animated portable network graphics (file format) (APNG)

Animated Portable Network Graphics (APNG) is an extension of the PNG file format and supports animations.

APNG is intended to replace the Graphics Interchange Format( GIF), which is used to create simple animations. It offers 24-bitcolor depth and can display images using the alpha channel with 8- bit transparency. APNG is also an alternative to Multiple-Image Network Graphics( MNG) because it can be used in most Internet applications.

It is backward compatible with PNG format, where APNG files are rendered by PNG decoders as simple images without animation. The file extension is *.png. Various web browsers support APNG.