rewritten per request in the libpng FAQ
Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Frank J. T. Wojcik
December 18, 1995 & January 20, 1996
I. Introduction
This file describes how to use and modify the PNG refer-
ence library (known as libpng) for your own use. There
are five sections to this file: introduction, structures,
reading, writing, and modification and configuration notes
for various special platforms. In addition to this file,
example.c is a good starting point for using the library,
as it is heavily commented and should include everything
most people will need. We assume that libpng is already
installed; see the INSTALL file for instructions on how to
install libpng.
Libpng was written as a companion to the PNG specifica-
tion, as a way of reducing the amount of time and effort
it takes to support the PNG file format in application
programs.
The PNG-1.2 specification is available at
<http://www.cdrom.com/pub/png> (will be moving to
<http://www.libpng.org>) and at <ftp://ftp.uu.net/graph-
ics/png/documents/>.
The PNG-1.0 specification is available as RFC 2083
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<ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/documents/> and as a W3C
Recommendation <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC.png.html>. Some
additional chunks are described in the special-purpose
public chunks documents at <ftp://ftp.uu.net/graph-
ics/png/documents/>.
Other information about PNG, and the latest version of
libpng, can be found at the PNG home page,
<http://www.cdrom.com/pub/png/> (will be moving to
<http://www.libpng.org>) and at <ftp://ftp.uu.net/graph-
ics/png/>.
Most users will not have to modify the library signifi-
cantly; advanced users may want to modify it more. All
attempts were made to make it as complete as possible,
while keeping the code easy to understand. Currently,
this library only supports C. Support for other languages
is being considered.
Libpng has been designed to handle multiple sessions at
one time, to be easily modifiable, to be portable to the
vast majority of machines (ANSI, K&R, 16-, 32-, and
64-bit) available, and to be easy to use. The ultimate
goal of libpng is to promote the acceptance of the PNG
file format in whatever way possible. While there is
still work to be done (see the TODO file), libpng should
cover the majority of the needs of its users.
Libpng uses zlib for its compression and decompression of
PNG files. Further information about zlib, and the latest
version of zlib, can be found at the zlib home page,
<ftp://ftp.freesoftware.com/pub/infozip/zlib/>. The zlib
compression utility is a general purpose utility that is
useful for more than PNG files, and can be used without
libpng. See the documentation delivered with zlib for
more details. You can usually find the source files for
the zlib utility wherever you find the libpng source
files.
Libpng is thread safe, provided the threads are using dif-
ferent instances of the structures. Each thread should
have its own png_struct and png_info instances, and thus
its own image. Libpng does not protect itself against two
threads using the same instance of a structure.
II. Structures
There are two main structures that are important to
libpng, png_struct and png_info. The first, png_struct,
is an internal structure that will not, for the most part,
be used by a user except as the first variable passed to
every libpng function call.
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The png_info structure is designed to provide information
about the PNG file. At one time, the fields of png_info
were intended to be directly accessible to the user. How-
ever, this tended to cause problems with applications
using dynamically loaded libraries, and as a result a set
of interface functions for png_info was developed. The
fields of png_info are still available for older applica-
tions, but it is suggested that applications use the new
interfaces if at all possible.
The png.h header file is an invaluable reference for pro-
gramming with libpng. And while I'm on the topic, make
sure you include the libpng header file:
#include <png.h>
III. Reading
We'll now walk you through the possible functions to call
when reading in a PNG file sequentially, briefly explain-
ing the syntax and purpose of each one. See example.c and
png.h for more detail. While progressive reading is cov-
ered in the next section, you will still need some of the
functions discussed in this section to read a PNG file.
Setup
You will want to do the I/O initialization(*) before you
get into libpng, so if it doesn't work, you don't have
much to undo. Of course, you will also want to insure
that you are, in fact, dealing with a PNG file. Libpng
provides a simple check to see if a file is a PNG file.
To use it, pass in the first 1 to 8 bytes of the file, and
it will return true or false (1 or 0) depending on whether
the bytes could be part of a PNG file. Of course, the
more bytes you pass in, the greater the accuracy of the
prediction.
If you are intending to keep the file pointer open for use
in libpng, you must ensure you don't read more than 8
bytes from the beginning of the file, and you also have to
make a call to png_set_sig_bytes_read() with the number of
bytes you read from the beginning. Libpng will then only
check the bytes (if any) that your program didn't read.
(*): If you are not using the standard I/O functions, you
will need to replace them with custom functions. See the
discussion under Customizing libpng.
FILE *fp = fopen(file_name, "rb");
if (!fp)
{
return;
March 21, 2000 19
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
}
fread(header, 1, number, fp);
is_png = !png_sig_cmp(header, 0, number);
if (!is_png)
{
return;
}
Next, png_struct and png_info need to be allocated and
initialized. In order to ensure that the size of these
structures is correct even with a dynamically linked
libpng, there are functions to initialize and allocate the
structures. We also pass the library version, optional
pointers to error handling functions, and a pointer to a
data struct for use by the error functions, if necessary
(the pointer and functions can be NULL if the default
error handlers are to be used). See the section on
Changes to Libpng below regarding the old initialization
functions.
png_structp png_ptr = png_create_read_struct
(PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
if (!png_ptr)
return;
png_infop info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
if (!info_ptr)
{
png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr,
(png_infopp)NULL, (png_infopp)NULL);
return;
}
png_infop end_info = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
if (!end_info)
{
png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
(png_infopp)NULL);
return;
}
If you want to use your own memory allocation routines,
define PNG_USER_MEM_SUPPORTED and use png_cre-
ate_read_struct_2() instead of png_create_read_struct():
png_structp png_ptr = png_create_read_struct_2
(PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
user_error_fn, user_warning_fn, (png_voidp)
user_mem_ptr, user_malloc_fn, user_free_fn);
The error handling routines passed to png_cre-
ate_read_struct() and the memory alloc/free routines
March 21, 2000 20
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
passed to png_create_struct_2() are only necessary if you
are not using the libpng supplied error handling and mem-
ory alloc/free functions.
When libpng encounters an error, it expects to longjmp
back to your routine. Therefore, you will need to call
setjmp and pass your png_jmpbuf(png_ptr). If you read the
file from different routines, you will need to update the
jmpbuf field every time you enter a new routine that will
call a png_*() function.
See your documentation of setjmp/longjmp for your compiler
for more information on setjmp/longjmp. See the discus-
sion on libpng error handling in the Customizing Libpng
section below for more information on the libpng error
handling. If an error occurs, and libpng longjmp's back
to your setjmp, you will want to call
png_destroy_read_struct() to free any memory.
if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
{
png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
&end_info);
fclose(fp);
return;
}
If you would rather avoid the complexity of setjmp/longjmp
issues, you can compile libpng with PNG_SETJMP_NOT_SUP-
PORTED, in which case errors will result in a call to
PNG_ABORT() which defaults to abort().
Now you need to set up the input code. The default for
libpng is to use the C function fread(). If you use this,
you will need to pass a valid FILE * in the function
png_init_io(). Be sure that the file is opened in binary
mode. If you wish to handle reading data in another way,
you need not call the png_init_io() function, but you must
then implement the libpng I/O methods discussed in the
Customizing Libpng section below.
png_init_io(png_ptr, fp);
If you had previously opened the file and read any of the
signature from the beginning in order to see if this was a
PNG file, you need to let libpng know that there are some
bytes missing from the start of the file.
png_set_sig_bytes(png_ptr, number);
Setting up callback code
You can set up a callback function to handle any unknown
chunks in the input stream. You must supply the function
March 21, 2000 21
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
read_chunk_callback(png_ptr ptr,
png_unknown_chunkp chunk);
{
/* The unknown chunk structure contains your
chunk data: */
png_byte name[5];
png_byte *data;
png_size_t size;
/* Note that libpng has already taken care of the
CRC handling */
/* put your code here. Return one of the follow-
ing: */
return (-n); /* chunk had an error */
return (0); /* did not recognize */
return (n); /* success */
}
(You can give your function another name that you like
instead of "read_chunk_callback")
To inform libpng about your function, use
png_set_read_user_chunk_fn(png_ptr, user_chunk_ptr,
read_chunk_callback);
This names not only the callback function, but also a user
pointer that you can retrieve with
png_get_user_chunk_ptr(png_ptr);
At this point, you can set up a callback function that
will be called after each row has been read, which you can
use to control a progress meter or the like. It's demon-
strated in pngtest.c. You must supply a function
void read_row_callback(png_ptr ptr, png_uint_32 row,
int pass);
{
/* put your code here */
}
(You can give it another name that you like instead of
"read_row_callback")
To inform libpng about your function, use
png_set_read_status_fn(png_ptr, read_row_callback);
Unknown-chunk handling
Now you get to set the way the library processes unknown
chunks in the input PNG stream. Both known and unknown
March 21, 2000 22
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
chunks will be read. Normal behavior is that known chunks
will be parsed into information in various info_ptr mem-
bers; unknown chunks will be discarded. To change this,
you can call:
png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, info_ptr, keep,
chunk_list, num_chunks);
keep - 0: do not keep
1: keep only if safe-to-copy
2: keep even if unsafe-to-copy
chunk_list - list of chunks affected (a byte string,
five bytes per chunk, NULL or ' ' if
num_chunks is 0)
num_chunks - number of chunks affected; if 0, all
unknown chunks are affected
Unknown chunks declared in this way will be saved as raw
data onto a list of png_unknown_chunk structures. If a
chunk that is normally known to libpng is named in the
list, it will be handled as unknown, according to the
"keep" directive. If a chunk is named in successive
instances of png_set_keep_unknown_chunks(), the final
instance will take precedence.
The high-level read interface
At this point there are two ways to proceed; through the
high-level read interface, or through a sequence of low-
level read operations. You can use the high-level inter-
face if (a) you are willing to read the entire image into
memory, and (b) the input transformations you want to do
are limited to the following set:
PNG_TRANSFORM_IDENTITY No transformation
PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_16 Strip 16-bit samples to 8
bits
PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_ALPHA Discard the alpha channel
PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKING Expand 1, 2 and 4-bit sam-
ples to bytes
PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKSWAP Change order of packed
pixels to LSB first
PNG_TRANSFORM_EXPAND Perform set_expand()
PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_MONO Invert monochrome images
PNG_TRANSFORM_SHIFT Normalize pixels to the
sBIT depth
PNG_TRANSFORM_BGR Flip RGB to BGR, RGBA to
BGRA
PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ALPHA Flip RGBA to ARGB or GA to
AG
PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_ALPHA Change alpha from opacity
to transparency
PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ENDIAN Byte-swap 16-bit samples
(This excludes setting a background color, doing gamma
March 21, 2000 23
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
transformation, dithering, and setting filler.) If this
is the case, simply do this:
png_read_png(png_ptr, info_ptr, png_transforms, NULL)
where png_transforms is an integer containing the logical-
or of some set of transformation flags. This call is
equivalent to png_read_info(), followed the set of trans-
formations indicated by the transform mask, followed by
png_update_info(), followed by a read of the image bytes
to the info member `rowpointers', followed by
png_read_end().
(The final parameter of this call is not yet used. Some-
day it will point to transformation parameters.)
The low-level read interface
If you are going the low-level route, you are now ready to
read all the file information up to the actual image data.
