gif2png

For simple batch conversion of GIF images into PNGs, pnmtopng is not only overkill but also somewhat tricky to automate. Such a task is more readily handled by gif2png, a special-purpose conversion program written by Alexander Lehmann. Besides the raw image pixels, there are three GIF features that translate directly into PNG features: transparency, text (comments), and interlacing. gif2png handles the first two automatically; only interlacing is not detected and automatically applied to the output image, although the program does include a -i option to force interlacing.

The simplest usage of gif2png is to give it the name of a GIF image:

gif2png foo.gif

The program will convert the image to a noninterlaced PNG, preserving any transparency, comments, and ``graphic control'' or ``application extension'' information. It will also add its own text chunk with the Software keyword, and it will automatically change the file extension from .gif to .png. There is one important caveat, however: the current version, gif2png 0.6, does not check for an existing file of the same name and will overwrite any such file without warning.

Because gif2png renames the files it converts without user input, it can be used to convert a whole directory of GIF files in a single command. Under Unix, where the shell expands wildcard filenames (``globbing''), this is as simple as:

gif2png *.gif

On other operating systems, the filenames must be specified explicitly:

gif2png a.gif b.gif c.gif d.gif e.gif foo.gif foo2.gif

To prevent gif2png from adding a Software text chunk to the output image(s), use the -s option:

gif2png -s foo.gif

To do the same conversion but to an interlaced PNG, include the -i option:

gif2png -s -i foo.gif
gif2png -si foo.gif

gif2png does have a few drawbacks, as might be expected given its pre-1.0 version number. In addition to the problem of overwriting existing files, gif2png's conversion of GIF transparency information is less than ideal; although it gets the job done, the program copies over the GIF palette without modification, which can result in useless transparency entries in the PNG file. For example, a 256-color GIF image whose last palette entry is the transparent one would result in a 256-entry transparency chunk in the PNG file, where one entry would suffice; in other words, it can waste up to 255 bytes in the output file. gif2png is also rather verbose and provides no option to keep it quiet; in fact, its progress meter (a simple percentage value, updated repeatedly) is supposed to be enabled only when the -p option is given, but it actually is on by default and can only be turned off with -p.

Despite all this, the program is quite stable and useful. It even converts GIF comments from IBM codepage 437 to PNG's Latin-1 format, and it will convert animated GIFs into multiple single-image PNGs. A planned option that would have automatically deleted the GIF input images after conversion was never implemented, nor was the capability of converting GIF Plain Text Extensions into PNG gIFt chunks. But these are minor issues; in fact, the gIFt chunk was officially declared Bad (that is, deprecated) in October 1998, so its lack of support in gif2png turned out to be prescient. Indeed, the only major problem with the program is the fact that it reads GIFs in the first place. It is therefore (according to Unisys) subject to the LZW patent and its associated licensing issues. Unisys initially claimed that freeware GIF programs would be granted a free LZW license, but that later changed, which was directly responsible for the cessation of further development on gif2png.

The gif2png source code and ready-to-go binaries for Linux can be found at http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/gif2png/. (Older binaries for DOS, OS/2, Amiga, and Macintosh may still exist elsewhere on the Web.) A graphical port written by Nigel Stewart for 32-bit Windows, called The Exorcist, supports drag and drop and is available from its own home page: http://www.nigels.com/exorcist/Exorcist.html. Version 1.1 is the latest release.