Automic VaultAutomic Vault

brew

Install libpng with Homebrew, apk, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper

Library for manipulating PNG images. Version 1.6.58 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-05.

Install commandSecurity notes

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install libpng

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%
sudo port install libpng

MacPorts ports tree · graphics/libpng/Portfile · source: api.github.com

Linux

Alpine Linux apkverified · 92%
sudo apk add libpng

Alpine Linux edge package indexes · libpng · source: dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org

Fedora dnfverified · 92%
sudo dnf install libpng

Fedora Rawhide package metadata · libpng · source: dl.fedoraproject.org

Nixverified · 92%
nix profile install nixpkgs#libpng

nixpkgs package indexes · pkgs/by-name/li/libpng/package.nix · source: api.github.com

Arch Linux pacmanverified · 92%
sudo pacman -S libpng

Arch Linux sync databases · libpng · source: geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com

openSUSE zypperverified · 92%
sudo zypper install libpng12-0

openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · libpng12-0 · source: download.opensuse.org

overview

Package summary

Library for manipulating PNG images

Commands and aliases

  • libpng-config
  • libpng16-config
  • png-fix-itxt
  • pngfix

history

Project history and usage

libpng is the official Portable Network Graphics reference library. It is the C library most closely associated with reading, writing, testing, and demonstrating PNG behavior across free and proprietary software.

Project history

libpng began in 1995 during the early PNG effort, when the image format was designed as a patent-unencumbered replacement path for GIF-era workflows. The upstream README credits Guy Eric Schalnat as the original author and former maintainer, followed by Andreas Dilger, Glenn Randers-Pehrson, and Cosmin Truta.

The README's historical notes say libpng was in extensive use and testing from mid-1995, that 0.89 was the first official release in 1996, and that 1.0.0 was released in March 1998 after API churn had settled. Later history focused on keeping the public API stable while hiding internal structures and moving callers toward accessor functions.

Adoption history

libpng's adoption follows PNG itself: once PNG became a web and graphics interchange staple, the reference library became a common dependency for image viewers, browsers, toolkits, converters, and build systems.

The upstream home page emphasizes that libpng supports almost all PNG features, is extensible, and has been tested for more than 30 years. That longevity is why distributions treat it as base image infrastructure rather than an optional graphics experiment.

How it is used

Developers use libpng to read, inspect, transform, and write PNG streams from C and C-compatible languages. The package also ships small tools such as `pngfix` and config helpers used by builds.

The manual, example.c, pngtest.c, and bundled test images make libpng both a production library and a reference implementation that other encoders and decoders can compare against.

Why package nerds care

libpng is one of the canonical small C libraries that sits underneath a surprising amount of desktop, web, and server software. Its packaging details matter because a security fix or ABI break can affect a large image-processing dependency graph.

It is also a reference-library package in the strict sense: package maintainers are not just shipping any PNG implementation, but the implementation maintained by the PNG development community as the official reference library.

Timeline

  • 1995-03-29: The CHANGES file records libpng version 0.1.
  • 1996-06-05: The CHANGES file records version 0.89, described by the README as the first official release.
  • 1998-03-08: The CHANGES file records version 1.0.0.
  • 2011: The 1.5 line made direct access to png_struct and png_info private, according to the README's historical notes.
  • 2018: The README credits Cosmin Truta as maintainer beginning in 2018.

Related projects

  • PNG is the image format that libpng implements and documents alongside the W3C, RFC, and ISO/IEC specifications.
  • zlib is libpng's compression dependency for DEFLATE data inside PNG files.
  • png-mng-implement is the mailing-list community referenced by upstream for implementation questions.

security posture

Risk level: green

library-like package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

  • library-like package without higher-risk signals

Signals

  • metadata:library-like

Install behavior

  • No Homebrew post-install hook is recorded in formula metadata.
  • Homebrew bottle metadata is available for 6 platform targets.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

executables

Installed executables

CommandKindExposureNote
libpng-configcliglobal executable
libpng16-configcliglobal executable
png-fix-itxtcliglobal executable
pngfixcliglobal executable

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-07-08
manager version1.6.58
manager updated2026-07-05
local dataok
upstreamnot checked
latest detectednot detected

https://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html

install metadata

Package metadata

Package keybrew:libpng
Version1.6.58
Package managerHomebrew
Package manager pagehttps://formulae.brew.sh/formula/libpng
Homepagehttps://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html
Repositoryhttps://github.com/pnggroup/libpng
Upstream docshttps://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng-manual.txt
Licenselibpng-2.0
Source archivehttps://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/libpng/libpng16/1.6.58/libpng-1.6.58.tar.xz
Last updated2026-07-05T00:14:30+09:00
Pulseupdated
Bottleavailable (on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux)
Homebrew post-installnot defined
Servicenone declared

registry facts

Source database details

Source DatabaseHomebrew formula API
Taphomebrew/core
Full Namelibpng
Version Scheme0
Revision0
Head VersionHEAD
Bottle Stable Root URLhttps://ghcr.io/v2/homebrew/core
Deprecatedno
Disabledno
Keg Onlyno
URL Keys
  • head
  • stable

source database matches

Other package-manager records

Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.