You do this with a call to png_read_info().
png_read_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
This will process all chunks up to but not including the
image data.
Querying the info structure
Functions are used to get the information from the
info_ptr once it has been read. Note that these fields
may not be completely filled in until png_read_end() has
read the chunk data following the image.
png_get_IHDR(png_ptr, info_ptr, &width, &height,
&bit_depth, &color_type, &interlace_type,
&compression_type, &filter_type);
width - holds the width of the image
in pixels (up to 2^31).
height - holds the height of the image
in pixels (up to 2^31).
bit_depth - holds the bit depth of one of the
image channels. (valid values are
1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and depend also on
the color_type. See also
significant bits (sBIT) below).
color_type - describes which color/alpha channels
are present.
PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY
(bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8, 16)
PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA
(bit depths 8, 16)
PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE
March 21, 2000 24
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
(bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8)
PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB
(bit_depths 8, 16)
PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA
(bit_depths 8, 16)
PNG_COLOR_MASK_PALETTE
PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR
PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA
filter_type - (must be PNG_FILTER_TYPE_BASE
for PNG 1.0)
compression_type - (must be PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE
for PNG 1.0)
interlace_type - (PNG_INTERLACE_NONE or
PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7)
Any or all of interlace_type, compression_type, of
filter_type can be
NULL if you are not interested in their values.
channels = png_get_channels(png_ptr, info_ptr);
channels - number of channels of info for the
color type (valid values are 1 (GRAY,
PALETTE), 2 (GRAY_ALPHA), 3 (RGB),
4 (RGB_ALPHA or RGB + filler byte))
rowbytes = png_get_rowbytes(png_ptr, info_ptr);
rowbytes - number of bytes needed to hold a row
signature = png_get_signature(png_ptr, info_ptr);
signature - holds the signature read from the
file (if any). The data is kept in
the same offset it would be if the
whole signature were read (i.e. if an
application had already read in 4
bytes of signature before starting
libpng, the remaining 4 bytes would
be in signature[4] through signa-
ture[7]
(see png_set_sig_bytes())).
width = png_get_image_width(png_ptr,
info_ptr);
height = png_get_image_height(png_ptr,
info_ptr);
bit_depth = png_get_bit_depth(png_ptr,
info_ptr);
color_type = png_get_color_type(png_ptr,
info_ptr);
filter_type = png_get_filter_type(png_ptr,
info_ptr);
compression_type = png_get_compression_type(png_ptr,
info_ptr);
interlace_type = png_get_interlace_type(png_ptr,
March 21, 2000 25
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
info_ptr);
These are also important, but their validity depends on
whether the chunk has been read. The
png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr, PNG_INFO_<chunk>) and
png_get_<chunk>(png_ptr, info_ptr, ...) functions return
non-zero if the data has been read, or zero if it is miss-
ing. The parameters to the png_get_<chunk> are set
directly if they are simple data types, or a pointer into
the info_ptr is returned for any complex types.
png_get_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr, &palette,
&num_palette);
palette - the palette for the file
(array of png_color)
num_palette - number of entries in the palette
png_get_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, &gamma);
gamma - the gamma the file is written
at (PNG_INFO_gAMA)
png_get_sRGB(png_ptr, info_ptr, &srgb_intent);
srgb_intent - the rendering intent (PNG_INFO_sRGB)
The presence of the sRGB chunk
means that the pixel data is in the
sRGB color space. This chunk also
implies specific values of gAMA and
cHRM.
png_get_iCCP(png_ptr, info_ptr, &name, &compres-
sion_type,
&profile, &proflen);
name - The profile name.
compression - The compression type; always
PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE
for PNG 1.0. You may give NULL to
this argument
to ignore it.
profile - International Color Consortium color
profile
data. May contain NULs.
proflen - length of profile data in bytes.
png_get_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit);
sig_bit - the number of significant bits for
(PNG_INFO_sBIT) each of the gray,
red, green, and blue channels,
whichever are appropriate for the
given color type (png_color_16)
png_get_tRNS(png_ptr, info_ptr, &trans, &num_trans,
&trans_values);
trans - array of transparent entries for
March 21, 2000 26
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
palette (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
trans_values - transparent pixel for non-paletted
images (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
num_trans - number of transparent entries
(PNG_INFO_tRNS)
png_get_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr, &hist);
(PNG_INFO_hIST)
hist - histogram of palette (array of
png_color_16)
png_get_tIME(png_ptr, info_ptr, &mod_time);
mod_time - time image was last modified
(PNG_VALID_tIME)
png_get_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, &background);
background - background color (PNG_VALID_bKGD)
valid 16-bit red, green and blue
values, regardless of color_type
num_comments = png_get_text(png_ptr, info_ptr,
&text_ptr, &num_text);
num_comments - number of comments
text_ptr - array of png_text holding image
comments
text_ptr[i]->compression - type of compression used
on "text" PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
text_ptr[i]->key - keyword for comment.
text_ptr[i]->text - text comments for current
keyword.
text_ptr[i]->text_length - length of text string,
after decompression, 0 for iTXt
text_ptr[i]->itxt_length - length of itxt string,
after decompression, 0 for tEXt/zTXt
text_ptr[i]->lang - language of comment (NULL for
unknown).
text_ptr[i]->translated_keyword - keyword in UTF-8
(NULL
for unknown).
num_text - number of comments (same as num_com-
ments;
you can put NULL here to avoid the
duplication)
num_spalettes = png_get_spalettes(png_ptr, info_ptr,
&palette_ptr);
palette_ptr - array of png_spalette structures
holding contents
of one or more sPLT chunks read.
num_spalettes - number of sPLT chunks read.
png_get_oFFs(png_ptr, info_ptr, &offset_x, &offset_y,
March 21, 2000 27
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
&unit_type);
offset_x - positive offset from the left edge
of the screen
offset_y - positive offset from the top edge
of the screen
unit_type - PNG_OFFSET_PIXEL, PNG_OFFSET_MICROME-
TER
png_get_pHYs(png_ptr, info_ptr, &res_x, &res_y,
&unit_type);
res_x - pixels/unit physical resolution in
x direction
res_y - pixels/unit physical resolution in
x direction
unit_type - PNG_RESOLUTION_UNKNOWN,
PNG_RESOLUTION_METER
png_get_sCAL(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unit, &width,
&height)
unit - physical scale units (a string)
width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
height - height of a pixel in physical scale
units
num_unknown_chunks = png_get_unknown_chunks(png_ptr,
info_ptr,
&unknowns)
unknowns - array of png_unknown_chunk struc-
tures holding
unknown chunks
unknowns[i].name - name of unknown chunk
unknowns[i].data - data of unknown chunk
unknowns[i].size - size of unknown chunk
unknowns[i].location - position of chunk in file
The data from the pHYs chunk can be retrieved in several
convenient forms:
res_x = png_get_x_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
info_ptr)
res_y = png_get_y_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
info_ptr)
res_x_and_y = png_get_pixels_per_meter(png_ptr,
info_ptr)
aspect_ratio = png_get_pixel_aspect_ratio(png_ptr,
info_ptr)
(Each of these returns 0 [signifying "unknown"] if
the data is not present or if res_x is 0;
res_x_and_y is 0 if res_x != res_y)
For more information, see the png_info definition in png.h
and the PNG specification for chunk contents. Be careful
with trusting rowbytes, as some of the transformations
March 21, 2000 28
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
could increase the space needed to hold a row (expand,
filler, gray_to_rgb, etc.). See png_read_update_info(),
below.
A quick word about text_ptr and num_text. PNG stores com-
ments in keyword/text pairs, one pair per chunk, with no
limit on the number of text chunks, and a 2^31 byte limit
on their size. While there are suggested keywords, there
is no requirement to restrict the use to these strings.
It is strongly suggested that keywords and text be sensi-
ble to humans (that's the point), so don't use abbrevia-
tions. Non-printing symbols are not allowed. See the PNG
specification for more details. There is also no require-
ment to have text after the keyword.
Keywords should be limited to 79 Latin-1 characters with-
out leading or trailing spaces, but non-consecutive spaces
are allowed within the keyword. It is possible to have
the same keyword any number of times. The text_ptr is an
array of png_text structures, each holding a pointer to a
language string, a pointer to a keyword and a pointer to a
text string. Only the text string may be null. The key-
word/text pairs are put into the array in the order that
they are received. However, some or all of the text
chunks may be after the image, so, to make sure you have
read all the text chunks, don't mess with these until
after you read the stuff after the image. This will be
mentioned again below in the discussion that goes with
png_read_end().
Input transformations
After you've read the header information, you can set up
the library to handle any special transformations of the
image data. The various ways to transform the data will
be described in the order that they should occur. This is
important, as some of these change the color type and/or
bit depth of the data, and some others only work on cer-
tain color types and bit depths. Even though each trans-
formation checks to see if it has data that it can do
something with, you should make sure to only enable a
transformation if it will be valid for the data. For
example, don't swap red and blue on grayscale data.
The colors used for the background and transparency values
should be supplied in the same format/depth as the current
image data. They are stored in the same format/depth as
the image data in a bKGD or tRNS chunk, so this is what
libpng expects for this data. The colors are transformed
to keep in sync with the image data when an application
calls the png_read_update_info() routine (see below).
Data will be decoded into the supplied row buffers packed
into bytes unless the library has been told to transform
March 21, 2000 29
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
it into another format. For example, 4 bit/pixel paletted
or grayscale data will be returned 2 pixels/byte with the
leftmost pixel in the high-order bits of the byte, unless
png_set_packing() is called. 8-bit RGB data will be
stored in RGB RGB RGB format unless png_set_filler() is
called to insert filler bytes, either before or after each
RGB triplet. 16-bit RGB data will be returned RRGGBB
RRGGBB, with the most significant byte of the color value
first, unless png_set_strip_16() is called to transform it
to regular RGB RGB triplets, or png_set_filler() is called
to insert filler bytes, either before or after each RRGGBB
triplet. Similarly, 8-bit or 16-bit grayscale data can be
modified with png_set_filler() or png_set_strip_16().
The following code transforms grayscale images of less
than 8 to 8 bits, changes paletted images to RGB, and adds
a full alpha channel if there is transparency information
in a tRNS chunk. This is most useful on grayscale images
with bit depths of 2 or 4 or if there is a multiple-image
viewing application that wishes to treat all images in the
same way.
if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE &&
bit_depth <= 8) png_set_palette_to_rgb(png_ptr);
if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY &&
bit_depth < 8) png_set_gray_1_2_4_to_8(png_ptr);
if (png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr,
PNG_INFO_tRNS)) png_set_tRNS_to_alpha(png_ptr);
These three functions are actually aliases for
png_set_expand(), added in libpng version 1.0.4, with the
function names expanded to improve code readability. In
some future version they may actually do different things.
PNG can have files with 16 bits per channel. If you only
can handle 8 bits per channel, this will strip the pixels
down to 8 bit.
if (bit_depth == 16)
png_set_strip_16(png_ptr);
The png_set_background() function tells libpng to compos-
ite images with alpha or simple transparency against the
supplied background color. If the PNG file contains a
bKGD chunk (PNG_INFO_bKGD valid), you may use this color,
or supply another color more suitable for the current dis-
play (e.g., the background color from a web page). You
need to tell libpng whether the color is in the gamma
space of the display (PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_SCREEN for col-
ors you supply), the file (PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_FILE for
colors from the bKGD chunk), or one that is neither of
these gammas (PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_UNIQUE - I don't know
March 21, 2000 30
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
why anyone would use this, but it's here).
