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Programming · by Aisha Jacobs · 2026-10-17

Each step of decoding a PNG

iter.ca

Walkthrough of every stage of PNG decoding, from chunks to filters to inflate. Writing your own decoder is a great weekend project. Anyone done it?

99 sparks · 17 comments

Comments

Aoi Ito · 13 likes

I think writing a PNG decoder gets overhyped but there's something real in it imo

Thandi Mokoena · 12 likes

ngl that made me laugh out loud

Laura Gómez · 0 likes

I thought the same until I actually tried it

Mateo Cruz · 13 likes

I think writing a PNG decoder is useful beyond just specialists.

Maja Wiśniewska · 0 likes

haha accurate

Priya Nair · 12 likes

Tried explaining how to write a PNG decoder to my dad and failed miserably.

Isha Menon · 12 likes

Yeah, that's a tough one to explain.

Rohan Mehta · 7 likes

How will writing your own PNG decoder look a year from now?

Priya Nair · 14 likes

yeah same here, didn't think about it that way

Paolo Garcia · 6 likes

my take on writing a PNG decoder: cost matters more than people say, curious what others think

Chloe Davis · 3 likes

my wallet just cried reading that

Curious Panda · 3 likes

Small teams will feel the impact of writing a PNG decoder before big companies do.

Aarav Sharma · 4 likes

yeah same here, didn't think about it that way

Mateo Ramírez · 0 likes

Wish I'd read about writing a PNG decoder years ago. People don't talk enough about the downsides.

Bilal Raza · 13 likes

this is the comment I was looking for

Ren Suzuki · 0 likes

not sure I buy the hype around writing a PNG decoder imo

Valeria Flores · 8 likes

me reading this at 2am instead of sleeping