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| 1 README for libpng version 1.6.22rc01 - May 14, 2016 (shared library 16.0) |
| 2 See the note about version numbers near the top of png.h |
| 3 |
| 4 See INSTALL for instructions on how to install libpng. |
| 5 |
| 6 Libpng comes in several distribution formats. Get libpng-*.tar.gz or |
| 7 libpng-*.tar.xz or if you want UNIX-style line endings in the text files, |
| 8 or lpng*.7z or lpng*.zip if you want DOS-style line endings. |
| 9 |
| 10 Version 0.89 was the first official release of libpng. Don't let the |
| 11 fact that it's the first release fool you. The libpng library has been in |
| 12 extensive use and testing since mid-1995. By late 1997 it had |
| 13 finally gotten to the stage where there hadn't been significant |
| 14 changes to the API in some time, and people have a bad feeling about |
| 15 libraries with versions < 1.0. Version 1.0.0 was released in |
| 16 March 1998. |
| 17 |
| 18 **** |
| 19 Note that some of the changes to the png_info structure render this |
| 20 version of the library binary incompatible with libpng-0.89 or |
| 21 earlier versions if you are using a shared library. The type of the |
| 22 "filler" parameter for png_set_filler() has changed from png_byte to |
| 23 png_uint_32, which will affect shared-library applications that use |
| 24 this function. |
| 25 |
| 26 To avoid problems with changes to the internals of png info_struct, |
| 27 new APIs have been made available in 0.95 to avoid direct application |
| 28 access to info_ptr. These functions are the png_set_<chunk> and |
| 29 png_get_<chunk> functions. These functions should be used when |
| 30 accessing/storing the info_struct data, rather than manipulating it |
| 31 directly, to avoid such problems in the future. |
| 32 |
| 33 It is important to note that the APIs did not make current programs |
| 34 that access the info struct directly incompatible with the new |
| 35 library, through libpng-1.2.x. In libpng-1.4.x, which was meant to |
| 36 be a transitional release, members of the png_struct and the |
| 37 info_struct can still be accessed, but the compiler will issue a |
| 38 warning about deprecated usage. Since libpng-1.5.0, direct access |
| 39 to these structs is not allowed, and the definitions of the structs |
| 40 reside in private pngstruct.h and pnginfo.h header files that are not |
| 41 accessible to applications. It is strongly suggested that new |
| 42 programs use the new APIs (as shown in example.c and pngtest.c), and |
| 43 older programs be converted to the new format, to facilitate upgrades |
| 44 in the future. |
| 45 **** |
| 46 |
| 47 Additions since 0.90 include the ability to compile libpng as a |
| 48 Windows DLL, and new APIs for accessing data in the info struct. |
| 49 Experimental functions include the ability to set weighting and cost |
| 50 factors for row filter selection, direct reads of integers from buffers |
| 51 on big-endian processors that support misaligned data access, faster |
| 52 methods of doing alpha composition, and more accurate 16->8 bit color |
| 53 conversion. |
| 54 |
| 55 The additions since 0.89 include the ability to read from a PNG stream |
| 56 which has had some (or all) of the signature bytes read by the calling |
| 57 application. This also allows the reading of embedded PNG streams that |
| 58 do not have the PNG file signature. As well, it is now possible to set |
| 59 the library action on the detection of chunk CRC errors. It is possible |
| 60 to set different actions based on whether the CRC error occurred in a |
| 61 critical or an ancillary chunk. |
| 62 |
| 63 The changes made to the library, and bugs fixed are based on discussions |
| 64 on the PNG-implement mailing list and not on material submitted |
| 65 privately to Guy, Andreas, or Glenn. They will forward any good |
| 66 suggestions to the list. |
| 67 |
| 68 For a detailed description on using libpng, read libpng-manual.txt. For |
| 69 examples of libpng in a program, see example.c and pngtest.c. For usage |
