The proposed PNG format (formerly PBF, pronounced Ping) intends to provide a simple, 24-bit lossless, streaming-capable compression technique for bitmapped image files as an open standard.
Previous drafts:
Please see also the newsgroups:
As of 14 Feb 95, CompuServe now supports PNG. They will also fund and publish an intellectual property review to ensure the future standard is free of patent infringements.