Nix95%

libpng

nix profile install nixpkgs#libpng
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
nixpkgs package indexes · api.github.com · nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/li/libpng/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
apk95%

libpng 1.6.58-r1

Portable Network Graphics library

http://www.libpng.org

sudo apk add libpng
  • License: Libpng
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: libpng
  • 1 dependencies
  • 1 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
Alpine Linux edge package indexes · dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org · Alpine Linux edge package indexes: libpng from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
apk95%

libpng-dev 1.6.58-r1

Portable Network Graphics library (development files)

http://www.libpng.org

sudo apk add libpng-dev
  • License: Libpng
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: libpng
  • 1 dependencies
  • 1 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
Alpine Linux edge package indexes · dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org · Alpine Linux edge package indexes: libpng-dev from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
apk95%

libpng-doc 1.6.58-r1

Portable Network Graphics library (documentation)

http://www.libpng.org

sudo apk add libpng-doc
  • License: Libpng
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: libpng
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
Alpine Linux edge package indexes · dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org · Alpine Linux edge package indexes: libpng-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
apk95%

libpng-static 1.6.58-r1

Portable Network Graphics library (static library)

http://www.libpng.org

sudo apk add libpng-static
  • License: Libpng
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: libpng
  • 1 dependencies
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
Alpine Linux edge package indexes · dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org · Alpine Linux edge package indexes: libpng-static from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
apk95%

libpng-utils 1.6.58-r1

Portable Network Graphics library (pngfix utils)

http://www.libpng.org

sudo apk add libpng-utils
  • License: Libpng
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: libpng
  • 1 dependencies
  • 1 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
Alpine Linux edge package indexes · dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org · Alpine Linux edge package indexes: libpng-utils from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
dnf95%

libpng 1.6.58-1.fc45

A library of functions for manipulating PNG image format files

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/

sudo dnf install libpng
  • License: zlib
  • Category: Unspecified
  • Architecture: i686
  • Source Package: libpng
  • 4 dependencies
  • 2 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: libpng from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst
dnf95%

libpng-devel 1.6.58-1.fc45

Development tools for programs to manipulate PNG image format files

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/

sudo dnf install libpng-devel
  • License: zlib
  • Category: Unspecified
  • Architecture: i686
  • Source Package: libpng
  • 10 dependencies
  • 3 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: libpng-devel from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst
dnf95%

libpng-static 1.6.58-1.fc45

Static PNG image format file library

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/

sudo dnf install libpng-static
  • License: zlib
  • Category: Unspecified
  • Architecture: i686
  • Source Package: libpng
  • 1 dependencies
  • 1 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: libpng-static from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst
dnf95%

libpng-tools 1.6.58-1.fc45

Tools for PNG image format file library

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/

sudo dnf install libpng-tools
  • License: zlib
  • Category: Unspecified
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: libpng
  • 5 dependencies
  • 1 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
Fedora Rawhide package metadata · dl.fedoraproject.org · Fedora Rawhide package metadata: libpng-tools from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst
pacman95%

libpng 1.6.58-1

A collection of routines used to create PNG format graphics files

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html

sudo pacman -S libpng
  • License: libpng-2.0
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • 2 dependencies
  • 1 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
Arch Linux sync databases · geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com · Arch Linux sync databases: libpng from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz
zypper95%

libpng12-0 1.2.59-5.2

Library for the Portable Network Graphics Format (PNG)

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html

sudo zypper install libpng12-0
  • License: Zlib
  • Category: System/Libraries
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: libpng12
  • 4 dependencies
  • 3 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · download.opensuse.org · openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: libpng12-0 from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst
zypper95%

libpng16-16 1.6.57-1.2

Library for the Portable Network Graphics Format (PNG)

http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html

sudo zypper install libpng16-16
  • License: libpng-2.0
  • Category: Unspecified
  • Architecture: x86_64
  • Source Package: libpng16
  • 4 dependencies
  • 3 provides
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata · download.opensuse.org · openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: libpng16-16 from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst
MacPorts95%

libpng

sudo port install libpng
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Libpng
MacPorts ports tree · api.github.com · MacPorts ports tree: graphics/libpng/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

Related tools

  • adios2Popular package that depends on this formula.
  • analogPopular package that depends on this formula.
  • apng2gifPopular package that depends on this formula.
  • apngasmPopular package that depends on this formula.
  • argyll-cmsPopular package that depends on this formula.
  • astrometry-netPopular package that depends on this formula.

Same workflow

  • flifShares av.db curated category or tags: cli, image-format, media.
  • openexrShares av.db curated category or tags: cli, image-format, media.
  • camelliaShares av.db curated category or tags: c-library, cli, image-processing, media.
  • gdShares av.db curated category or tags: cli, image-processing, media, png.
  • leptonicaShares av.db curated category or tags: c-library, cli, image-processing, media.
  • sngShares av.db curated category or tags: cli, image-processing, media, png.

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Used sources

  • Geiger risk classifier
  • Nucleus package database
  • av.db category and tag curation
  • cross-ecosystem install command graph
  • curated package history
  • external package-manager database matches
  • package relationship graph
  • package version freshness
  • package-page enrichment