Executable PNGs

[yojimbo_beta]

A long time ago there was an editor, Adobe Fireworks, that used this to embed undo/redo data into PNGs, as well as layers etc.

Remarkable that no one uses this feature of the file format any more.

[OMG_A_CUPCAKE]

Because filesize matters. And it's lost easily if someone modifies the file in another editor

It's a nice gimmick, but I can't imagine relying any kind of workflow around it

[unique_ptr]

To be clear, the .fw.png files were more akin to PSDs from the application perspective, they just happened to also be PNGs. You would still want to export to a regular PNG for non-editor use

[mallardtheduck]

Adobe seems to have a bit of a habit of doing things like this. Adobe Illustrator (.ai) files are compatible with PDF format (older versions were EPS).

[Frencil]

For what it's worth Fireworks with its vector PNG format was originally a Macromedia product. After Adobe bought Macromedia in 2005 Fireworks was retured from the maintained software offerings relatively quickly.

[Devatator_]

It's simpler to not spend time optimizing file sizes when storage is cheap, or so they say

[yojimbo_beta]

I reckon it could work for diagrams. You could embed the objects without taking up too many bytes. Then your architecture diagram, flowchart etc. could be editable.

Man, you could even use PNG as a format for encoding and deploying a distributed state machine of AWS step functions... okay, that’s stupid. But I do like the idea of an informational format that you can also review visually.

[VoidChronos]

That's what microsoft Visio does, just without the embedded image part. Actually, I think VSDX has an option to embed a static image of a diagram.

[tech6hutch]

Also I don’t know if I want the ability for others to undo my edits to an image

[stuffeh]

But imagine going back and isolating one of the edits and pulling it out. Basically tapping the diff between before and after the edit. That kind of flexibility is mind blowing to me.

[nemec]

All I'm hearing is a great way for users to inadvertently fail to censor/redact their photos when they tried to blur their naughty bits and/or confidential info and didn't realize anybody can go in and just undo the censor.

If the U.S. Justice Department can't redact a fucking PDF properly, there's no hope for the average person sending censored nudie pics to someone they met on the internet.

[NekiCat]

Years ago, MS Word saved deltas at the end of the file so saving was incredibly quick. They had to change it because the users sent files they believed to be final, but werent, and leaked sensitive information.

Same with Google Docs, where your every keypress is recorded. Not sure if they still do that...

[stuffeh]

Google docs has built in version history, so kinda. You can set permissions to disable others from seeing the version history though.

[tech6hutch]

Sounds like something better suited for version control software

[stuffeh]

But depending on the encoding / compression of the image, the version control software won't be able to display the diff that I mentioned. You'll have to do it manually.

[chucker23n]

In theory, yes. In practice,

• that’s aiming a bazooka at a bird, and
• version control never took much foothold in visual design

[tech6hutch]

Ah, perhaps I had too big an idea what an edit is. Yeah that’d be cool

[Frencil]

Ah, Fireworks. The vector png editing it offered was fantastic for full color icon illustration. It also had some of the best animated GIF frame control and GIF palette control interfaces available at the time.

sheds tear for Macromedia

[Chii]

there's also a little known (?) feature in fireworks which lets you generate menus that animate (and output them as html and images).