If, for some reason, you don't need the alpha channel on
an image, and you want to remove it rather than combining
it with the background (but the image author certainly had
in mind that you *would* combine it with the background,
so that's what you should probably do):
if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA)
png_set_strip_alpha(png_ptr);
In PNG files, the alpha channel in an image is the level
of opacity. If you need the alpha channel in an image to
be the level of transparency instead of opacity, you can
invert the alpha channel (or the tRNS chunk data) after
it's read, so that 0 is fully opaque and 255 (in 8-bit or
paletted images) or 65535 (in 16-bit images) is fully
transparent, with
png_set_invert_alpha(png_ptr);
PNG files pack pixels of bit depths 1, 2, and 4 into bytes
as small as they can, resulting in, for example, 8 pixels
per byte for 1 bit files. This code expands to 1 pixel
per byte without changing the values of the pixels:
if (bit_depth < 8)
png_set_packing(png_ptr);
PNG files have possible bit depths of 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16.
All pixels stored in a PNG image have been "scaled" or
"shifted" up to the next higher possible bit depth (e.g.
from 5 bits/sample in the range [0,31] to 8 bits/sample in
the range [0, 255]). However, it is also possible to con-
vert the PNG pixel data back to the original bit depth of
the image. This call reduces the pixels back down to the
original bit depth:
png_color_16p sig_bit;
if (png_get_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit))
png_set_shift(png_ptr, sig_bit);
PNG files store 3-color pixels in red, green, blue order.
This code changes the storage of the pixels to blue,
green, red:
if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB ||
color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
png_set_bgr(png_ptr);
PNG files store RGB pixels packed into 3 bytes. This code
expands them into 4 bytes for windowing systems that need
them in this format:
March 21, 2000 31
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
if (bit_depth == 8 && color_type ==
PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB) png_set_filler(png_ptr,
filler, PNG_FILLER_BEFORE);
where "filler" is the 8 or 16-bit number to fill with, and
the location is either PNG_FILLER_BEFORE or
PNG_FILLER_AFTER, depending upon whether you want the
filler before the RGB or after. This transformation does
not affect images that already have full alpha channels.
If you are reading an image with an alpha channel, and you
need the data as ARGB instead of the normal PNG format
RGBA:
if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
png_set_swap_alpha(png_ptr);
For some uses, you may want a grayscale image to be repre-
sented as RGB. This code will do that conversion:
if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY ||
color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA)
png_set_gray_to_rgb(png_ptr);
Conversely, you can convert an RGB or RGBA image to
grayscale or grayscale with alpha.
if (color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB ||
color_type == PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA)
png_set_rgb_to_gray_fixed(png_ptr, error_action,
int red_weight, int green_weight);
error_action = 1: silently do the conversion
error_action = 2: issue a warning if the original
image has any pixel where
red != green or red != blue
error_action = 3: issue an error and abort the
conversion if the original
image has any pixel where
red != green or red != blue
red_weight: weight of red component times 100000
green_weight: weight of green component times
100000
If either weight is negative,
default
weights (21268, 71514) are used.
If you have set error_action = 1 or 2, you can later check
whether the image really was gray, after processing the
image rows, with the png_get_rgb_to_gray_status(png_ptr)
function. It will return a png_byte that is zero if the
image was gray or 1 if there were any non-gray pixels.
bKGD and sBIT data will be silently converted to
March 21, 2000 32
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
grayscale, using the green channel data, regardless of the
error_action setting.
With red_weight+green_weight<=100000, the normalized
graylevel is computed:
int rw = red_weight * 65536;
int gw = green_weight * 65536;
int bw = 65536 - (rw + gw);
gray = (rw*red + gw*green + bw*blue)/65536;
The default values approximate those recommended in the
Charles Poynton's Color FAQ,
<http://www.inforamp.net/~poynton/> Copyright (c)
1998-01-04 Charles Poynton poynton@inforamp.net
Y = 0.212671 * R + 0.715160 * G + 0.072169 * B
Libpng approximates this with
Y = 0.21268 * R + 0.7151 * G + 0.07217 * B
which can be expressed with integers as
Y = (6969 * R + 23434 * G + 2365 * B)/32768
The calculation is done in a linear colorspace, if the
image gamma is known.
If you have a grayscale and you are using
png_set_expand_depth() or png_set_expand() to change to a
higher bit-depth, you must either supply the background
color as a gray value at the original file bit-depth
(need_expand = 1) or else supply the background color as
an RGB triplet at the final, expanded bit depth
(need_expand = 0). Similarly, if you are reading a palet-
ted image, you must either supply the background color as
a palette index (need_expand = 1) or as an RGB triplet
that may or may not be in the palette (need_expand = 0).
png_color_16 my_background;
png_color_16p image_background;
if (png_get_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, &image_back-
ground))
png_set_background(png_ptr, image_background,
PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_FILE, 1, 1.0);
else
png_set_background(png_ptr, &my_background,
PNG_BACKGROUND_GAMMA_SCREEN, 0, 1.0);
To properly display PNG images on any kind of system, the
application needs to know what the display gamma is. Ide-
ally, the user will know this, and the application will
March 21, 2000 33
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
allow them to set it. One method of allowing the user to
set the display gamma separately for each system is to
check for a SCREEN_GAMMA or DISPLAY_GAMMA environment
variable, which will hopefully be correctly set.
Note that display_gamma is the overall gamma correction
required to produce pleasing results, which depends on the
lighting conditions in the surrounding environment. In a
dim or brightly lit room, no compensation other than the
physical gamma exponent of the monitor is needed, while in
a dark room a slightly smaller exponent is better.
double gamma, screen_gamma;
if (/* We have a user-defined screen
gamma value */)
{
screen_gamma = user_defined_screen_gamma;
}
/* One way that applications can share the same
screen gamma value */
else if ((gamma_str = getenv("SCREEN_GAMMA"))
!= NULL)
{
screen_gamma = (double)atof(gamma_str);
}
/* If we don't have another value */
else
{
screen_gamma = 2.2; /* A good guess for a
PC monitor in a bright office or a dim room */
screen_gamma = 2.0; /* A good guess for a
PC monitor in a dark room */
screen_gamma = 1.7 or 1.0; /* A good
guess for Mac systems */
}
The png_set_gamma() function handles gamma transformations
of the data. Pass both the file gamma and the current
screen_gamma. If the file does not have a gamma value,
you can pass one anyway if you have an idea what it is
(usually 0.45455 is a good guess for GIF images on PCs).
Note that file gammas are inverted from screen gammas.
See the discussions on gamma in the PNG specification for
an excellent description of what gamma is, and why all
applications should support it. It is strongly recom-
mended that PNG viewers support gamma correction.
if (png_get_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, &gamma))
png_set_gamma(png_ptr, screen_gamma, gamma);
else
png_set_gamma(png_ptr, screen_gamma, 0.45455);
If you need to reduce an RGB file to a paletted file, or
March 21, 2000 34
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
if a paletted file has more entries then will fit on your
screen, png_set_dither() will do that. Note that this is
a simple match dither that merely finds the closest color
available. This should work fairly well with optimized
palettes, and fairly badly with linear color cubes. If
you pass a palette that is larger then maximum_colors, the
file will reduce the number of colors in the palette so it
will fit into maximum_colors. If there is a histogram, it
will use it to make more intelligent choices when reducing
the palette. If there is no histogram, it may not do as
good a job.
if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR)
{
if (png_get_valid(png_ptr, info_ptr,
PNG_INFO_PLTE))
{
png_color_16p histogram;
png_get_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr,
&histogram);
png_set_dither(png_ptr, palette, num_palette,
max_screen_colors, histogram, 1);
}
else
{
png_color std_color_cube[MAX_SCREEN_COLORS] =
{ ... colors ... };
png_set_dither(png_ptr, std_color_cube,
MAX_SCREEN_COLORS, MAX_SCREEN_COLORS,
NULL,0);
}
}
PNG files describe monochrome as black being zero and
white being one. The following code will reverse this
(make black be one and white be zero):
if (bit_depth == 1 && color_type == PNG_COLOR_GRAY)
png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
PNG files store 16 bit pixels in network byte order (big-
endian, ie. most significant bits first). This code
changes the storage to the other way (little-endian, i.e.
least significant bits first, the way PCs store them):
if (bit_depth == 16)
png_set_swap(png_ptr);
If you are using packed-pixel images (1, 2, or 4
bits/pixel), and you need to change the order the pixels
are packed into bytes, you can use:
March 21, 2000 35
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
if (bit_depth < 8)
png_set_packswap(png_ptr);
Finally, you can write your own transformation function if
none of the existing ones meets your needs. This is done
by setting a callback with
png_set_read_user_transform_fn(png_ptr,
read_transform_fn);
You must supply the function
void read_transform_fn(png_ptr ptr, row_info_ptr
row_info, png_bytep data)
See pngtest.c for a working example. Your function will
be called after all of the other transformations have been
processed.
You can also set up a pointer to a user structure for use
by your callback function, and you can inform libpng that
your transform function will change the number of channels
or bit depth with the function
png_set_user_transform_info(png_ptr, user_ptr,
user_depth, user_channels);
The user's application, not libpng, is responsible for
allocating and freeing any memory required for the user
structure.
You can retrieve the pointer via the function
png_get_user_transform_ptr(). For example:
voidp read_user_transform_ptr =
png_get_user_transform_ptr(png_ptr);
The last thing to handle is interlacing; this is covered
in detail below, but you must call the function here if
you want libpng to handle expansion of the interlaced
image.
number_of_passes = png_set_interlace_han-
dling(png_ptr);
After setting the transformations, libpng can update your
png_info structure to reflect any transformations you've
requested with this call. This is most useful to update
the info structure's rowbytes field so you can use it to
allocate your image memory. This function will also
update your palette with the correct screen_gamma and
background if these have been given with the calls above.
png_read_update_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
March 21, 2000 36
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
After you call png_read_update_info(), you can allocate
any memory you need to hold the image. The row data is
simply raw byte data for all forms of images. As the
actual allocation varies among applications, no example
will be given. If you are allocating one large chunk, you
will need to build an array of pointers to each row, as it
will be needed for some of the functions below.
Reading image data
After you've allocated memory, you can read the image
data. The simplest way to do this is in one function
call. If you are allocating enough memory to hold the
whole image, you can just call png_read_image() and libpng
will read in all the image data and put it in the memory
area supplied. You will need to pass in an array of
pointers to each row.
This function automatically handles interlacing, so you
don't need to call png_set_interlace_handling() or call
this function multiple times, or any of that other stuff
necessary with png_read_rows().
png_read_image(png_ptr, row_pointers);
where row_pointers is:
png_bytep row_pointers[height];
You can point to void or char or whatever you use for pix-
els.
If you don't want to read in the whole image at once, you
can use png_read_rows() instead. If there is no interlac-
ing (check interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_NONE), this is
simple:
png_read_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers, NULL,
number_of_rows);
where row_pointers is the same as in the png_read_image()
call.
