The PNG format (pronounced "PING") was designed to replace the antiquated GIF format, and to some extent, the TIFF format. It utilizes lossless compression, meaning no image data is lost when saving or viewing the image. It is a universal format that is recognized by the World Wide Web consortium, and supported by modern web browsers. The PNG format was developed when it was discovered by the entire development community in early 1995 that the GIF image format uses LZW compression, technology which was patented in 1985 by Unisys corporation. - John LeMasney