MNG-supporting Libraries and Toolkits

Programming Libraries and Toolkits with MNG Support

Application toolkits allow developers to add image and/or animation capabilities to their own applications; this page lists the ones that offer MNG support, either for reading or writing or both. Plug-ins that are more relevant to end users are still listed on the miscellaneous apps and browsers pages.

All known MNG-supporting toolkits are listed here, but Greg doesn't always hear about new ones right away. So if you don't see something here, also try Gerard Juyn's MNG application pages, particularly these:

As with the PNG-applications pages, links to home WWW sites or to downloadable versions are provided where known. But if a link is broken, check the location and see if the page moved or if an updated version is available (and please tell Greg!). Relevant operating systems are printed in (parenthesized italics).

These are listed alphabetically, more or less:

Animation MNG ActiveX [JComSoft / Jin Hui] (Win32) - all versions; read-only; shareware? (This is an ActiveX control for displaying PNG images and MNG animations. It appears to be a new product as of October 2002 and is available only by e-mail request.)
Crystal Space [Jorrit Tyberghein and the Crystal Space Team] (Unix/X, DOS, OS/2, Win32, BeOS, NeXTStep/OpenStep, Rhapsody, Mac OS, Amiga) - version 0.96(?) and later; read-only? uses libpng, zlib and optionally libmng; freeware (LGPL) with source. (This is an open-source 3D game engine written in C++ that compiles on multiple platforms; it also includes a number of demo levels. MNG support is optional.)
CxImage [Davide Pizzolato] (Win32) - all versions(?) with separate CxImageMNG add-on module; read/write; uses libmng, libpng, zlib and FreeImage; freeware with C++ source. (This is a C++ class to "load, save, display, and transform images in a very simple and fast way." It is Windows-specific due to "some particular constructors and the painting functions.")
FreeImage [Floris van den Berg] (Win32) - version 2.1.0 and later; read-only; uses libmng and zlib; freeware with source. (This is a DLL with support for reading MNG and JNG images and for reading and writing numerous others, including PNG; it also has some image-manipulation capabilities.)
ImageFileLib [Michael Vinther] (Win32) - version 1.14(?) and later; read/write; freeware with Pascal source. (This is a Delphi library to read and write several image formats, including PNG and MNG. It does not appear to support the more complex MNG features such as JNG and delta-encoding.)
ImageMagick [John Cristy] (Unix/X, VMS/X, Win32/X, Mac OS) - version 3.9.2 and later (minimal MNG support), or version 4.2.4 and later (full MNG-LC support); broken in versions 5.2.7 through 5.3.6; JNG support as of version 5.5.2; read/write; full gamma support; full chromaticity support? requires libpng and zlib; freeware with source. (This is a multi-format viewer/converter/library package with the ability to view MNG-LC animations [except on Mac OS] and convert to MNG all GIF animations that don't use [the relatively rare] disposal method "restore to previous.")
JNG DataType [Chris Young] (Amiga) - all versions; read-only; first-frame-only MNG support; transparency support; OS4 only; uses libmng and zlib; freeware. (A JNG datatype is a standardized DLL-type thing that allows any image-handling application under AmigaOS 3.0 or later [4.0 in this case] to understand JNG images automagically, without recompilation.)
lcms [Martí Maria Saguer] (Win32, Unix, etc.) - version 1.03 and later; freeware (LGPL) with source. (This is a small, independently developed color management system with read-only support for a "wide subset" of ICC profiles. Originally it was not in any way specific to PNG or MNG, but versions since 1.03 can read embedded ICC profiles in PNG images and probably MNG as well [iCCP chunk].)
libjpeg [Independent JPEG Group] (many) - all versions; freeware (BSDish) with C source. (This is the de facto JPEG image library; it is used almost universally for encoding and decoding JPEG/JFIF-format images. libjpeg itself provides no MNG support, but it is required for many MNG/JNG apps distributed as source code, and it is used in most JNG-supporting commercial apps.)
libmng [Gerard Juyn] (Unix, Win32, BeOS, etc.) - all versions; read/write; requires zlib and optionally libjpeg (for JNG support) and lcms (for color correction); freeware (zlib/libpng) with C source. (This is the MNG/JNG reference library, and it includes PNG support, too, as well as a sample Win32 viewers [mngview] written in both Pascal and C, and two Unix/X viewers [sdl-mngplay and gtk-mngview] written in C. Linux binaries for the latter two are here [1207k] and here [1190k]. The libmng CVS tree is browsable online. There is also a MASM32 add-on available from the download page.)
libpr0n [Pavlov, tor, saari, et al.] (many) - all versions; requires libmng, libpng, and zlib; freeware (MPL) with C++ source. (This is a variant of and possible successor to Mozilla's imglib, specifically designed "to render pornographic images in an efficient way." Source code is available from Mozilla's CVS tree.)
MINGLIB [Enrico Hörnig] (DOS, Win32, Unix, etc.) - all versions; read-only? alpha support; 16-bit support; JNG support; includes Pascal ports of zlib and libjpeg; freeware (PD) with source. (This is a completely independent--but still incomplete--MNG implementation written in FreePascal. It includes sample viewers, for PNG as well as MNG/JNG, and images.)
MNG Translator [YNOP Talton] (BeOS x86) - all versions; read-only? JNG support; uses libmng, libjpeg, and zlib; freeware with source (on request). (This is an add-on to the BeOS Translation Kit; it supports MNG, JNG and optionally PNG. The German download page is here.)
PajantImage [Pajant Software] (Win32) - all versions; read/write; commercial. (This is an ActiveX control that supports multiple formats, including MNG-LC, and comes with an image viewer and screen saver. The web site's links require JavaScript to function.)
Qt [Trolltech] (Unix/X, Win32, BeOS x86) - version 2.2.0 and later; read-only? uses libmng, libjpeg, and zlib; freeware (Free Edition: QPL) or commercial (Professional Edition) with source.
QuickTime MNG Component [Tarkvara Design] (Mac OS X, Mac OS, Win32) - all versions; read/write; requires libmng and zlib; freeware (BSD) with source. (This is a MNG viewer component [plug-in] for Apple's QuickTime framework. The SourceForge CVS module name is simply MNG.)
TNGImage [Gerard Juyn, Scott Price, Peter J. Haas] (Win32) - all versions; read/write; JNG support; uses libmng, libjpeg, lcms, and zlib; freeware (zlib/libpng) with Pascal source. (This is a Delphi 3/4/5/6 component for loading and saving PNG, MNG and JNG images. libmng.dll, containing all four required libraries, is included. Linux/Kylix support is coming in version 1.2.)
zlib [Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler] (many) - all versions; freeware (BSDish) with K&R source. (This is the official compression library for MNG; it was originally designed specifically for PNG, though it has subsequently become widely used in many other settings. zlib itself provides no MNG support, but it is required for practically all MNG apps distributed as source code, and it is used in most MNG-supporting commercial apps.)

Here are some related MNG pages at this site:

Last modified 14 March 2009.