If you are doing this just one row at a time, you can do
this with a single row_pointer instead of an array of
row_pointers:
png_bytep row_pointer = row;
png_read_row(png_ptr, row_pointers, NULL);
If the file is interlaced (info_ptr->interlace_type != 0),
things get somewhat harder. The only current (PNG Speci-
fication version 1.2) interlacing type for PNG is (inter-
lace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7) is a somewhat
March 21, 2000 37
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
complicated 2D interlace scheme, known as Adam7, that
breaks down an image into seven smaller images of varying
size, based on an 8x8 grid.
libpng can fill out those images or it can give them to
you "as is". If you want them filled out, there are two
ways to do that. The one mentioned in the PNG specifica-
tion is to expand each pixel to cover those pixels that
have not been read yet (the "rectangle" method). This
results in a blocky image for the first pass, which gradu-
ally smooths out as more pixels are read. The other
method is the "sparkle" method, where pixels are drawn
only in their final locations, with the rest of the image
remaining whatever colors they were initialized to before
the start of the read. The first method usually looks
better, but tends to be slower, as there are more pixels
to put in the rows.
If you don't want libpng to handle the interlacing
details, just call png_read_rows() seven times to read in
all seven images. Each of the images is a valid image by
itself, or they can all be combined on an 8x8 grid to form
a single image (although if you intend to combine them you
would be far better off using the libpng interlace han-
dling).
The first pass will return an image 1/8 as wide as the
entire image (every 8th column starting in column 0) and
1/8 as high as the original (every 8th row starting in row
0), the second will be 1/8 as wide (starting in column 4)
and 1/8 as high (also starting in row 0). The third pass
will be 1/4 as wide (every 4th pixel starting in column 0)
and 1/8 as high (every 8th row starting in row 4), and the
fourth pass will be 1/4 as wide and 1/4 as high (every 4th
column starting in column 2, and every 4th row starting in
row 0). The fifth pass will return an image 1/2 as wide,
and 1/4 as high (starting at column 0 and row 2), while
the sixth pass will be 1/2 as wide and 1/2 as high as the
original (starting in column 1 and row 0). The seventh
and final pass will be as wide as the original, and 1/2 as
high, containing all of the odd numbered scanlines. Phew!
If you want libpng to expand the images, call this before
calling png_start_read_image() or png_read_update_info():
if (interlace_type == PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7)
number_of_passes
= png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
This will return the number of passes needed. Currently,
this is seven, but may change if another interlace type is
added. This function can be called even if the file is
not interlaced, where it will return one pass.
March 21, 2000 38
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
If you are not going to display the image after each pass,
but are going to wait until the entire image is read in,
use the sparkle effect. This effect is faster and the end
result of either method is exactly the same. If you are
planning on displaying the image after each pass, the
"rectangle" effect is generally considered the better
looking one.
If you only want the "sparkle" effect, just call
png_read_rows() as normal, with the third parameter NULL.
Make sure you make pass over the image number_of_passes
times, and you don't change the data in the rows between
calls. You can change the locations of the data, just not
the data. Each pass only writes the pixels appropriate
for that pass, and assumes the data from previous passes
is still valid.
png_read_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers, NULL,
number_of_rows);
If you only want the first effect (the rectangles), do the
same as before except pass the row buffer in the third
parameter, and leave the second parameter NULL.
png_read_rows(png_ptr, NULL, row_pointers,
number_of_rows);
Finishing a sequential read
After you are finished reading the image through either
the high- or low-level interfaces, you can finish reading
the file. If you are interested in comments or time,
which may be stored either before or after the image data,
you should pass the separate png_info struct if you want
to keep the comments from before and after the image sepa-
rate. If you are not interested, you can pass NULL.
png_read_end(png_ptr, end_info);
When you are done, you can free all memory allocated by
libpng like this:
png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
&end_info);
It is also possible to individually free the info_ptr mem-
bers that point to libpng-allocated storage with the fol-
lowing functions:
png_free_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, mask, n)
mask - identifies data to be freed, a mask
made up by the OR one or more of
PNG_FREE_PLTE, PNG_FREE_TRNS,
PNG_FREE_HIST, PNG_FREE_ICCP,
March 21, 2000 39
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
PNG_FREE_SPLT, PNG_FREE_ROWS,
PNG_FREE_PCAL, PNG_FREE_SCAL,
PNG_FREE_TEXT, PNG_FREE_UNKN,
or simply PNG_FREE_ALL
n - sequence number of item to be freed
(-1 for all items)
These functions may be safely called when the relevant
storage has already been freed, or has not yet been allo-
cated, and will in that case do nothing. The "n" parame-
ter is ignored if only one item of the selected data type,
such as PLTE, is allowed. If "n" is not -1, and multiple
items are allowed for the data type identified in the
mask, such as text or splt, only the n'th item is freed.
For a more compact example of reading a PNG image, see the
file example.c.
Reading PNG files progressively
The progressive reader is slightly different then the non-
progressive reader. Instead of calling png_read_info(),
png_read_rows(), and png_read_end(), you make one call to
png_process_data(), which calls callbacks when it has the
info, a row, or the end of the image. You set up these
callbacks with png_set_progressive_read_fn(). You don't
have to worry about the input/output functions of libpng,
as you are giving the library the data directly in
png_process_data(). I will assume that you have read the
section on reading PNG files above, so I will only high-
light the differences (although I will show all of the
code).
png_structp png_ptr; png_infop info_ptr;
/* An example code fragment of how you would
initialize the progressive reader in your
application. */
int
initialize_png_reader()
{
png_ptr = png_create_read_struct
(PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
if (!png_ptr)
return -1;
info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
if (!info_ptr)
{
png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr,
(png_infopp)NULL,
(png_infopp)NULL);
return -1;
}
March 21, 2000 40
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
{
png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
(png_infopp)NULL);
return -1;
}
/* This one's new. You can provide functions
to be called when the header info is valid,
when each row is completed, and when the image
is finished. If you aren't using all functions,
you can specify NULL parameters. Even when all
three functions are NULL, you need to call
png_set_progressive_read_fn(). You can use
any struct as the user_ptr (cast to a void pointer
for the function call), and retrieve the pointer
from inside the callbacks using the function
png_get_progressive_ptr(png_ptr);
which will return a void pointer, which you have
to cast appropriately.
*/
png_set_progressive_read_fn(png_ptr, (void *)user_ptr,
info_callback, row_callback, end_callback);
return 0;
}
/* A code fragment that you call as you receive blocks
of data */
int
process_data(png_bytep buffer, png_uint_32 length)
{
if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
{
png_destroy_read_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr,
(png_infopp)NULL);
return -1;
}
/* This one's new also. Simply give it a chunk
of data from the file stream (in order, of
course). On machines with segmented memory
models machines, don't give it any more than
64K. The library seems to run fine with sizes
of 4K. Although you can give it much less if
necessary (I assume you can give it chunks of
1 byte, I haven't tried less then 256 bytes
yet). When this function returns, you may
want to display any rows that were generated
in the row callback if you don't already do
so there.
*/
March 21, 2000 41
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
png_process_data(png_ptr, info_ptr, buffer, length);
return 0;
}
/* This function is called (as set by
png_set_progressive_read_fn() above) when enough data
has been supplied so all of the header has been
read.
*/
void
info_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_infop info)
{
/* Do any setup here, including setting any of
the transformations mentioned in the Reading
PNG files section. For now, you _must_ call
either png_start_read_image() or
png_read_update_info() after all the
transformations are set (even if you don't set
any). You may start getting rows before
png_process_data() returns, so this is your
last chance to prepare for that.
*/
}
/* This function is called when each row of image
data is complete */
void
row_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_bytep new_row,
png_uint_32 row_num, int pass)
{
/* If the image is interlaced, and you turned
on the interlace handler, this function will
be called for every row in every pass. Some
of these rows will not be changed from the
previous pass. When the row is not changed,
the new_row variable will be NULL. The rows
and passes are called in order, so you don't
really need the row_num and pass, but I'm
supplying them because it may make your life
easier.
For the non-NULL rows of interlaced images,
you must call png_progressive_combine_row()
passing in the row and the old row. You can
call this function for NULL rows (it will just
return) and for non-interlaced images (it just
does the memcpy for you) if it will make the
code easier. Thus, you can just do this for
all cases:
*/
png_progressive_combine_row(png_ptr, old_row,
new_row);
March 21, 2000 42
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
/* where old_row is what was displayed for
previously for the row. Note that the first
pass (pass == 0, really) will completely cover
the old row, so the rows do not have to be
initialized. After the first pass (and only
for interlaced images), you will have to pass
the current row, and the function will combine
the old row and the new row.
*/
}
void
end_callback(png_structp png_ptr, png_infop info)
{
/* This function is called after the whole image
has been read, including any chunks after the
image (up to and including the IEND). You
will usually have the same info chunk as you
had in the header, although some data may have
been added to the comments and time fields.
Most people won't do much here, perhaps setting
a flag that marks the image as finished.
*/
}
IV. Writing
Much of this is very similar to reading. However, every-
thing of importance is repeated here, so you won't have to
constantly look back up in the reading section to under-
stand writing.
Setup
You will want to do the I/O initialization before you get
into libpng, so if it doesn't work, you don't have any-
thing to undo. If you are not using the standard I/O func-
tions, you will need to replace them with custom writing
functions. See the discussion under Customizing libpng.
FILE *fp = fopen(file_name, "wb");
if (!fp)
{
return;
}
Next, png_struct and png_info need to be allocated and
initialized. As these can be both relatively large, you
may not want to store these on the stack, unless you have
stack space to spare. Of course, you will want to check
if they return NULL. If you are also reading, you won't
March 21, 2000 43
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
want to name your read structure and your write structure
both "png_ptr"; you can call them anything you like, such
as "read_ptr" and "write_ptr". Look at pngtest.c, for
example.
png_structp png_ptr = png_create_write_struct
(PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
user_error_fn, user_warning_fn);
if (!png_ptr)
return;
png_infop info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
if (!info_ptr)
{
png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr,
(png_infopp)NULL);
return;
}
If you want to use your own memory allocation routines,
define PNG_USER_MEM_SUPPORTED and use png_cre-
ate_write_struct_2() instead of png_create_read_struct():
png_structp png_ptr = png_create_write_struct_2
(PNG_LIBPNG_VER_STRING, (png_voidp)user_error_ptr,
user_error_fn, user_warning_fn, (png_voidp)
user_mem_ptr, user_malloc_fn, user_free_fn);
After you have these structures, you will need to set up
the error handling. When libpng encounters an error, it
expects to longjmp() back to your routine. Therefore, you
will need to call setjmp() and pass the png_jmp-
buf(png_ptr). If you write the file from different rou-
tines, you will need to update the png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)
every time you enter a new routine that will call a
png_*() function. See your documentation of
setjmp/longjmp for your compiler for more information on
setjmp/longjmp. See the discussion on libpng error han-
dling in the Customizing Libpng section below for more
information on the libpng error handling.
if (setjmp(png_jmpbuf(png_ptr)))
{
png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);
fclose(fp);
return;
}
...
return;
If you would rather avoid the complexity of setjmp/longjmp
issues, you can compile libpng with PNG_SETJMP_NOT_SUP-
PORTED, in which case errors will result in a call to
PNG_ABORT() which defaults to abort().