| 70 information and restrictions (what little they are) on libpng, see |
| 71 png.h. For a description on using zlib (the compression library used by |
| 72 libpng) and zlib's restrictions, see zlib.h |
| 73 |
| 74 I have included a general makefile, as well as several machine and |
| 75 compiler specific ones, but you may have to modify one for your own needs. |
| 76 |
| 77 You should use zlib 1.0.4 or later to run this, but it MAY work with |
| 78 versions as old as zlib 0.95. Even so, there are bugs in older zlib |
| 79 versions which can cause the output of invalid compression streams for |
| 80 some images. You will definitely need zlib 1.0.4 or later if you are |
| 81 taking advantage of the MS-DOS "far" structure allocation for the small |
| 82 and medium memory models. You should also note that zlib is a |
| 83 compression library that is useful for more things than just PNG files. |
| 84 You can use zlib as a drop-in replacement for fread() and fwrite() if |
| 85 you are so inclined. |
| 86 |
| 87 zlib should be available at the same place that libpng is, or at zlib.net. |
| 88 |
| 89 You may also want a copy of the PNG specification. It is available |
| 90 as an RFC, a W3C Recommendation, and an ISO/IEC Standard. You can find |
| 91 these at http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/documents/ |
| 92 |
| 93 This code is currently being archived at libpng.sf.net in the |
| 94 [DOWNLOAD] area, and at ftp://ftp.simplesystems.org. If you can't find it |
| 95 in any of those places, e-mail me, and I'll help you find it. |
| 96 |
| 97 I am not a lawyer, but I believe that the Export Control Classification |
| 98 Number (ECCN) for libpng is EAR99, which means not subject to export |
| 99 controls or International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) because it |
| 100 is open source, publicly available software, that does not contain any |
| 101 encryption software. See the EAR, paragraphs 734.3(b)(3) and 734.7(b). |
| 102 |
| 103 If you have any code changes, requests, problems, etc., please e-mail |
| 104 them to me. Also, I'd appreciate any make files or project files, |
| 105 and any modifications you needed to make to get libpng to compile, |
| 106 along with a #define variable to tell what compiler/system you are on. |
| 107 If you needed to add transformations to libpng, or wish libpng would |
| 108 provide the image in a different way, drop me a note (and code, if |
| 109 possible), so I can consider supporting the transformation. |
| 110 Finally, if you get any warning messages when compiling libpng |
| 111 (note: not zlib), and they are easy to fix, I'd appreciate the |
| 112 fix. Please mention "libpng" somewhere in the subject line. Thanks. |
| 113 |
| 114 This release was created and will be supported by myself (of course |
| 115 based in a large way on Guy's and Andreas' earlier work), and the PNG |
| 116 development group. |
| 117 |
| 118 Send comments/corrections/commendations to png-mng-implement at |
| 119 lists.sourceforge.net (subscription required; visit |
| 120 https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/png-mng-implement |
| 121 to subscribe) or to glennrp at users.sourceforge.net |
| 122 |
| 123 You can't reach Guy, the original libpng author, at the addresses |
| 124 given in previous versions of this document. He and Andreas will |
| 125 read mail addressed to the png-implement list, however. |
| 126 |
| 127 Please do not send general questions about PNG. Send them to |
| 128 png-mng-misc at lists.sf.net (subscription required; visit |
| 129 https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/png-mng-misc to |
| 130 subscribe). If you have a question about something |
| 131 in the PNG specification that is related to using libpng, send it |
| 132 to me. Send me any questions that start with "I was using libpng, |
| 133 and ...". If in doubt, send questions to me. I'll bounce them |
| 134 to others, if necessary. |
| 135 |
| 136 Please do not send suggestions on how to change PNG. We have |
