pngx

A TypeScript library for encoding & decoding PNG images with comprehensive type safety and memory management.

Features

• 📸 Complete PNG Support: Full implementation of PNG encoding and decoding
• 🎨 Color Types: Support for Grayscale, RGB, RGBA, and Palette color modes
• 🔍 Chunk Processing: Proper handling of all critical PNG chunks (IHDR, IDAT, PLTE, IEND)
• 💾 Memory Safe: Built-in memory management for large images
• 🎯 Filtering: Support for all PNG filter types (None, Sub, Up, Average, Paeth)
• 💪 Type Safe: Written in TypeScript with comprehensive type definitions
• ⚡ Efficient: Optimized filtering and compression algorithms
• 🛡️ Error Handling: Robust error handling for malformed PNG data
• 📦 Lightweight: Zero dependencies

Installation

npm install pngx
# or
pnpm add pngx
# or
bun i pngx

Usage

Reading PNG Images

import { PNG } from 'pngx'

// Basic reading
const png = new PNG()
const buffer = await fs.readFile('image.png')
png.parse(buffer, (error, data) => {
  if (error)
    throw error
  console.log(`Dimensions: ${data.width}x${data.height}`)
})

// Advanced reading with options
const png = new PNG({
  filterType: 4, // Paeth filtering
  bitDepth: 8, // 8-bit depth
  colorType: 6 // RGBA color mode
})

// Access image data
png.on('parsed', function () {
  const { width, height, data, gamma } = this
  // data is a Buffer containing RGBA pixel data
})

Writing PNG Images

import { PNG } from 'pngx'

// Create a new PNG with dimensions
const png = new PNG({
  width: 800,
  height: 600,
  colorType: 6, // RGBA
  bitDepth: 8
})

// Fill with pixel data
for (let y = 0; y < png.height; y++) {
  for (let x = 0; x < png.width; x++) {
    const idx = (png.width * y + x) << 2
    png.data[idx] = 255 // R
    png.data[idx + 1] = 0 // G
    png.data[idx + 2] = 0 // B
    png.data[idx + 3] = 255 // A
  }
}

// Write to file
png.pack().pipe(fs.createWriteStream('output.png'))

Color Types Support

import { PNG } from 'pngx'

// Grayscale
const grayPNG = new PNG({
  colorType: 0, // Grayscale
  bitDepth: 8
})

// RGB
const rgbPNG = new PNG({
  colorType: 2, // RGB
  bitDepth: 8
})

// RGBA
const rgbaPNG = new PNG({
  colorType: 6, // RGBA
  bitDepth: 8
})

// Palette-based
const palettePNG = new PNG({
  colorType: 3, // Palette
  bitDepth: 8
})

Filter Types

The library supports all standard PNG filter types:

import { PNG } from 'pngx'

// Specific filter type
const png = new PNG({
  filterType: 0 // None
  // filterType: 1  // Sub
  // filterType: 2  // Up
  // filterType: 3  // Average
  // filterType: 4  // Paeth
})

// Adaptive filtering (choose best filter per line)
const png = new PNG({
  filterType: -1 // Adaptive
})

Error Handling

The library provides detailed error messages for common issues:

try {
  const png = new PNG()
  png.parse(corruptedBuffer, (error, data) => {
    if (error) {
      if (error.message.includes('signature')) {
        console.error('Invalid PNG signature')
      }
      else if (error.message.includes('IHDR')) {
        console.error('Invalid header chunk')
      }
      else {
        console.error('PNG parsing error:', error)
      }
    }
  })
}
catch (err) {
  console.error('Processing error:', err)
}

TypeScript Support

Full TypeScript support with detailed type definitions:

import { Buffer } from 'node:buffer'

interface PNGOptions {
  width?: number
  height?: number
  bitDepth?: 8 | 16
  colorType?: 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6
  filterType?: -1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
  inputHasAlpha?: boolean
  deflateLevel?: number
  deflateStrategy?: number
}

interface BitmapData {
  width: number
  height: number
  data: Buffer
  gamma?: number
}

// Types are automatically inferred
const png = new PNG()
png.on('parsed', function (this: PNG) {
  const { width, height, data } = this
})

Memory Management

The library includes built-in memory management for handling large images:

import { PNG } from 'pngx'

// Create PNG with memory constraints
const png = new PNG({
  deflateChunkSize: 32 * 1024, // 32KB chunks
  deflateLevel: 9, // Max compression
  filterType: 4 // Paeth filtering
})

// Handle potential memory errors
png.on('error', (error) => {
  if (error.message.includes('memory')) {
    console.error('Memory allocation failed:', error)
  }
})

Testing

bun test

Changelog

Please see our releases page for more information on what has changed recently.

Contributing

Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.

Community

For help, discussion about best practices, or any other conversation that would benefit from being searchable:

Discussions on GitHub

For casual chit-chat with others using this package:

Join the Stacks Discord Server

Postcardware

“Software that is free, but hopes for a postcard.” We love receiving postcards from around the world showing where pngx is being used! We showcase them on our website too.

Our address: Stacks.js, 12665 Village Ln #2306, Playa Vista, CA 90094, United States 🌎

Credits

Many thanks to pngjs and its contributors for inspiring this project.

Sponsors

We would like to extend our thanks to the following sponsors for funding Stacks development. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please reach out to us.

• JetBrains
• The Solana Foundation

License

The MIT License (MIT). Please see LICENSE for more information.

Made with 💙