March 21, 2000 44
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
Now you need to set up the output code. The default for
libpng is to use the C function fwrite(). If you use
this, you will need to pass a valid FILE * in the function
png_init_io(). Be sure that the file is opened in binary
mode. Again, if you wish to handle writing data in
another way, see the discussion on libpng I/O handling in
the Customizing Libpng section below.
png_init_io(png_ptr, fp);
Write callbacks
At this point, you can set up a callback function that
will be called after each row has been written, which you
can use to control a progress meter or the like. It's
demonstrated in pngtest.c. You must supply a function
void write_row_callback(png_ptr, png_uint_32 row, int
pass);
{
/* put your code here */
}
(You can give it another name that you like instead of
"write_row_callback")
To inform libpng about your function, use
png_set_write_status_fn(png_ptr, write_row_callback);
You now have the option of modifying how the compression
library will run. The following functions are mainly for
testing, but may be useful in some cases, like if you need
to write PNG files extremely fast and are willing to give
up some compression, or if you want to get the maximum
possible compression at the expense of slower writing. If
you have no special needs in this area, let the library do
what it wants by not calling this function at all, as it
has been tuned to deliver a good speed/compression ratio.
The second parameter to png_set_filter() is the filter
method, for which the only valid value is '0' (as of the
July 1999 PNG specification, version 1.2). The third
parameter is a flag that indicates which filter type(s)
are to be tested for each scanline. See the Compression
Library for details on the specific filter types.
/* turn on or off filtering, and/or choose
specific filters */
png_set_filter(png_ptr, 0,
PNG_FILTER_NONE | PNG_FILTER_SUB |
PNG_FILTER_PAETH);
The png_set_compression_*() functions interface to the
March 21, 2000 45
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
zlib compression library, and should mostly be ignored
unless you really know what you are doing. The only gen-
erally useful call is png_set_compression_level() which
changes how much time zlib spends on trying to compress
the image data. See the Compression Library for details
on the compression levels.
/* set the zlib compression level */
png_set_compression_level(png_ptr,
Z_BEST_COMPRESSION);
/* set other zlib parameters */
png_set_compression_mem_level(png_ptr, 8);
png_set_compression_strategy(png_ptr,
Z_DEFAULT_STRATEGY);
png_set_compression_window_bits(png_ptr, 15);
png_set_compression_method(png_ptr, 8);
Setting the contents of info for output
You now need to fill in the png_info structure with all
the data you wish to write before the actual image. Note
that the only thing you are allowed to write after the
image is the text chunks and the time chunk (as of PNG
Specification 1.2, anyway). See png_write_end() and the
latest PNG specification for more information on that. If
you wish to write them before the image, fill them in now,
and flag that data as being valid. If you want to wait
until after the data, don't fill them until
png_write_end(). For all the fields in png_info and their
data types, see png.h. For explanations of what the
fields contain, see the PNG specification.
Some of the more important parts of the png_info are:
png_set_IHDR(png_ptr, info_ptr, width, height,
bit_depth, color_type, interlace_type,
compression_type, filter_type)
width - holds the width of the image
in pixels (up to 2^31).
height - holds the height of the image
in pixels (up to 2^31).
bit_depth - holds the bit depth of one of the
image channels.
(valid values are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16
and depend also on the
color_type. See also significant
bits (sBIT) below).
color_type - describes which color/alpha
channels are present.
PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY
(bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8, 16)
PNG_COLOR_TYPE_GRAY_ALPHA
(bit depths 8, 16)
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PNG_COLOR_TYPE_PALETTE
(bit depths 1, 2, 4, 8)
PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB
(bit_depths 8, 16)
PNG_COLOR_TYPE_RGB_ALPHA
(bit_depths 8, 16)
PNG_COLOR_MASK_PALETTE
PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR
PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA
interlace_type - PNG_INTERLACE_NONE or
PNG_INTERLACE_ADAM7
compression_type - (must be
PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_DEFAULT)
filter_type - (must be PNG_FILTER_TYPE_DEFAULT)
png_set_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr, palette,
num_palette);
palette - the palette for the file
(array of png_color)
num_palette - number of entries in the palette
png_set_gAMA(png_ptr, info_ptr, gamma);
gamma - the gamma the image was created
at (PNG_INFO_gAMA)
png_set_sRGB(png_ptr, info_ptr, srgb_intent);
srgb_intent - the rendering intent
(PNG_INFO_sRGB) The presence of
the sRGB chunk means that the pixel
data is in the sRGB color space.
This chunk also implies specific
values of gAMA and cHRM. Rendering
intent is the CSS-1 property that
has been defined by the International
Color Consortium
(http://www.color.org).
It can be one of
PNG_sRGB_INTENT_SATURATION,
PNG_sRGB_INTENT_PERCEPTUAL,
PNG_sRGB_INTENT_ABSOLUTE, or
PNG_sRGB_INTENT_RELATIVE.
png_set_sRGB_gAMA_and_cHRM(png_ptr, info_ptr,
srgb_intent);
srgb_intent - the rendering intent
(PNG_INFO_sRGB) The presence of the
sRGB chunk means that the pixel
data is in the sRGB color space.
This function also causes gAMA and
cHRM chunks with the specific values
that are consistent with sRGB to be
March 21, 2000 47
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
written.
png_set_iCCP(png_ptr, info_ptr, name, compres-
sion_type,
profile, proflen);
name - The profile name.
compression - The compression type; always
PNG_COMPRESSION_TYPE_BASE
for PNG 1.0. You may give NULL to
this argument
to ignore it.
profile - International Color Consortium color
profile
data. May contain NULs.
proflen - length of profile data in bytes.
png_set_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, sig_bit);
sig_bit - the number of significant bits for
(PNG_INFO_sBIT) each of the gray,
red,
green, and blue channels, whichever
are
appropriate for the given color type
(png_color_16)
png_set_tRNS(png_ptr, info_ptr, trans, num_trans,
trans_values);
trans - array of transparent entries for
palette (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
trans_values - transparent pixel for non-paletted
images (PNG_INFO_tRNS)
num_trans - number of transparent entries
(PNG_INFO_tRNS)
png_set_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr, hist);
(PNG_INFO_hIST)
hist - histogram of palette (array of
png_color_16)
png_set_tIME(png_ptr, info_ptr, mod_time);
mod_time - time image was last modified
(PNG_VALID_tIME)
png_set_bKGD(png_ptr, info_ptr, background);
background - background color (PNG_VALID_bKGD)
png_set_text(png_ptr, info_ptr, text_ptr, num_text);
text_ptr - array of png_text holding image
comments
text_ptr[i]->compression - type of compression used
on "text" PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_NONE
PNG_ITXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt
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text_ptr[i]->key - keyword for comment.
text_ptr[i]->text - text comments for current
keyword.
text_ptr[i]->text_length - length of text string,
after decompression, 0 for iTXt
text_ptr[i]->itxt_length - length of itxt string,
after decompression, 0 for tEXt/zTXt
text_ptr[i]->lang - language of comment (NULL for
unknown).
text_ptr[i]->translated_keyword - keyword in UTF-8
(NULL
for unknown).
num_text - number of comments
png_set_spalettes(png_ptr, info_ptr, &palette_ptr,
num_spalettes);
palette_ptr - array of png_spalette structures to
be added to
the list of palettes in the info
structure.
num_spalettes - number of palette structures to be
added.
png_set_oFFs(png_ptr, info_ptr, offset_x, offset_y,
unit_type);
offset_x - positive offset from the left
edge of the screen
offset_y - positive offset from the top
edge of the screen
unit_type - PNG_OFFSET_PIXEL, PNG_OFFSET_MICROMETER
png_set_pHYs(png_ptr, info_ptr, res_x, res_y,
unit_type);
res_x - pixels/unit physical resolution
in x direction
res_y - pixels/unit physical resolution
in y direction
unit_type - PNG_RESOLUTION_UNKNOWN,
PNG_RESOLUTION_METER
png_set_sCAL(png_ptr, info_ptr, unit, width, height)
unit - physical scale units (a string)
width - width of a pixel in physical scale units
height - height of a pixel in physical scale
units
png_set_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, info_ptr, &unknowns,
num_unknowns)
unknowns - array of png_unknown_chunk struc-
tures holding
unknown chunks
unknowns[i].name - name of unknown chunk
unknowns[i].data - data of unknown chunk
unknowns[i].size - size of unknown chunk
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unknowns[i].location - position to write chunk in file
0: do not write chunk
PNG_HAVE_IHDR: before PLTE
PNG_HAVE_PLTE: before IDAT
PNG_AFTER_IDAT: after IDAT
The "location" member is set automatically according
to
what part of the output file has already been written.
You can change its value after calling
png_set_unknown_chunks()
as demonstrated in pngtest.c.
A quick word about text and num_text. text is an array of
png_text structures. num_text is the number of valid
structures in the array. If you want, you can use
max_text to hold the size of the array, but libpng ignores
it for writing (it does use it for reading). Each
png_text structure holds a language code, a keyword, a
text value, and a compression type.
The compression types have the same valid numbers as the
compression types of the image data. Currently, the only
valid number is zero. However, you can store text either
compressed or uncompressed, unlike images, which always
have to be compressed. So if you don't want the text com-
pressed, set the compression type to PNG_TEXT_COMPRES-
SION_NONE. Because compressed-text chunks don't have a
language field, if you specify compression any language
code will not be written out.
Until text gets around 1000 bytes, it is not worth com-
pressing it. After the text has been written out to the
file, the compression type is set to PNG_TEXT_COMPRES-
SION_NONE_WR or PNG_TEXT_COMPRESSION_zTXt_WR, so that it
isn't written out again at the end (in case you are call-
ing png_write_end() with the same struct.
The keywords that are given in the PNG Specification are:
Title Short (one line) title or
caption for image
Author Name of image's creator
Description Description of image (possibly long)
Copyright Copyright notice
Creation Time Time of original image creation
(usually RFC 1123 format, see below)
Software Software used to create the image
Disclaimer Legal disclaimer
Warning Warning of nature of content
Source Device used to create the image
Comment Miscellaneous comment; conversion
from other image format
The keyword-text pairs work like this. Keywords should be
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LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
short simple descriptions of what the comment is about.
Some typical keywords are found in the PNG specification,
as is some recommendations on keywords. You can repeat
keywords in a file. You can even write some text before
the image and some after. For example, you may want to
put a description of the image before the image, but leave
the disclaimer until after, so viewers working over modem
connections don't have to wait for the disclaimer to go
over the modem before they start seeing the image.
Finally, keywords should be full words, not abbreviations.
Keywords and text are in the ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) charac-
ter set (a superset of regular ASCII) and can not contain
NUL characters, and should not contain control or other
unprintable characters. To make the comments widely read-
able, stick with basic ASCII, and avoid machine specific
character set extensions like the IBM-PC character set.
The keyword must be present, but you can leave off the
text string on non-compressed pairs. Compressed pairs
must have a text string, as only the text string is com-
pressed anyway, so the compression would be meaningless.
PNG supports modification time via the png_time structure.
Two conversion routines are proved, png_con-
vert_from_time_t() for time_t and png_con-
vert_from_struct_tm() for struct tm. The time_t routine
uses gmtime(). You don't have to use either of these, but
if you wish to fill in the png_time structure directly,
you should provide the time in universal time (GMT) if
possible instead of your local time. Note that the year
number is the full year (e.g. 1998, rather than 98 - PNG
is year 2000 compliant!), and that months start with 1.
