Portable (Public) Network Graphic bitmap file
File type: Bitmap image file
An xpng file is a bitmap image in the Portable Network Graphics format. It uses lossless compression and can contain indexed-color, grayscale, true-color, and transparent images.
The format is supported by Inkscape and Artweaver.
File type category:
Bitmap image file
Date updated: October 28, 2026
Portable Network Graphics is an open bitmap format developed as an alternative to GIF, whose LZW compression was historically covered by patents. PNG is patent- and license-free and was approved as a standard for use on the World Wide Web.
PNG supports up to 16.7 million colors, lossless compression, indexed color, grayscale, true color, transparency, and streaming. It can be displayed correctly by all commonly used web browsers and is supported by image-editing software. Unlike JPEG, it does not discard image data during compression.
The standard extension for this format is png. The xpng file extension is an uncommon alternate suffix for a PNG bitmap rather than a separate image format. Inkscape is available on multiple platforms, while Artweaver is available for Microsoft Windows.
Open the xpng file with Inkscape on its supported platforms or with Artweaver on Microsoft Windows.
If the application does not recognize the suffix, make a copy of the file and rename the copy with the standard .png extension, then open it as a PNG image.
An xpng file already contains PNG bitmap data, so changing its suffix to .png generally provides the standard form without re-encoding the image.
To create another image format, open the file in Inkscape or Artweaver and use the program's export or save-as function. PNG is lossless, so exporting to JPEG or another lossy format can reduce image quality.
Software applications that can open xpng files:
Microsoft Windows
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