I thought everything was going well with PNGGauntlet 2 until I got a comment reporting some problems with it at the beginning of the month. It’s taken me almost a month to get a chance to sit down and check out the problem (August is always really busy since people are usually visiting). When I started digging into the code, I realized that I hadn’t actually made some key changes to the code that I thought I had made, and as a consequence, a lot of PNGGauntlet didn’t actually work. For example, the whole PNGOUT Options panel wasn’t actually wired up to anything, and the “Open With” functionality I added in 2.0.1 didn’t actually call the right functions, and didn’t work either. Wow. This is what I get for not having tests set up for this code (it was written before I understood how to write tests). So it is with great humility that I submit to you PNGGauntlet 2.0.2, which I have quite a bit more confidence in. Hopefully most people were using just default settings (like I usually do) and weren’t bitten too bad by the problems in the earlier versions. As usual, you can check out the full list of fixes.
Interestingly, one of the two problems in the original comment that got me working on PNGGauntlet again wasn’t actually a PNGGauntlet or PNGOUT bug. It turns out that Photoshop, Gimp, and Paint Shop Pro all don’t support 8-bit PNGs that have an alpha channel. Who knew? I tend to use either Fireworks or Paint.NET, which both support 8-bit PNGs completely, so I never knew.
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Thank for the fixes!
One problem though ;)
The version in the download is still 2.0.1
So it will ask to upload to 2.0.2 even though I have 2.0.2
Not a big bug but some people might not know this.
Also, is there a setting that I can use that will allow it to be supported on PSP, Gimp and PS? (like a compatibilty mode) Or maybe I can open the files with Paint.Net and save it normally… will see.
Previous post wasn’t clear enough… The program version number wasnt updated but the program itself is v2.0.2 ;)
So the program think its old when it checks for a new version
Just tested Paint.Net
I can open the file and save it again in Paint.Net to make it compatible with other editors that dont support 8bit transparency yet. So everything is great now ;) (except the auto update :P)
That’s what I get for releasing it at 1am… I’ve uploaded a new version that has the correct version number.
I’m guessing Paint.NET re-saves it as a 32-bit PNG. You can tell PNGGauntlet to use the RGB+Alpha color mode and it’ll stay compatible with stuff that doesn’t support 8-bit paletted transparency.
Minor thing, the installer won’t recognize 2.0.2 as a later version if trying to upgrade with 2.0.1 installed. So an uninstall/reinstall is forced. Not a problem for me, just thought you might like to know.
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve uploaded a fixed installer.
Have you already/considered compiling a version against the 64-bit .net framework to see if you get an performance gains?
Also, it would be better if the default folder in the “Add Files” selector was Pictures rather than Documents.
Finally, would it be possible to improve speed by taking advantage of multiple CPUs / multiple cores by doing runs using differing output options to find which one is smallest in parallel?
Hey Paul,
If you run the 64-bit version of the .NET framework, you’re already running a 64-bit version of PNGGauntlet (that’s the joy of managed code for ya). Unfortunately, PNGGauntlet itself doesn’t do much work, and PNGOUT is only a 32-bit program. If Ken Silverman ever releases a 64-bit version and it’s faster, I’ll ake use of it.
Yeah, you’re right about selecting Pictures over Documents. I confess to never adding files that way.
As for your last suggestion, I’ve recently made it into a FAQ: http://brh.numbera.com/software/pnggauntlet/help/#multicore
[...] usually run PNGOUT from Powershell, but there is a nice free .NET app called PNGGaunlet from Ben Hollis that provides a nice GUI [...]
Great GUI, thanks!
Question. What’s the simplest way to hack your program to have it add /kt (Keep the file’s original date and time) along with everything else to pngout.exe whenever invoked?
Great suggestion – I’ll add an option in the next version for keeping the file times.
Thank you very much for this awesome program.
Good job! :)