If you want to store the time of the original image cre-
ation, you should use a plain tEXt chunk with the "Cre-
ation Time" keyword. This is necessary because the "cre-
ation time" of a PNG image is somewhat vague, depending on
whether you mean the PNG file, the time the image was cre-
ated in a non-PNG format, a still photo from which the
image was scanned, or possibly the subject matter itself.
In order to facilitate machine-readable dates, it is rec-
ommended that the "Creation Time" tEXt chunk use RFC 1123
format dates (e.g. "22 May 1997 18:07:10 GMT"), although
this isn't a requirement. Unlike the tIME chunk, the
"Creation Time" tEXt chunk is not expected to be automati-
cally changed by the software. To facilitate the use of
RFC 1123 dates, a function png_con-
vert_to_rfc1123(png_timep) is provided to convert from PNG
time to an RFC 1123 format string.
Writing unknown chunks
You can use the png_set_unknown_chunks function to queue
up chunks for writing. You give it a chunk name, raw
data, and a size; that's all there is to it. The chunks
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will be written by the next following
png_write_info_before_PLTE, png_write_info, or
png_write_end function. Any chunks previously read into
the info structure's unknown-chunk list will also be writ-
ten out in a sequence that satisfies the PNG specifica-
tion's ordering rules.
The high-level write interface
At this point there are two ways to proceed; through the
high-level write interface, or through a sequence of low-
level write operations. You can use the high-level inter-
face if your image data is present on the rowpointers mem-
ber of the info structure. All defined output transforma-
tions are permitted, enabled by the following masks.
PNG_TRANSFORM_IDENTITY No transformation
PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKING Pack 1, 2 and 4-bit sam-
ples
PNG_TRANSFORM_PACKSWAP Change order of packed
pixels to LSB first
PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_MONO Invert monochrome images
PNG_TRANSFORM_SHIFT Normalize pixels to the
sBIT depth
PNG_TRANSFORM_BGR Flip RGB to BGR, RGBA to
BGRA
PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ALPHA Flip RGBA to ARGB or GA to
AG
PNG_TRANSFORM_INVERT_ALPHA Change alpha from opacity
to transparency
PNG_TRANSFORM_SWAP_ENDIAN Byte-swap 16-bit samples
PNG_TRANSFORM_STRIP_FILLER Strip out filler bytes.
If you have valid image data on the rowpointers member,
simply do this:
png_write_png(png_ptr, info_ptr, png_transforms, NULL)
where png_transforms is an integer containing the logical-
or of some set of transformation flags. This call is
equivalent to png_write_info(), followed by the set of
transformations indicated by the transform mask, followed
by followed by a write of the image bytes from the info
member `rowpointers', followed by png_write_end().
(The final parameter of this call is not yet used. Some-
day it may point to output transformation parameters.)
The low-level write interface
If you are going the low-level route instead, you are now
ready to write all the file information up to the actual
image data. You do this with a call to png_write_info().
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png_write_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
Note that there is one transformation you may need to do
before png_write_info(). In PNG files, the alpha channel
in an image is the level of opacity. If your data is sup-
plied as a level of transparency, you can invert the alpha
channel before you write it, so that 0 is fully transpar-
ent and 255 (in 8-bit or paletted images) or 65535 (in
16-bit images) is fully opaque, with
png_set_invert_alpha(png_ptr);
This must appear before png_write_info() instead of later
with the other transformations because in the case of
paletted images the tRNS chunk data has to be inverted
before the tRNS chunk is written. If your image is not a
paletted image, the tRNS data (which in such cases repre-
sents a single color to be rendered as transparent) won't
need to be changed, and you can safely do this transforma-
tion after your png_write_info() call.
If you need to write a private chunk that you want to
appear before the PLTE chunk when PLTE is present, you can
write the PNG info in two steps, and insert code to write
your own chunk between them:
png_write_info_before_PLTE(png_ptr, info_ptr);
png_set_unknown_chunks(png_ptr, info_ptr, ...);
png_write_info(png_ptr, info_ptr);
After you've written the file information, you can set up
the library to handle any special transformations of the
image data. The various ways to transform the data will
be described in the order that they should occur. This is
important, as some of these change the color type and/or
bit depth of the data, and some others only work on cer-
tain color types and bit depths. Even though each trans-
formation checks to see if it has data that it can do
something with, you should make sure to only enable a
transformation if it will be valid for the data. For
example, don't swap red and blue on grayscale data.
PNG files store RGB pixels packed into 3 or 6 bytes. This
code tells the library to trip input data that has 4 or 8
bytes per pixel down to 3 or 6 bytes (or strip 2 or 4-byte
grayscale+filler data to 1 or 2 bytes per pixel).
png_set_filler(png_ptr, 0, PNG_FILLER_BEFORE);
where the 0 is unused, and the location is either
PNG_FILLER_BEFORE or PNG_FILLER_AFTER, depending upon
whether the filler byte in the is stored XRGB or RGBX.
PNG files pack pixels of bit depths 1, 2, and 4 into bytes
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LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
as small as they can, resulting in, for example, 8 pixels
per byte for 1 bit files. If the data is supplied at 1
pixel per byte, use this code, which will correctly pack
the pixels into a single byte:
png_set_packing(png_ptr);
PNG files reduce possible bit depths to 1, 2, 4, 8, and
16. If your data is of another bit depth, you can write
an sBIT chunk into the file so that decoders can get the
original data if desired.
/* Set the true bit depth of the image data */
if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_COLOR)
{
sig_bit.red = true_bit_depth;
sig_bit.green = true_bit_depth;
sig_bit.blue = true_bit_depth;
}
else
{
sig_bit.gray = true_bit_depth;
}
if (color_type & PNG_COLOR_MASK_ALPHA)
{
sig_bit.alpha = true_bit_depth;
}
png_set_sBIT(png_ptr, info_ptr, &sig_bit);
If the data is stored in the row buffer in a bit depth
other than one supported by PNG (e.g. 3 bit data in the
range 0-7 for a 4-bit PNG), this will scale the values to
appear to be the correct bit depth as is required by PNG.
png_set_shift(png_ptr, &sig_bit);
PNG files store 16 bit pixels in network byte order (big-
endian, ie. most significant bits first). This code would
be used if they are supplied the other way (little-endian,
i.e. least significant bits first, the way PCs store
them):
if (bit_depth > 8)
png_set_swap(png_ptr);
If you are using packed-pixel images (1, 2, or 4
bits/pixel), and you need to change the order the pixels
are packed into bytes, you can use:
if (bit_depth < 8)
png_set_packswap(png_ptr);
PNG files store 3 color pixels in red, green, blue order.
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This code would be used if they are supplied as blue,
green, red:
png_set_bgr(png_ptr);
PNG files describe monochrome as black being zero and
white being one. This code would be used if the pixels are
supplied with this reversed (black being one and white
being zero):
png_set_invert_mono(png_ptr);
Finally, you can write your own transformation function if
none of the existing ones meets your needs. This is done
by setting a callback with
png_set_write_user_transform_fn(png_ptr,
write_transform_fn);
You must supply the function
void write_transform_fn(png_ptr ptr, row_info_ptr
row_info, png_bytep data)
See pngtest.c for a working example. Your function will
be called before any of the other transformations are pro-
cessed.
You can also set up a pointer to a user structure for use
by your callback function.
png_set_user_transform_info(png_ptr, user_ptr, 0, 0);
The user_channels and user_depth parameters of this func-
tion are ignored when writing; you can set them to zero as
shown.
You can retrieve the pointer via the function
png_get_user_transform_ptr(). For example:
voidp write_user_transform_ptr =
png_get_user_transform_ptr(png_ptr);
It is possible to have libpng flush any pending output,
either manually, or automatically after a certain number
of lines have been written. To flush the output stream a
single time call:
png_write_flush(png_ptr);
and to have libpng flush the output stream periodically
after a certain number of scanlines have been written,
call:
March 21, 2000 55
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
png_set_flush(png_ptr, nrows);
Note that the distance between rows is from the last time
png_write_flush() was called, or the first row of the
image if it has never been called. So if you write 50
lines, and then png_set_flush 25, it will flush the output
on the next scanline, and every 25 lines thereafter,
unless png_write_flush() is called before 25 more lines
have been written. If nrows is too small (less than about
10 lines for a 640 pixel wide RGB image) the image com-
pression may decrease noticeably (although this may be
acceptable for real-time applications). Infrequent flush-
ing will only degrade the compression performance by a few
percent over images that do not use flushing.
Writing the image data
That's it for the transformations. Now you can write the
image data. The simplest way to do this is in one func-
tion call. If you have the whole image in memory, you can
just call png_write_image() and libpng will write the
image. You will need to pass in an array of pointers to
each row. This function automatically handles interlac-
ing, so you don't need to call png_set_interlace_han-
dling() or call this function multiple times, or any of
that other stuff necessary with png_write_rows().
png_write_image(png_ptr, row_pointers);
where row_pointers is:
png_byte *row_pointers[height];
You can point to void or char or whatever you use for pix-
els.
If you don't want to write the whole image at once, you
can use png_write_rows() instead. If the file is not
interlaced, this is simple:
png_write_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers,
number_of_rows);
row_pointers is the same as in the png_write_image() call.
If you are just writing one row at a time, you can do this
with a single row_pointer instead of an array of
row_pointers:
png_bytep row_pointer = row;
png_write_row(png_ptr, row_pointer);
When the file is interlaced, things can get a good deal
March 21, 2000 56
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more complicated. The only currently (as of January 2000
-- PNG Specification version 1.2, dated July 1999) defined
interlacing scheme for PNG files is the "Adam7" interlace
scheme, that breaks down an image into seven smaller
images of varying size. libpng will build these images
for you, or you can do them yourself. If you want to
build them yourself, see the PNG specification for details
of which pixels to write when.
If you don't want libpng to handle the interlacing
details, just use png_set_interlace_handling() and call
png_write_rows() the correct number of times to write all
seven sub-images.
If you want libpng to build the sub-images, call this
before you start writing any rows:
number_of_passes =
png_set_interlace_handling(png_ptr);
This will return the number of passes needed. Currently,
this is seven, but may change if another interlace type is
added.
Then write the complete image number_of_passes times.
png_write_rows(png_ptr, row_pointers,
number_of_rows);
As some of these rows are not used, and thus return imme-
diately, you may want to read about interlacing in the PNG
specification, and only update the rows that are actually
used.
Finishing a sequential write
After you are finished writing the image, you should fin-
ish writing the file. If you are interested in writing
comments or time, you should pass an appropriately filled
png_info pointer. If you are not interested, you can pass
NULL.
png_write_end(png_ptr, info_ptr);
When you are done, you can free all memory used by libpng
like this:
png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);
It is also possible to individually free the info_ptr mem-
bers that point to libpng-allocated storage with the fol-
lowing functions:
png_free_text(png_ptr, info_ptr, num)
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num - number of text item to be freed (-1 for
all items)
png_free_hIST(png_ptr, info_ptr)
png_free_iCCP(png_ptr, info_ptr)
png_free_pCAL(png_ptr, info_ptr)
png_free_sCAL(png_ptr, info_ptr)
png_free_sPLT(png_ptr, info_ptr, num)
num - number of suggested-paletted entry to
be freed
(-1 for all suggested palettes)
png_free_pixels(png_ptr, info_ptr)
png_free_unknown_chunk(png_ptr, info_ptr, num)
num - number of unknown chunk entry to be
freed
(-1 for all suggested palettes)
These functions may be safely called when the relevant
storage has already been freed, or has not yet been allo-
cated, and will in that case do nothing.
