Free Online PNG to DDS Converter

PNG files are a widely used graphics file format used in areas where high-quality images (often with transparency) are required while also retaining a small file size. They are one of the most common formats of file used for web and print mediums and are particularly useful for logos, icons, and other images where multi-level transparency is desired.

The format itself was created in the 1990's with the main aim of storing computer graphics in a high-quality format while minimizing the required storage space. The longer-term aim was to displace the GIF file format and make PNG the number one format for non-lossy, high-quality image formats on the then-burgeoning world wide web.

One of the selling points of the PNG format is its support for multiple levels of transparency, making it superior to the GIF format, which can only handle a single level of transparency. Also, like GIFs, the PNG format supports palletizing image colors down to 256 or 16 colors to help reduce the file size of the PNG.

The DDS file format accompanied the launch of Microsoft's Direct X suite of game development tools in the early 2000s. DDS files are used by Direct X as an image storage format and, as such, support a wide range of color depths and can also record alpha channel data.

DDS files were often used by game developers to store texture images used in complex 3D virtual worlds. Games would often employ multiple versions of the same DDS texture image at different resolutions using a 3D effect known as mip-mapping, whereby different textures are selected to be rendered depending on the proximity of the 3D object to the view port.

Varying levels of compression, both lossy and non-lossy, can be used to reduce the size of DDS files. Certain image editing applications can open DDS files, though they have largely been replaced with other popular formats such as PNG and JPEG.