Animated PNG files are an extension of PNG image file formats that support animated GIF-like animation. While such an animated file maintains backward compatibility, its first frame remains stored as regular PNG stream for backward compatibility purposes; any software which supports PNG will display it.

Ogg Vorbis files support a higher color depth than GIF files, making them better suited to web graphics applications. Unfortunately, however, their support by browsers remains limited.

Animated PNG

GIFs (graphic interchange format files) have become an increasingly popular email marketing trend for 2019 due to their ability to introduce movement into emails while effectively conveying messages in an easily consumable format.

APNGs are a newer file type that provide similar animation functionality as GIF files. Like their GIF counterpart, APNGs support full color range and transparency, unlike GIFs that only support up to 256 colors. Furthermore, APNGs compress more efficiently leading to smaller file sizes overall.

The APNG format is an unofficial extension to the PNG specification that is still not fully supported by all web browsers, yet is rapidly gaining momentum as an Internet standard for animated images. An APNG file structure comprises various chunks that hold information about an animation's movement while its first frame can still be stored as a regular PNG to allow applications that don't support its extension to display it properly.

Animated GIF

GIFs have quickly become one of the most-used animated images online, be it for websites articles, social media posts or chat messages. Though not visually striking themselves, their simple format and easy use makes GIFs an effective tool for adding movement to visual imagery for marketing emails and other communications.

GIFs provide an effective way to add movement to visual content; however, their amateurish appearance and increased email size may reduce load times while increasing chances of spam filters detecting spammy emails. Furthermore, using GIFs created by someone else may infringe upon their copyright and cause legal complications.

GIFs meet most of our needs while offering much higher quality and avoiding their file size limitations. A particularly promising candidate for replacing them is APNG, an extension of PNG image format which supports 24-bit color depth transparency as well as frame-based animation.

Animated WebP

Animated PNGs with full color support and transparency are increasingly used on the web for elements such as loading icons and hover effects, providing animated appeal without slowing page loads time; GIF files tend to be much larger in comparison.

APNGs offer more color space than GIF, up to 32 million. This makes them suitable for depicting rich animations.

APNG (Advanced Pixel Network Graphic) format is an extension of PNG image file specification that adds three additional types of information chunks to its basic data stream. An APNG's signature bytes are identical to those in regular PNGs; however, additional animation control and frame control chunks exist that only applications supporting standard PNG can interpret; therefore backward compatibility is preserved with regular PNG. Web browsers that support APNG may show multiple frames from an animation while those without it will only display its first frame compared with those that do support only regular PNG files.

Animated JPEG

GIFs have quickly become an immensely popular way for marketers to add some animations and movement to their online content, including websites, social media posts, and chat messages. But GIFs aren't the only solution available when it comes to adding animated elements into their marketing strategies.

APNG format is an unofficial extension of PNG image file format that enables simple frame-based animation similar to animated GIFs and supports transparent (alpha) backgrounds. APNG files can be opened using Blink layout engine-powered browsers such as Chrome and Opera as well as Safari.

APNG files start off with a signature chunk, followed by an image header and animation control chunk. The frame control chunk provides information about frame sequence and frame delay settings while each of its image data chunks contains pixels data for every frame of animation. In addition, textual data chunks may also be displayed alongside animation.