If you allocated data such as a palette that you passed in
to libpng with png_set_*, you must not free it until just
before the call to png_destroy_write_struct().
For a more compact example of writing a PNG image, see the
file example.c.
V. Modifying/Customizing libpng:
There are two issues here. The first is changing how
libpng does standard things like memory allocation,
input/output, and error handling. The second deals with
more complicated things like adding new chunks, adding new
transformations, and generally changing how libpng works.
All of the memory allocation, input/output, and error han-
dling in libpng goes through callbacks that are user set-
table. The default routines are in pngmem.c, pngrio.c,
pngwio.c, and pngerror.c respectively. To change these
functions, call the appropriate png_set_*_fn() function.
Memory allocation is done through the functions
png_large_malloc(), png_malloc(), png_realloc(),
png_large_free(), and png_free(). These currently just
call the standard C functions. The large functions must
handle exactly 64K, but they don't have to handle more
than that. If your pointers can't access more then 64K at
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a time, you will want to set MAXSEG_64K in zlib.h. Since
it is unlikely that the method of handling memory alloca-
tion on a platform will change between applications, these
functions must be modified in the library at compile time.
Input/Output in libpng is done through png_read() and
png_write(), which currently just call fread() and
fwrite(). The FILE * is stored in png_struct and is ini-
tialized via png_init_io(). If you wish to change the
method of I/O, the library supplies callbacks that you can
set through the function png_set_read_fn() and
png_set_write_fn() at run time, instead of calling the
png_init_io() function. These functions also provide a
void pointer that can be retrieved via the function
png_get_io_ptr(). For example:
png_set_read_fn(png_structp read_ptr,
voidp read_io_ptr, png_rw_ptr read_data_fn)
png_set_write_fn(png_structp write_ptr,
voidp write_io_ptr, png_rw_ptr write_data_fn,
png_flush_ptr output_flush_fn);
voidp read_io_ptr = png_get_io_ptr(read_ptr);
voidp write_io_ptr = png_get_io_ptr(write_ptr);
The replacement I/O functions should have prototypes as
follows:
void user_read_data(png_structp png_ptr,
png_bytep data, png_uint_32 length);
void user_write_data(png_structp png_ptr,
png_bytep data, png_uint_32 length);
void user_flush_data(png_structp png_ptr);
Supplying NULL for the read, write, or flush functions
sets them back to using the default C stream functions.
It is an error to read from a write stream, and vice
versa.
Error handling in libpng is done through png_error() and
png_warning(). Errors handled through png_error() are
fatal, meaning that png_error() should never return to its
caller. Currently, this is handled via setjmp() and
longjmp() (unless you have compiled libpng with
PNG_SETJMP_NOT_SUPPORTED, in which case it is handled via
PNG_ABORT()), but you could change this to do things like
exit() if you should wish.
On non-fatal errors, png_warning() is called to print a
warning message, and then control returns to the calling
code. By default png_error() and png_warning() print a
message on stderr via fprintf() unless the library is com-
piled with PNG_NO_STDIO defined. If you wish to change
March 21, 2000 59
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
the behavior of the error functions, you will need to set
up your own message callbacks. These functions are nor-
mally supplied at the time that the png_struct is created.
It is also possible to change these functions after
png_create_*_struct() has been called by calling:
png_set_error_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
png_voidp error_ptr, png_error_ptr error_fn,
png_error_ptr warning_fn);
png_voidp error_ptr = png_get_error_ptr(png_ptr);
If NULL is supplied for either error_fn or warning_fn,
then the libpng default function will be used, calling
fprintf() and/or longjmp() if a problem is encountered.
The replacement error functions should have parameters as
follows:
void user_error_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
png_const_charp error_msg);
void user_warning_fn(png_structp png_ptr,
png_const_charp warning_msg);
The motivation behind using setjmp() and longjmp() is the
C++ throw and catch exception handling methods. This
makes the code much easier to write, as there is no need
to check every return code of every function call. How-
ever, there are some uncertainties about the status of
local variables after a longjmp, so the user may want to
be careful about doing anything after setjmp returns non-
zero besides returning itself. Consult your compiler doc-
umentation for more details.
Custom chunks
If you need to read or write custom chunks, you may need
to get deeper into the libpng code. The library now has
mechanisms for storing and writing chunks of unknown type;
you can even declare callbacks for custom chunks.
Hoewver, this may not be good enough if the library code
itself needs to know about interactions between your chunk
and existing `intrinsic' chunks.
If you need to write a new intrinsic chunk, first read the
PNG specification. Acquire a first level of understanding
of how it works. Pay particular attention to the sections
that describe chunk names, and look at how other chunks
were designed, so you can do things similarly. Second,
check out the sections of libpng that read and write
chunks. Try to find a chunk that is similar to yours and
use it as a template. More details can be found in the
comments inside the code. It is best to handle unknown
chunks in a generic method, via callback functions,
instead of by modifying libpng functions.
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LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
If you wish to write your own transformation for the data,
look through the part of the code that does the transfor-
mations, and check out some of the simpler ones to get an
idea of how they work. Try to find a similar transforma-
tion to the one you want to add and copy off of it. More
details can be found in the comments inside the code
itself.
Configuring for 16 bit platforms
You may need to change the png_large_malloc() and
png_large_free() routines in pngmem.c, as these are
required to allocate 64K, although there is already sup-
port for many of the common DOS compilers. Also, you will
want to look into zconf.h to tell zlib (and thus libpng)
that it cannot allocate more then 64K at a time. Even if
you can, the memory won't be accessible. So limit zlib
and libpng to 64K by defining MAXSEG_64K.
Configuring for DOS
For DOS users who only have access to the lower 640K, you
will have to limit zlib's memory usage via a png_set_com-
pression_mem_level() call. See zlib.h or zconf.h in the
zlib library for more information.
Configuring for Medium Model
Libpng's support for medium model has been tested on most
of the popular compilers. Make sure MAXSEG_64K gets
defined, USE_FAR_KEYWORD gets defined, and FAR gets
defined to far in pngconf.h, and you should be all set.
Everything in the library (except for zlib's structure) is
expecting far data. You must use the typedefs with the p
or pp on the end for pointers (or at least look at them
and be careful). Make note that the rows of data are
defined as png_bytepp, which is an unsigned char far * far
*.
Configuring for gui/windowing platforms:
You will need to write new error and warning functions
that use the GUI interface, as described previously, and
set them to be the error and warning functions at the time
that png_create_*_struct() is called, in order to have
them available during the structure initialization. They
can be changed later via png_set_error_fn(). On some com-
pilers, you may also have to change the memory allocators
(png_malloc, etc.).
Configuring for compiler xxx:
All includes for libpng are in pngconf.h. If you need to
add/change/delete an include, this is the place to do it.
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LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
The includes that are not needed outside libpng are pro-
tected by the PNG_INTERNAL definition, which is only
defined for those routines inside libpng itself. The
files in libpng proper only include png.h, which includes
pngconf.h.
Configuring zlib:
There are special functions to configure the compression.
Perhaps the most useful one changes the compression level,
which currently uses input compression values in the range
0 - 9. The library normally uses the default compression
level (Z_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION = 6). Tests have shown that
for a large majority of images, compression values in the
range 3-6 compress nearly as well as higher levels, and do
so much faster. For online applications it may be desir-
able to have maximum speed (Z_BEST_SPEED = 1). With ver-
sions of zlib after v0.99, you can also specify no com-
pression (Z_NO_COMPRESSION = 0), but this would create
files larger than just storing the raw bitmap. You can
specify the compression level by calling:
png_set_compression_level(png_ptr, level);
Another useful one is to reduce the memory level used by
the library. The memory level defaults to 8, but it can
be lowered if you are short on memory (running DOS, for
example, where you only have 640K).
png_set_compression_mem_level(png_ptr, level);
The other functions are for configuring zlib. They are
not recommended for normal use and may result in writing
an invalid PNG file. See zlib.h for more information on
what these mean.
png_set_compression_strategy(png_ptr,
strategy);
png_set_compression_window_bits(png_ptr,
window_bits);
png_set_compression_method(png_ptr, method);
Controlling row filtering
If you want to control whether libpng uses filtering or
not, which filters are used, and how it goes about picking
row filters, you can call one of these functions. The
selection and configuration of row filters can have a sig-
nificant impact on the size and encoding speed and a some-
what lesser impact on the decoding speed of an image.
Filtering is enabled by default for RGB and grayscale
images (with and without alpha), but not for paletted
images nor for any images with bit depths less than 8
bits/pixel.
March 21, 2000 62
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
The 'method' parameter sets the main filtering method,
which is currently only '0' in the PNG 1.2 specification.
The 'filters' parameter sets which filter(s), if any,
should be used for each scanline. Possible values are
PNG_ALL_FILTERS and PNG_NO_FILTERS to turn filtering on
and off, respectively.
Individual filter types are PNG_FILTER_NONE, PNG_FIL-
TER_SUB, PNG_FILTER_UP, PNG_FILTER_AVG, PNG_FILTER_PAETH,
which can be bitwise ORed together '|' to specify one or
more filters to use. These filters are described in more
detail in the PNG specification. If you intend to change
the filter type during the course of writing the image,
you should start with flags set for all of the filters you
intend to use so that libpng can initialize its internal
structures appropriately for all of the filter types.
filters = PNG_FILTER_NONE | PNG_FILTER_SUB
| PNG_FILTER_UP;
png_set_filter(png_ptr, PNG_FILTER_TYPE_BASE,
filters);
It is also possible to influence how libpng chooses from
among the available filters. This is done in two ways -
by telling it how important it is to keep the same filter
for successive rows, and by telling it the relative compu-
tational costs of the filters.
double weights[3] = {1.5, 1.3, 1.1},
costs[PNG_FILTER_VALUE_LAST] =
{1.0, 1.3, 1.3, 1.5, 1.7};
png_set_filter_selection(png_ptr,
PNG_FILTER_SELECTION_WEIGHTED, 3,
weights, costs);
The weights are multiplying factors that indicate to
libpng that the row filter should be the same for succes-
sive rows unless another row filter is that many times
better than the previous filter. In the above example, if
the previous 3 filters were SUB, SUB, NONE, the SUB filter
could have a "sum of absolute differences" 1.5 x 1.3 times
higher than other filters and still be chosen, while the
NONE filter could have a sum 1.1 times higher than other
filters and still be chosen. Unspecified weights are
taken to be 1.0, and the specified weights should probably
be declining like those above in order to emphasize recent
filters over older filters.
The filter costs specify for each filter type a relative
decoding cost to be considered when selecting row filters.
This means that filters with higher costs are less likely
to be chosen over filters with lower costs, unless their
"sum of absolute differences" is that much smaller. The
March 21, 2000 63
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
costs do not necessarily reflect the exact computational
speeds of the various filters, since this would unduly
influence the final image size.
