Re: Endless gamma in eXIf 2017-0119

John Bowler <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.graphics.png.general
Message-ID <CAP7U39-4DjXWcFabJDVftws+Pp5dhoDH77AqJO_LQ8KsE6yj3Q@mail.gmail.com>
On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 6:44 PM, Willem van Schaik <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> And also, if we would make the chunk "unsafe to copy" what does prevent
> an application developer to still copy the chunk? In the end, these are
> just "suggestions".

Well... the issue as I understand it is that in a completely
conformant workflow the data in the eXIf chunk might end up such that
the rendering of the PNG will be incorrect.

Personally I think that such a workflow is unlikely and that, anyway,
the issue is moot.  This is because the ISO-PNG specification is such
that any PNG with metadata which affects the rendering of the image
has two completely valid conformant renderings; one where the metadata
is used and one where it is not.

I suspect this is why browsers which used to support gamma processing
have stopped doing so; the standard permits two renderings, so why
spend CPU time producing the more difficult one?

So I don't think any simple PNG decoder will ever use the
image-related EXIF chunk data and the "security" section of the eXIf
proposal is, I believe, more than sufficient to stop them (why would
they make their life more difficult?)

-- 
John Bowler <[email protected]>
+1 (541) 450-9885
PO BOX 3151
KERBY OR 97531-3151
USA

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