PNG-supporting Office and Business Applications

Office / Business Applications with PNG Support

These products are typically referred to as "office" or "business" or "productivity" applications. For the most part their PNG support is limited to import (e.g., embedding a PNG image in a text document), but some also include presentation or illustration components that can create or modify PNG images.

As with the other 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 an updated version is available (and please tell Greg!). Relevant operating systems are printed in (parenthesized italics).

These are listed alphabetically, more or less:

AbiWord [AbiSource] (Win32, Linux, BeOS PPC/x86, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc.) - all versions; read/write; uses libpng and zlib; freeware (GPL) with source. (This is a cross-platform, Open Source word processor that uses PNG as its native compressed image format.)
Anyware Desktop - see Applixware Office below
Anyware / Applixware Office [VistaSource] (Unix/GTK+) - version 4.4.1 and later; read/write; commercial. (This is a business applications suite with read/write PNG support in its Graphics and Presents components and [apparently] read-only support in its Words and other components. Prior to 2002, this suite was known simply as Applixware Office.)
Atlantis Word Processor [Rising Sun Solutions] (Win32) - all versions; read/write; commercial. (This is also known as Atlantis Ocean Mind. In addition to reading and writing document formats with embedded PNGs, it can also export HTML with PNG images, and any individual image can be saved as a PNG via right-click menu option.)
AxPoint [Matt Sergeant] (Perl) - all versions? read-only; uses libpng and zlib; freeware (Perl license) with source. (This is an XML-based tool for producing PDF presentations. It also supports SVG, JPEG, and a few other image formats.)
The Bat! [RIT Research Labs] (Win32) - version 1.4(?) and later; read-only; reportedly no transparency support as of version 2.11; uses libpng and zlib; commercial. (This is an e-mail client that can display PNG attachments and inlined-PNG HTML messages.)
ConceptDraw Presenter [Computer Systems Odessa] (Mac OS, Mac OS X, Win32) - all versions; write-only; commercial. (This is a tool for making and showing business presentations [slide shows]. It includes some vector drawing tools and can export to PNG format.) an export format.)
ConceptDraw Project [Computer Systems Odessa] (Mac OS, Mac OS X, Win32) - all versions; write-only; commercial. (This is a project-management tool, supporting Gantt charts, WBS charts, and so forth. PNG is supported as an export format.)
Corel Presentations - see WordPerfect Office below
CSCMail [Steven "Count Zero" Kordik] (Unix/GTK+) - all versions; read-only; full alpha support; requires CscHTML, libpng and zlib; freeware (GPL) with source. (This is an e-mail client written in Perl that has full HTML-viewing capability--in fact, it includes a simple web browser. See the toolkits page for details on the CscHTML widget.)
Excel - see Microsoft Office below
Evolution [Ximian] (Unix/GTK+) - all versions; read-only? uses gdk-pixbuf, libpng, and zlib; commercial/freeware (GPL) with source. (This is a "personal and workgroup information management" application with e-mail and calendar/scheduling functions, among other things.)
Final Writer [SoftWood] (Amiga) - version 5.0 and later via a PNG DataType (see the toolkits page for a couple); read-only. (This is a word processor with image-import and other DTP capabilities.)
FrameMaker [Adobe] (Solaris/X, Win32) - version 7.0(?) and later; read/write; commercial. (This is a desktop-publishing application with support for embedded PNGs and the ability to export any image format to PNG.)
GanttProject [Alexandre Thomas and others] (Java) - version 1.8 and later; write-only? requires Java2 SDK 1.4.1 or later; freeware (GPL) with Java source. (This is an application for creating and manipulating project timetables via Gantt charts. It can export calendars in PNG format.)
ImPress [Chris Jay Cox] (Unix/X, Win32) - version 1.1-b5 and later; write-only? requires Img, libpng, zlib, and possibly pstoedit (converters page); freeware (GPL) with source. (This is a Tcl/Tk-based page-layout application with both vector and raster support.)
KOffice [KOffice Developers] (Unix/KDE) - all versions; read/write; freeware (GPL/LGPL) with source. (This is a business applications suite with embedding support for the full components, not just subsets. PNG is supported as an importable image format by many of the tools and as an exportable format by a few of them [KIllustrator, possibly KImageShop?].)
LazaLabl [SoftCentre] (Windows 3.x, Win32) - version 2.6 and later; read/write; uses libpng and zlib. (This is an application for creating business cards, mailing labels, badges, etc.)
Lotus Notes - see Notes below
MagicPoint [WIDE Project] (Unix/X) - version 1.07a and later; read-only; MNG support as of version 1.08a; uses libmng, lcms, libpng, and zlib; freeware (BSD) with source. (This is a wonderful presentation app with a text-based file format; it allows MNG animations and PNG images to be embedded in presentations. Version 1.09a is still considered "alpha," but it is quite usable. A third-party LaTeX preprocessor is also available.)
Memo Writer Pro [Universal Development Corporation] (Windows 3.x, Win32) - version 2.6(?) and later; read-only. (This appears to be a word processor DLL component plug-in thingumbob with support for various image formats via ImageLib [toolkits page].)