Note that the numbers above were invented purely for this
example and are given only to help explain the function
usage. Little testing has been done to find optimum val-
ues for either the costs or the weights.
Removing unwanted object code
There are a bunch of #define's in pngconf.h that control
what parts of libpng are compiled. All the defines end in
_SUPPORTED. If you are never going to use a capability,
you can change the #define to #undef before recompiling
libpng and save yourself code and data space, or you can
turn off individual capabilities with defines that begin
with PNG_NO_.
You can also turn all of the transforms and ancillary
chunk capabilities off en masse with compiler directives
that define PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_TRANSFORMS, or
PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_ANCILLARY_CHUNKS, or all four, along
with directives to turn on any of the capabilities that
you do want. The PNG_NO_READ[or WRITE]_TRANSFORMS direc-
tives disable the extra transformations but still leave
the library fully capable of reading and writing PNG files
with all known public chunks Use of the PNG_NO_READ[or
WRITE]_ANCILLARY_CHUNKS directive produces a library that
is incapable of reading or writing ancillary chunks. If
you are not using the progressive reading capability, you
can turn that off with PNG_NO_PROGRESSIVE_READ (don't con-
fuse this with the INTERLACING capability, which you'll
still have).
All the reading and writing specific code are in separate
files, so the linker should only grab the files it needs.
However, if you want to make sure, or if you are building
a stand alone library, all the reading files start with
pngr and all the writing files start with pngw. The files
that don't match either (like png.c, pngtrans.c, etc.)
are used for both reading and writing, and always need to
be included. The progressive reader is in pngpread.c
If you are creating or distributing a dynamically linked
library (a .so or DLL file), you should not remove or dis-
able any parts of the library, as this will cause applica-
tions linked with different versions of the library to
fail if they call functions not available in your library.
The size of the library itself should not be an issue,
because only those sections that are actually used will be
loaded into memory.
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LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
Requesting debug printout
The macro definition PNG_DEBUG can be used to request
debugging printout. Set it to an integer value in the
range 0 to 3. Higher numbers result in increasing amounts
of debugging information. The information is printed to
the "stderr" file, unless another file name is specified
in the PNG_DEBUG_FILE macro definition.
When PNG_DEBUG > 0, the following functions (macros)
become available:
png_debug(level, message)
png_debug1(level, message, p1)
png_debug2(level, message, p1, p2)
in which "level" is compared to PNG_DEBUG to decide
whether to print the message, "message" is the formatted
string to be printed, and p1 and p2 are parameters that
are to be embedded in the string according to printf-style
formatting directives. For example,
png_debug1(2, "foo=%d0, foo);
is expanded to
if(PNG_DEBUG > 2)
fprintf(PNG_DEBUG_FILE, "foo=%d0, foo);
When PNG_DEBUG is defined but is zero, the macros aren't
defined, but you can still use PNG_DEBUG to control your
own debugging:
#ifdef PNG_DEBUG
fprintf(stderr, ...
#endif
When PNG_DEBUG = 1, the macros are defined, but only
png_debug statements having level = 0 will be printed.
There aren't any such statements in this version of
libpng, but if you insert some they will be printed.
VI. Changes to Libpng from version 0.88
It should be noted that versions of libpng later than 0.96
are not distributed by the original libpng author, Guy
Schalnat, nor by Andreas Dilger, who had taken over from
Guy during 1996 and 1997, and distributed versions 0.89
through 0.96, but rather by another member of the original
PNG Group, Glenn Randers-Pehrson. Guy and Andreas are
still alive and well, but they have moved on to other
things.
The old libpng functions png_read_init(),
png_write_init(), png_info_init(), png_read_destroy(), and
March 21, 2000 65
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)png_write_destory() have been moved to PNG_INTERNAL in
version 0.95 to discourage their use. The preferred
method of creating and initializing the libpng structures
is via the png_create_read_struct(), png_cre-
ate_write_struct(), and png_create_info_struct() because
they isolate the size of the structures from the applica-
tion, allow version error checking, and also allow the use
of custom error handling routines during the initializa-
tion, which the old functions do not. The functions
png_read_destroy() and png_write_destroy() do not actually
free the memory that libpng allocated for these structs,
but just reset the data structures, so they can be used
instead of png_destroy_read_struct() and
png_destroy_write_struct() if you feel there is too much
system overhead allocating and freeing the png_struct for
each image read.
Setting the error callbacks via png_set_message_fn()
before png_read_init() as was suggested in libpng-0.88 is
no longer supported because this caused applications that
do not use custom error functions to fail if the png_ptr
was not initialized to zero. It is still possible to set
the error callbacks AFTER png_read_init(), or to change
them with png_set_error_fn(), which is essentially the
same function, but with a new name to force compilation
errors with applications that try to use the old method.
VII. Y2K Compliance in libpng
March 21, 2000
Since the PNG Development group is an ad-hoc body, we
can't make an official declaration.
This is your unofficial assurance that libpng from version
0.71 and upward through 1.0.6 are Y2K compliant. It is my
belief that earlier versions were also Y2K compliant.
Libpng only has three year fields. One is a 2-byte
unsigned integer that will hold years up to 65535. The
other two hold the date in text format, and will hold
years up to 9999.
The integer is
"png_uint_16 year" in png_time_struct.
The strings are
"png_charp time_buffer" in png_struct and
"near_time_buffer", which is a local character string
in png.c.
There are seven time-related functions:
png_convert_to_rfc_1123() in png.c
March 21, 2000 66
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
(formerly png_convert_to_rfc_1152() in error)
png_convert_from_struct_tm() in pngwrite.c, called in
pngwrite.c
png_convert_from_time_t() in pngwrite.c
png_get_tIME() in pngget.c
png_handle_tIME() in pngrutil.c, called in pngread.c
png_set_tIME() in pngset.c
png_write_tIME() in pngwutil.c, called in pngwrite.c
All appear to handle dates properly in a Y2K environment.
The png_convert_from_time_t() function calls gmtime() to
convert from system clock time, which returns (year -
1900), which we properly convert to the full 4-digit year.
There is a possibility that applications using libpng are
not passing 4-digit years into the png_con-
vert_to_rfc_1123() function, or that they are incorrectly
passing only a 2-digit year instead of "year - 1900" into
the png_convert_from_struct_tm() function, but this is not
under our control. The libpng documentation has always
stated that it works with 4-digit years, and the APIs have
been documented as such.
The tIME chunk itself is also Y2K compliant. It uses a
2-byte unsigned integer to hold the year, and can hold
years as large as 65535.
zlib, upon which libpng depends, is also Y2K compliant.
It contains no date-related code.
Glenn Randers-Pehrson
libpng maintainer
PNG Development Group
NOTE
Note about libpng version numbers:
Due to various miscommunications, unforeseen code incom-
patibilities and occasional factors outside the authors'
control, version numbering on the library has not always
been consistent and straightforward. The following table
summarizes matters since version 0.89c, which was the
first widely used release:
source png.h png.h shared-lib
version string int version
-----------------------------
0.89c 0.89 89 1.0.89
0.90 0.90 90 0.90 [should be 2.0.90]
0.95 0.95 95 0.95 [should be 2.0.95]
0.96 0.96 96 0.96 [should be 2.0.96]
0.97b 1.00.97 97 1.0.1 [should be 2.0.97]
0.97c 0.97 97 2.0.97
March 21, 2000 67
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
0.98 0.98 98 2.0.98
0.99 0.99 98 2.0.99
0.99a-m 0.99 99 2.0.99
1.00 1.00 100 2.1.0 [int should be 10000]
1.0.0 1.0.0 100 2.1.0 [int should be 10000]
1.0.1 1.0.1 10001 2.1.0
Henceforth the source version will match the shared-
library minor and patch numbers; the shared-library major
version number will be used for changes in backward com-
patibility, as it is intended. The PNG_PNGLIB_VER macro,
which is not used within libpng but is available for
applications, is an unsigned integer of the form xyyzz
corresponding to the source version x.y.z (leading zeros
in y and z).
SEE ALSOlibpngpf(3), png(5)
libpng:
ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png
http://www.cdrom.com/pub/png
zlib:
(generally) at the same location as libpng or at
ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/zlib
ftp://ftp.freesoftware.com/pub/infozip/zlib
PNGspecification:RFC2083
(generally) at the same location as libpng or at
ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2083.txt
or (as a W3C Recommendation) at
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-png.html
In the case of any inconsistency between the PNG specifi-
cation and this library, the specification takes prece-
dence.
AUTHORS
This man page: Glenn Randers-Pehrson <randeg@alum.rpi.edu>
The contributing authors would like to thank all those who
helped with testing, bug fixes, and patience. This
wouldn't have been possible without all of you.
Thanks to Frank J. T. Wojcik for helping with the
March 21, 2000 68
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
documentation.
Libpng version 1.0.6 - March 21, 2000: Initially created
in 1995 by Guy Eric Schalnat, then of Group 42, Inc. Cur-
rently maintained by Glenn Randers-Pehrson (ran-
deg@alum.rpi.edu).
Supported by the PNG development group
(png-implement@ccrc.wustl.edu).
COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Guy Eric Schalnat, Group 42, Inc.
(libpng versions 0.5, May 1995, through 0.89c, May 1996)
Copyright (c) 1996, 1997 Andreas Dilger (libpng versions
0.90, December 1996, through 0.96, May 1997) Copyright (c)
1998, 1999, 2000 Glenn Randers-Pehrson (libpng versions
0.97, January 1998, through 1.0.6, March 21, 2000)
For the purposes of this copyright and license, "Con-
tributing Authors" is defined as the following set of
individuals:
John Bowler
Kevin Bracey
Sam Bushell
Andreas Dilger
Magnus Holmgren
Tom Lane
Dave Martindale
Glenn Randers-Pehrson
Eric S. Raymond
Greg Roelofs
Guy Eric Schalnat
Paul Schmidt
Tom Tanner
Willem van Schaik
Tim Wegner
The PNG Reference Library (libpng) is supplied "AS IS".
The Contributing Authors and Group 42, Inc. disclaim all
warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limi-
tation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness
for any purpose. The Contributing Authors and Group 42,
Inc. assume no liability for direct, indirect, inciden-
tal, special, exemplary, or consequential damages, which
may result from the use of the PNG Reference Library, even
if advised of the possibility of such damage.
Permission is hereby granted to use, copy, modify, and
distribute this source code, or portions hereof, for any
purpose, without fee, subject to the following restric-
tions:
March 21, 2000 69
LIBPNG(3)LIBPNG(3)
1. The origin of this source code must not be
misrepresented.
2. Altered versions must be plainly marked as such
and must not be misrepresented as being the
original source.
3. This Copyright notice may not be removed or
altered from any source or altered source
distribution.
The Contributing Authors and Group 42, Inc. specifically
permit, without fee, and encourage the use of this source
code as a component to supporting the PNG file format in
commercial products. If you use this source code in a
product, acknowledgment is not required but would be
appreciated.
A "png_get_copyright" function is available, for conve-
nient use in "about" boxes and the like:
printf("%s",png_get_copyright(NULL));
Also, the PNG logo (in PNG format, of course) is supplied
in the file "pngnow.png".
Libpng is OSI Certified Open Source Software. OSI Certi-
fied is a certification mark of the Open Source Initia-
tive.
March 21, 2000 70