| 137 been discussing PNG for twenty years now, and it is official and |
| 138 finished. If you have suggestions for libpng, however, I'll |
| 139 gladly listen. Even if your suggestion is not used immediately, |
| 140 it may be used later. |
| 141 |
| 142 Files in this distribution: |
| 143 |
| 144 ANNOUNCE => Announcement of this version, with recent changes |
| 145 CHANGES => Description of changes between libpng versions |
| 146 KNOWNBUG => List of known bugs and deficiencies |
| 147 LICENSE => License to use and redistribute libpng |
| 148 README => This file |
| 149 TODO => Things not implemented in the current library |
| 150 Y2KINFO => Statement of Y2K compliance |
| 151 example.c => Example code for using libpng functions |
| 152 libpng.3 => manual page for libpng (includes libpng-manual.txt) |
| 153 libpng-manual.txt => Description of libpng and its functions |
| 154 libpngpf.3 => manual page for libpng's private functions |
| 155 png.5 => manual page for the PNG format |
| 156 png.c => Basic interface functions common to library |
| 157 png.h => Library function and interface declarations (public) |
| 158 pngpriv.h => Library function and interface declarations (private) |
| 159 pngconf.h => System specific library configuration (public) |
| 160 pngstruct.h => png_struct declaration (private) |
| 161 pnginfo.h => png_info struct declaration (private) |
| 162 pngdebug.h => debugging macros (private) |
| 163 pngerror.c => Error/warning message I/O functions |
| 164 pngget.c => Functions for retrieving info from struct |
| 165 pngmem.c => Memory handling functions |
| 166 pngbar.png => PNG logo, 88x31 |
| 167 pngnow.png => PNG logo, 98x31 |
| 168 pngpread.c => Progressive reading functions |
| 169 pngread.c => Read data/helper high-level functions |
| 170 pngrio.c => Lowest-level data read I/O functions |
| 171 pngrtran.c => Read data transformation functions |
| 172 pngrutil.c => Read data utility functions |
| 173 pngset.c => Functions for storing data into the info_struct |
| 174 pngtest.c => Library test program |
| 175 pngtest.png => Library test sample image |
| 176 pngtrans.c => Common data transformation functions |
| 177 pngwio.c => Lowest-level write I/O functions |
| 178 pngwrite.c => High-level write functions |
| 179 pngwtran.c => Write data transformations |
| 180 pngwutil.c => Write utility functions |
| 181 arm => Contains optimized code for the ARM platform |
| 182 contrib => Contributions |
| 183 examples => Example programs |
| 184 gregbook => source code for PNG reading and writing, from |
| 185 Greg Roelofs' "PNG: The Definitive Guide", |
| 186 O'Reilly, 1999 |
| 187 libtests => Test programs |
| 188 pngminim => Minimal decoder, encoder, and progressive decoder |
| 189 programs demonstrating use of pngusr.dfa |
| 190 pngminus => Simple pnm2png and png2pnm programs |
| 191 pngsuite => Test images |
| 192 tools => Various tools |
| 193 visupng => Contains a MSVC workspace for VisualPng |
| 194 projects => Contains project files and workspaces for |
| 195 building a DLL |
| 196 owatcom => Contains a WATCOM project for building libpng |
| 197 visualc71 => Contains a Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) |
| 198 workspace for building libpng and zlib |
| 199 vstudio => Contains a Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) |
| 200 workspace for building libpng and zlib |
| 201 scripts => Directory containing scripts for building libpng: |
| 202 (see scripts/README.txt for the list of scripts) |
| 203 |
| 204 Good luck, and happy coding. |
| 205 |
| 206 -Glenn Randers-Pehrson (current maintainer, since 1998) |
| 207 Internet: glennrp at users.sourceforge.net |
| 208 |
| 209 -Andreas Eric Dilger (former maintainer, 1996-1997) |
| 210 Internet: adilger at enel.ucalgary.ca |
| 211 Web: http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/ |
| 212 |
| 213 -Guy Eric Schalnat (original author and former maintainer, 1995-1996) |
| 214 (formerly of Group 42, Inc) |
| 215 Internet: gschal at infinet.com |
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