Microsoft Office [Microsoft] (Win32) - version 97 and later; read/write; full alpha support as of version 2000 and in Photo Editor 97 (stippled alpha in Word 97 and Excel 97); tEXt support as of version 2000 (extracted to generate ALT text for web pages); uses LEADTOOLS and zlib; commercial. (This is Microsoft's business applications suite; it now uses PNG as its native compressed image format and also directly in its PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Photo Editor, and OfficeArt components. See the image editors page for details on the latter two. Note that PNG is part of the minimal "core" installation of Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Office 2000, so PNG support is always available in those components. Note also that printing support is at least partially dependent on printer drivers, not the application itself; see the PNG FAQ page for details.)
Nautilus [Eazel] (Unix/GTK) - all versions; read-only; full alpha support; freeware (LGPL) with source. (This is a file manager and graphical shell that uses PNG for its icons. The sources are directly browsable via CVS. Note that the included test-rsvg test program can convert SVG images to RGBA PNGs.)
Notes [IBM / Lotus] (Win32, Mac PPC) - version R5(?) and later; read-only? uses libpng and zlib; commercial. (This is an e-mail/calendar/groupware client with at least some web-browsing capability.)
OpenOffice.org [Star Division / Sun / OpenOffice.org] (Solaris, Linux, Win32, Mac OS X) - all versions; read-only? freeware (GPL/LGPL/SISSL) with source. (This is the open-source version of StarOffice, below. Worldlabel has various free label templates, including PNG-format ones for OOo Draw.)
Oracle [Oracle] (Win32, Unix, etc.) - version 8i and later; read-only? commercial. (This is a really big database. PNG support is provided via Inso's filtering technology, which "enables you to index most document formats" and to "convert documents to HTML.")
PageMaker [Adobe] (Win32) - version 6.5 and later with PNG import filter add-on (100k); read-only; commercial. (This is a desktop publishing [page layout] application. The add-on allows PNG images to be incorporated into documents.)
PageStream [Grasshopper] (Amiga) - version 3.0 and later with Wolf Faust's free Universal Filter add-on (872k); read/write; commercial. (This is a desktop publishing [page layout] application. The Universal Filter add-on allows PNG images [and other formats] to be incorporated into documents.)
PowerPoint - see Microsoft Office above
QuarkXPress [Quark] (Win32) - version 5.0 and later; write-only; commercial. (This is a desktop publishing (page layout) application. It now supports HTML export, and embedded images can be exported in PNG format.)
ROX-Filer [Thomas Leonard] (Unix/GTK) - version 1.3.1(?) and later; read-only? full alpha support; freeware (GPL) with source. (This is a file manager that has been "fully converted to use PNG format images. Uses alpha-blending everywhere, allowing smooth edges to icons and semi-transparency." Its user interface is based on that of the [Acorn] RISC OS filer.)
SmartDraw [SmartDraw.com] (Win32) - version 6.0 and later; read/write; commercial. (This is an office-oriented charting and diagramming application that can import and export in PNG format.)
StarOffice [Star Division / Sun] (Solaris, Linux, OS/2, Win32) - version 5.1(?) and later; read-only? commercial. (This is a business applications suite, much like Microsoft Office; it includes word processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation, drawing and other components. Sun acquired it from Star Division and released the source code as OpenOffice [see above] in late 2000; OpenOffice and StarOffice share roughly the same relationship as Mozilla and Netscape Communicator 6+.)
Ted [Mark de Does] (Unix/X) - version 2.0(?) and later; read-only (images written as part of documents, but native bitmap format not modified); freeware (GPL) with source. (This is a text editor and word processor with functionality somewhere between Microsoft Wordpad and Word. It can inline various image formats, including PNG, and save documents in RTF, PDF, HTML, or multipart MIME e-mail formats.)
Transsonic Presenter [Transsonic] (Win32) - all versions? write-only? freeware; 2.2 MB. (This is a utility to convert PowerPoint 97 slideshows to PNG or JPEG format with automatic HTML generation and optionally with a table of contents.)
Turbo Browser [FileStream] (Win32) - version 7.2 and later; read/write; shareware. (This is a file manager, similar to Windows Explorer, but with file-transfer, HTML-editing, image-viewing, and image-conversion capabilities in addition to standard file-management functions. There is also a simpler version called Turbo Browser Express.)
Turnpike [Turnpike] (Windows 3.x, Win32) - version 4.00 and later; read-only; commercial. (This is actually a mail and news client that understands some basic HTML; it isn't capable of browsing the Web, per se, although Internet Explorer is bundled with the CD-ROM version.)
Word - see Microsoft Office above
WordPerfect Office [Corel] (Win32, Unix) - version 8.0 and later; reportedly full alpha-transparency support but no support for transparency in palette PNGs; read/write; commercial. (This is, of course, a professional office suite anchored around WordPerfect, the word processor; it also includes Corel Presentations [which in turn includes an image editor called simply Graphics Editor] and other components. At least the word processor is capable of exporting HTML, as well. WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows 3.x also supports reading PNGs with cvww6x.exe and "ScanForConverters=1" in the [WPCorp] section of win.ini.)
XAllWrite [Axene] (Unix/X) - all versions; read-only; commercial. (This was a word processor that supported the import of various bitmap formats, including PNG. Version 1.0.3 beta was the final release. As of March 1998, Axene appears to have folded.)
Xclamation [Axene] (Unix/X) - version 1.3.1 and later; read-only; commercial. (This was a desktop publishing app that supported the import of various bitmap formats, including PNG. Version 1.4.3 was the final release. As of March 1998, Axene appears to have folded.)

Here are some related PNG pages at this site:

Last modified 14 March 2009.