PNGout

[XnTriq]

• Just a hitch : I can't get the ZIP from http://ardfry.com/pngoutwin/, I have an "Access denied - 403 -" error…

Hi Clo,

I did a test with BlackWidow:
http://www.ardfry.com/downloads/pngoutwin.zip gets redirected to
http://ardfry.fileburst.com/downloads/pngoutwin.zip.

[Clo]

Hello !

• Thanks for the link, but :

- The download box is displayed, but same mess "Can't download …, status : 403 - Forbidden"

KR
Claude
Clo

[helmut]

http://ardfry.fileburst.com/downloads/pngoutwin.zip

XnTriq's download link works for me. Hmm.

[XnTriq]

- The download box is displayed, but same mess "Can't download …, status : 403 - Forbidden"

That's weird...

I have no trouble whatsoever accessing the download directory with both Firefox and IE:

Code: Select all

Index of http://ardfry.fileburst.com/downloads/

Icon  Name                    Last modified      Size  Description
[DIR] Parent Directory                             -
[   ] PNGOUTPS-Setup.exe      07-Nov-2006 21:33  435K
[   ] PNGOUTWin-Setup-DE.exe  31-Dec-2006 16:22  1.2M
[   ] PNGOUTWin-Setup.exe     31-Dec-2006 16:21  1.2M
[   ] PNGOUTWinHelp.zip       17-Oct-2006 22:06   10K
[   ] pngoutwin.zip           31-Dec-2006 16:20  259K

Which browser are you using, Clo?

[Drahken]

My guess would be a referred issue. Do you have your browser, proxy, firewall, or router set to block referrer?

In any case, I mirrored it for you here: http://cypherswipe.googlepages.com/pngoutwin.zip

[Clo]

Hello !

• I use Maxthon (IE6 engine) and I never had such issues…

—> Drahken

• I got it, thanks !

- The error is given by the server, I don't see the cause here…

KR
Claude
Clo

[Drahken]

Could be a number of things. The server might be set to block anyone with your IP or from your part of the world, it might be set to block anything with a maxthon useragent, it might be set to block anyone who provides the wrong referrer or no referrer (you'll often see this occur when trying to view an image hosted on fortunecity or angelfire that you've found from google images, they see the google referrer and reject the connection).

[XnTriq]

- The error is given by the server, I don't see the cause here…

“Smart referrer blocking” is part of FileBurst's hosting service.
Obviously Ghistler is one of their customers, too:

fileburst (your firewall needs to let pass the referer header)

When I uncheck the “Send Referrer” option on the PrefBar extension and try to download http://ghisler.fileburst.com/656/tcmdr656.exe, Firefox is redirected:

Download refused

Sorry but you can only download this file from our forum ghisler.ch.
Important note: You also need to allow the referer field of your browser, otherwise you will not be allowed to download this file. Some personal firewalls may block the referer field. To download the file, you need to go to the firewall configuration and allow the field for the site ghisler.fileburst.com. This is done so others cannot link to this file. You will also need to temporarily disable any external download manager.

Please visit our site www.ghisler.com!

[Clo]

—> XnTriq

Hello !

• As a beta-tester, I get other private links, I dont'use those you show.

- BTW : If you can find “Referer” in any dictionary, please let me know… It's nowhere to be found in Oxford's.

KR
Claude
Clo

[Hobbe]

I've been using this app forever. The download works with or without referrer, it just takes a decent browser to get the job done

[foxyshadis]

Perhaps OptiPNG would be better than PNGout for such a thing, since it supports true color. Otherwise very similar.

There's a lot more than a few filters that most engines give you, because it's possible to slightly tweak each filter. The default of checking each filter once is usually good enough, though. OptiPNG -o7 (maximum) is verrrry slow, since it's several times as many attempts for .2% reduction if you're lucky.

[XnTriq]

[OT]

- BTW : If you can find “Referer” in any dictionary, please let me know… It's nowhere to be found in Oxford's.

Wikipedia: HTTP referrer

[/OT]

[Clo]

—> XnTriq

Hello !

• Thanks, but I meant I can't find a French word ( I said : Dictionary)…

KR
Claude
Clo

[Drahken]

Perhaps OptiPNG would be better than PNGout for such a thing, since it supports true color. Otherwise very similar.

1) PNGout does support truecolor. You can put in a truecolor PNG and get a compressed truecolor PNG. I know the site says it doesn't support it, but in actual practice, it does work. It also depends on what implementation you're using. If you use the irf plugin, it'll just skip using pngout if you try to save a truecolor PNG.
2a) OptiPNG compresses truecolor, logo-like PNGs (images with sharp edges and large sections of solid color) better than PNGout. However, PNGout compresses truecolor photographic-type images better than OptiPNG.
2b) OptiPNG is ONLY effective of truecolor PNGs. When used on indexed PNGs, it doesn't compress them any more than Xnview itself does.
3) In short, the only thing OptiPNG works better on is truecolor images that can easily (and probably should be) converted to indexed PNGs anyway (at which point PNGout will work better on them).

re Other programs: PNGoutwin provides batch processing, but really not much else that's useful. PNGgauntlet also provides a GUI and batch processing, but is free. The commandline PNGout program sometimes compresses better than either of these GUI versions (even though they're both just GUIs for PNGout).


Here are some test images I used.

[DOS386]

2 drawbacks to pngout are that it only works on indexed (256 color) png

Hey, this is NOT true

PNGout does support truecolor. You can put in a truecolor PNG and get a compressed truecolor PNG

Right.

The "PngOutWin" thing is highly useless for me: not free, the "Win" based
name, and "optimized" for the most expensive (and energy hoggy)
64-bit and multi-CPU PC's

It would be nice if PNGOUT could be integrated into XNVIEW and
NCONVERT ... besides the free minimal console version that
should remain available also

Also it would be nice if Ken released the source ... he DID intend
to do this one time in past ... but maybe dropped this idea and
started the "Win" stuff instead ???