P: Support Animated PNG (APNG)

[BumbleBritches57]

GIF dosen't support alpha transparency, it dosen't support high color, it dosen't support a ton of things, and I think you should add APNG support to your png library.

[Nerf-Hearder]

I did submit a feature request, though I only did it for media encoder. Figured I should provide a link to where y'all can make your various cases.

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Google & firefox support apng, please catch up adobe! 

[andre_rasesk17625078]

Any updates from adobe for implementation?

[JJMack]

Adobe does not make public their plans for their products. IMO I would not expect Adobe would add animated PNG support.   MP4 is a better file format and browsers have support for MP4

[Warren Heaton]

While watching an Apple developer video today, I was reminded about j.ingleby's post about APNG being a recommended format by Apple for iOS Stickers.  I'm not sure that that's the case.  According this Apple Developer video, animated iOS Stickers are made from PNG Image Sequences: 

Building Sticker Packs - Tutorial - Videos - Apple Developer

For what it's worth,

Warren

[Josh I]

Thanks for the mention. @2m25s in that video it mentions APNG's being used for animated stickers. 500kb is the limit.  Gifs can be used (and are standard for instagram), but the quality is much less as they don't allow for higher quality transparency/alphas (which APNG does).

Tinypng.com has been a life saver for resolving this. I haven't used the Photoshop plugin but the site itself does the trick.

[Warren Heaton]

Hi J:

I think you're confusing a PNG image sequence for an Animated PNG.  The Apple Developer video only shows individual PNG files used as an image sequence.

It's good to hear that Tinypng.com is working for you.

-Warren

[Josh I]

I appreciate the clarification but I followed apple specs which advised

APNG and not simply individual pngs.

The project was for a Nike sticker pack. I output pngs with alpha from AE.

Then assembled to an APNG using a free apng tool. After that they were

compressed with TinyPng before submitting to the apple app store.

Are you stuck on a step or simply discussing?

On Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 5:37 PM Warren Heaton, <forums_noreply@adobe.com>

[Warren Heaton]

Stuck, no.  Missing, maybe.

Could you post a link to where you found the Apple specification?  I'm not finding anything about APNG on the Apple Developer pages, but I could be looking in the wrong place.

Thanks in advance.

[Josh I]

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/extensions/messaging/

[andre_rasesk17625078]

Okay I see Adobe has do the job. I find it very weird that this first class programm (Photoshop) not support the developer of apng. I have to use them in a client project and to use mp4 isn't really a solution. Why adobe can't give us a proper solution?

[Warren Heaton]

A-pings!!!!!

Telestream ScreenFlow 8 now supports Animated PNG export: Animated PNG Export on Vimeo

I imagine that we'll see this feature pop-up in other familiar video editing/image editing applications.  Maybe.

[angie_taylor]

You can export a Gif from After Effects again now 🙂 You do it by exporting via Adobe Media Encoder;

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Most modern browsers support APNG at this point; at the time of writing this, according to https://caniuse.com/#search=APNG, 90.39% of people should be able to view them just fine. While I've been able to set up an APNG editing workflow using an APNG disassembler and an APNG assembler, it's a bit of unnecessary extra work and processing that can and should be eliminated. We can work with GIFs within Photoshop, why not APNGs? As someone who semi-frequently works with APNGs, having to work with image sequences kinda sucks and I'd rather not have to do that.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Hey, this request has been around for 9 years. One wonders how long it will take until it gets noticed by anyone (PS users as well as Adobe employees).

[bgoosen]

It's a bit bonkers that the most recommened option is to send people to a website or to grab some random freeware/cheapware to assemble their aPNGs. No Adobe program can do it!

[xdanielx]

Since support for apng was asked all major browsers now support it as a post from 2017 said, in a span of two weeks all major browsers started supporting it and surprise, photoshop doesn't support it! Then iOS stikers became a thing but use PNG sequences instead, maybe because is photoshop what takes the lead on what is supported by other things and what isn't. It took webp quite a long time to get support officially. At least for the new generation of image formats, like .AVIF, and .HEIF, things are goind a bit faster, but .apng should have been here for a long time and maybe comparable to the new formats. Having an animated logo with transparency for example, might be a case where compression works very well.

[Xcomapocalypse]

It is absolutely crazy APNG is not an option for import/export in all relevant Adobe tools.
This is just a typical 'Adobe asleep at the wheel' moment. Customers should not need to make a case for the file format as Adobe should already have a roadmap and understanding of what's needed rather than wait for customers to complain.
They are always late to the party until the penny finally drops. There must be someone with half a clue at Adobe as they desperately clawed themselves back into the game with the FIGMA acquisition. This is a platform they should have been leading years and years ago, but in typical Adobe fashion, they ignored the change and trends in the industry until they started eating Adobe's lunch.

Not many innovators and leaders at Adobe presently, just tired process-driven narrow-minded thinkers.

[sacb0y]

I wonder if the problem is bloat, with how many versions of photoshop exist it feels like adobe has been wanting to rewrite photoshop for a long time. Cause obviously it's gotten so old, and likely has so much code not written by anyone working on it it's too difficult to add things in a timely manner. 

It's harming the value proposition, Unity is having a similar problem with old bloat and not enough adoption of current standards. How long can adobe be behind before it stops being the standard?

[rayek.elfin]

@XcomapocalypseI wholeheartedly agree: Adobe traditionally seems to be consistently behind the curve in anything related to screen design and web/app design and development. Quite amazing, really.

As for the APNG discussion: in the meantime since this request was posted (a DECADE ago!) Animated WebP has been adopted in browsers and is already supported in PS alternatives such as PhotoLine.

If Adobe weren't lagging behind by leagues, it'd be almost funny. But it really is not, and rather a sad state of affairs.

[sacb0y]

I would assume people pay monthly to be ahead of the curve not behind 😉

[Carola_BHG]

Hello and thank you! This was actually useful. Unluckily, whenI export my 5 frames animation, PS will create hundreds of PNG files. I stopped it after creating 203 PNG files. And to add to that, it created one image per document while I am using artboards, so there is no use in PNG files that contain all of my artboards at the same time.

It amazes me that Adobe still doesn't support APNG to this date and I have to do all sorts of things to create them using free online tools when my company is paying for a license for this software. You really have to be patient as an Adobe customer, to be honest.