The gif2png program converts files from the obsolescent Graphic Interchange Format to Portable Network Graphics. The conversion preserves all graphic information, including transparency, perfectly. The gif2png program can even recover data from corrupted GIFs.
The distribution also includes a Python script, web2png, that will convert entire web hierarchies (images and HTML or PHP pages). The script requires Python 1.5.2 or later.
| README file | README |
| Manual page | gif2png.html |
| Source tarball | gif2png-2.5.2.tar.gz |
| News file | NEWS |
The program has actually been functional and stable since 1996. See the NEWS file for more.
The sources can be built under any Unix, or under MS-DOS or Windows using djgpp, or using Borland C. I don't know when the djgpp or Borland builds were last tested, but the Unix version is as stable as a rock.
Note: Some ImageMagick 4.2.x versions have a bug displaying grayscale PNGs that makes it look like gif2png is broken. It's not. The bug has been fixed, at least as of 5.2.2.
This program was written by a German university student named Alexander Lehmann in 1994-1995. He evolved it to a beta version 0.6 and then dropped off the face of the net. In Fall 1999, after the program had been stable and in production use for four years, Greg Roelofs <newt@pobox.com> added some minor features and released an 0.7 patch.
A short time later, with Greg's consent, I took over maintaining gif2png in order to give it a proper manual page and release packaging. Alexander Lehmann is OK with this and has even approved a change in the license terms to use the libpng/zlib license.
The GIF format was formerly encumbered by a Unisys patent for the Lempel-Ziv-Welch compression algorithm, and various other auxiliary pattents that had sometimes been interpreted as blockers.. But all blocking patents have now expired and this format is no longer encumbered.