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libmng - The MNG reference library & related info


Welcome to the Windows32 section of libmng.com.

This page contains detailed info to enable MNG (Multiple-image Network Graphics) support in your Windows® environment. MNG (pronounced "ming") is the animation extension of the popular PNG format. The following information pertains to Windows 95,98,ME,NT4,2000 and XP. MNG support for Windows 3.1 and older is as of yet undefined.

There is a small FAQ towards the bottom of this page.


The first step is to install the latest MNG system files on your machine. Please download the following installation file, run it and simply follow the instructions on your screen.

libmng system installation for Windows32

latest version 1.0.8 (final) + lm_diag 1.0 !


To update your Internet Explorer® with MNG support, you can download Jason Summer's excellent MNG4IE ActiveX control. Unzip the file and follow the installation instructions in the README file.

The freely available Mozilla and Netscape Navigator 6&7 used to contain native MNG support, but it has been removed for a variety of (the wrong) reasons. A group of MNG enthousiasts are however working on its restoration. There are already specially compiled versions with MNG support available on SourceForge. For older versions of Netscape and other browsers that have support for Netscape plugins, you can try Jason Summer's Netscape plugin.

For other MNG enabled applications, including editors and image-viewers, you can visit the applications page of this site. The animation editor with the best MNG support was undoubtedly eMNGma. Viewers are abundant. Futuris Imager, SlowView, XnView and IrfanView (to mention a few) are all MNG enabled in their current versions.


What is MNG?
MNG stands for Multiple-image Network Graphics. It is pronounced "ming\". MNG is the animation extension to the popular PNG format. It was originally designed to replace GIF(tm), which, due to its patent issue with LZW, has caused a lot of controversy. But MNG has much more powerful animation techniques than animated-GIF. It can hold sprite-like objects, has advanced compression techniques such as delta-images, can contain upto 64-bit RGBA images (all formats of PNG are supported), and has the other PNG advantages of partial transparency, color-correction and more.

Do I need MNG support?
That depends on what your requirements are. MNG support is spreading rapidly. Several webbrowsers already have native support, and support for others is available through plugins and ActiveX controls. If you're looking to offer your website visitors with some cutting-edge animations, you want to make sure you don't have any patent lawsuites waiting to come down on your case, and you don't want to fork out a lot of money for Flash-editors, MNG is your choice.

What is libmng, and what does it do?
libmng is a project that started some 2 years ago to make it easier for software-developers to integrate MNG support into their applications. Since its inception a lot of those developers have done exactly that. Check the download section for the latest news and lists of MNG enabled browsers, applications and others.

Where do I get libmng.dll?
The latest libmng.dll is included in an easy to install software package. Check the top of this page for a download link.

I have installed this libmng package, but nothing is happening....
libmng is a library. It doesn't do anything on its own. You'll need a software package that uses it. There are dozens of such packages available nowadays. Check the download section for more.

I have a problem with libmng.dll. What can I do?
If you have installed the binary libmng package for Windows (see above), your system will have a special diagnostic tool. You can run it by navigating your Windows explorer to the Windows system directory , searching for "lm_diag.exe\", and double-clicking it. Alternatively, you can open the "Start menu\", select "run\", enter "lm_diag.exe\" in the box and press the "OK\" button.

The diagnostic tool will do an initial systems-check. You can make sure there actually is a "libmng.dll\", by checking for it on the "System Files\" tab. If available, press the "Go\" button on the "Test\" tab. If you can view the three images near the bottom of the page, libmng is working fine. If not, you can get additional help by sending the logfile (see the "Log\" tab) to me.

You can also do a more extensive search of your system, to see if libmng.dll, and possibly additional files related to libmng, are perhaps stored in some other location on your harddisk(s).

Why does the installer put libmng.dll in the system32 folder?
The Win32 installer contains the one and only official libmng.dll. It does not know about other software on your system, so it can only install into system32. Every application that works with the standard libmng.dll will then automatically have the latest dll. Applications that have a separate libmng.dll installed into their own folder may actually not be compatible with the official libmng.dll, and you should therefor never replace their version with the official dll.

The Win32 installer doesn't offer an un-install, why?
There really isn't a need. If you've used the installer to overwrite an older version of the standard libmng.dll, you would break applications depending on it by removing it.

The only two files that get installed are libmng.dll (into system32) and the diagnostic tool (lm_diag.exe into the Windows folder). If you really need to un-install them, simply delete them from your system. But please note that you may break applications that depend on libmng.dll !!!