Free webp to jpg
Image MIME Reference
APNG

Animated Portable Network Graphics

image/vnd.mozilla.apng
VS

Fuji Xerox EDMICS-RLC

image/vnd.fujixerox.edmics-rlc
EDMICS-RLC

A complete technical comparison of Animated Portable Network Graphics and Fuji Xerox EDMICS-RLC — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

APNG wins on browser support

Feature Support

Feature APNG EDMICS-RLC
Transparency (Alpha) Yes ✕ No
Animation Support Yes ✕ No
Progressive Loading Yes ✕ No
HDR Support ✕ No ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
Animated Portable Network Graphics
image/vnd.mozilla.apng
Extension
.apng.png
Container PNG Chunk Stream
Compression Deflate (Lossless)
Algorithm
Deflate (zlib)
Color Depth 8-bit (Indexed), 24-bit (TrueColor), 32-bit (RGBA)
Developed by Mozilla Corporation (Stuart Parmenter & Vladimir Vukićević)
Released 2004
Magic Bytes
89 50 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A
Full APNG reference →
Fuji Xerox EDMICS-RLC
image/vnd.fujixerox.edmics-rlc
Extension
.rlc.edm
Container Fuji Xerox EDMICS Wrapper
Compression Run-Length Coding (RLC / RLE)
Algorithm
Run-Length Coding (RLC)
Color Depth 1-bit (Monochrome), 8-bit (Grayscale)
Developed by Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
Released 1990s
Magic Bytes
Unknown (Proprietary Container)
Full EDMICS-RLC reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser APNG EDMICS-RLC
Chrome Chrome
✓ 59
Firefox Firefox
✓ 3
Safari Safari
✓ 8
Edge Edge
✓ 79
IE IE (Legacy)
APNG

APNG Strengths

  • Supports 8-bit alpha transparency, completely solving the ugly 'white halo' problem inherent to GIFs
  • Gracefully degrades; viewers that do not support APNG will render a perfectly valid, static PNG of the first frame
  • Provides lossless compression that retains absolute pixel-perfect quality for UI elements and line art
Limitations
  • Because it relies on lossless Deflate compression, file sizes for complex, video-like animations can be massive compared to lossy formats like WebP or AVIF
  • Was initially rejected by the official PNG group, delaying its adoption for nearly a decade
  • Lacks native hardware decoding acceleration, unlike video-based animated formats (like MP4 or WebM)
EDMICS-RLC

EDMICS-RLC Strengths

  • Simple, computationally inexpensive Run-Length Coding enabled rapid compression and decompression on low-power legacy hardware
  • Deeply integrated into Fuji Xerox enterprise hardware for seamless, automated scan-to-archive workflows
Limitations
  • Completely proprietary and closed-source, making modern archival extraction and migration extremely difficult
  • No support in modern image processing libraries like ImageMagick, libvips, or standard viewers without bespoke decoding tools
  • RLC compression is far less efficient than modern algorithms like PNG (Deflate) for complex documents

When to choose which format

APNG
Use APNG when…
  • High-Quality Web Animations
  • Stickers (Apple iMessage, LINE, Discord)
  • UI Loaders with Alpha Transparency
  • GIF Replacement
EDMICS-RLC
Use EDMICS-RLC when…
  • Fuji Xerox EDMICS Enterprise Systems
  • Archival of Scanned Engineering Documents
  • Legacy Corporate Scanning Pipelines
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