I don’t think it is cute when companies try to be cute with the pronunciations of their names/file formats/etc.

As a result, Nokia may want us to pronounce Qt as “cute”, but it is neither cute nor “cute”. It’s Kyu-Tee.

Likewise, Pee-En-Gee, Jay-Pee-Gee, Bee-Em-Pee, and JIF. There is actually a reason aside from personal taste:

#1: “Ping” is already a computer-science term and may only make coworkers confused if I actually said, “Give me a ping,” rather than, “Give me a Pee-En-Gee.”

#2: Sometimes I say “Bitmap”. Why? Because that is the name of the file format. The extension is not the name of the format. Likewise, Portable Network Graphics is the name of the .PNG file format, making it also valid, if you are willing to be so verbal. In other words it is also acceptable to refer to a file by either its extension or its format name, and these are 2 separate things. This is actually apples and oranges. I don’t actually do this with any format except Bitmaps because it is my choice to refer to them by format name or by extension, and the other format names are too long.

#3: I have never heard “Gee-Aye-Ef”, and I suspect that even though it is proper to refer to it as such it would only confuse everyone you know.

Grammar dictates that abbreviations, which is what extensions are, should be pronounced letter-by-letter. U. S. A. is not pronounced “Oo-Sa,” U. N. is not pronounced “Un,” PS is not pronounced “Pss,” etc. There are no special rules that give the “PNG” abbreviation for “Portable Network Graphics” some kind of special exception. I can invent a new word or a new abbreviation. That does not give me the right to change the rules of grammar and pronunciation. Otherwise, you should all get used to pronouncing “Yabtrack” as “Dog-track” because it’s my word and I said so.

L. Spiro

Grammar dictates that abbreviations, which is what extensions are, should be pronounced letter-by-letter.

If by "grammar" you mean you, then I guess that's true.

U. S. A. is not pronounced “Oo-Sa,” U. N. is not pronounced “Un,” PS is not pronounced “Pss,” (...)

And NASA is not pronounced... oh, wait.

Grammar dictates that abbreviations, which is what extensions are, should be pronounced letter-by-letter. U. S. A. is not pronounced “Oo-Sa,” U. N. is not pronounced “Un,” PS is not pronounced “Pss,” etc. There are no special rules that give the “PNG” abbreviation for “Portable Network Graphics” some kind of special exception. I can invent a new word or a new abbreviation. That does not give me the right to change the rules of grammar and pronunciation.

I don't know anyone who pronounces "scuba" as "S-C-U-B-A", "laser" as "L-A-S-E-R", "radar" as "R-A-D-A-R" (how do you know how to pronounce that first A anyway?), etc. despite the fact that they're abbreviations.

Heck, that's what an acronym is. An acronym is an abbreviation (formed from the initial letters of a larger phrase) that is pronounced as if it were a word. That's the difference between an abbreviation and an acronym. People are pretty free to turn an abbreviation into an acronym, if society deems it acceptable (as they have with JPEG -> "jay-peg", but have not done with USA -> "oo-suh"). Society has deemed "GIF" an acronym (and not just an abbreviation) by accepting the "gif" and "jif" pronunciations. It has, more or less, accepted "ping" for PNG as well, though this acronymization* is "less" accepted/common than the acronymization of GIF.

English sucks.** We make our own rules and exceptions up all the time.

*Totally just made that word up.

**In terms of having consistent, reliable, rigid, and sensible rules.

Jota pé gé (I'm spanish speaker :D)

Pene gé (png)

It has, more or less, accepted "ping" for PNG as well, though this acronymization* is "less" accepted/common than the acronymization of GIF.

I don't think I've ever heard someone pronounce 'PNG' as 'ping' in real life.

If they tried that shit around here, the network admins would rise up and crucify them.

It has, more or less, accepted "ping" for PNG as well, though this acronymization* is "less" accepted/common than the acronymization of GIF.

I don't think I've ever heard someone pronounce 'PNG' as 'ping' in real life.

If they tried that shit around here, the network admins would rise up and crucify them.

I've heard it regularly enough, though I did say "less" (I put it in quotes because I wasn't sure how less it really is; I'm wondering if it's more common in my area than perhaps other areas, judging by what I'm hearing on this forum).

After all, the libpng website says: "PNG (pronounced "ping") is..." and the W3 PNG specification introduction says "PNG is pronounced "ping"" (and Wikipedia suggests "ping" as well, also saying the acronym "PING" -> "PING is not GIF" is (if I'm reading this right) the father of the "PNG" extension)

I didn't realize so many people were saying 'gif' with a hard G. Joke's on you, suckers.

And NASA is not pronounced... oh, wait.

NASA is an acronym. Your rebuttal fails.
You’d have made more ground by suggesting that some extensions are not abbreviations, but are meant to be acronyms. But you completely missed your chance and someone else had to make that point for you.

The problem with what was mentioned, however, is that those acronyms don’t have implicit letters. PNG is not an acronym. It’s an abbreviation and the company who made it wants to be cute and try to give it some special pronunciation by suggesting an implicit I is hidden somewhere inside it. If that was acceptable on any level, PETA and PTA could be pronounced the same way. Like with PNG, we could just say, “Well the ‘P’ is pronounced ‘Pee’ which is cute and makes us clever, so ‘PTA’ is pronounced ‘Pee-Tah.’”

It’s not. PTA is an abbreviation, PETA is an acronym. GIF has a valid excuse for going either way (and this is commonly done and acceptable). PNG does not.

I didn't realize so many people were saying 'gif' with a hard G. Joke's on you, suckers.

I have to agree. I have never heard it with a hard G, and imagining it sounds…weird.

L. Spiro

The problem with what was mentioned, however, is that those acronyms don’t have implicit letters. PNG is not an acronym. It’s an abbreviation and the company who made it wants to be cute and try to give it some special pronunciation by suggesting an implicit I is hidden somewhere inside it.

First, the "company" that made it wasn't a company. I suggest you read this (and note that PNG came from the acronym "PING" (and was later given the meaning Portable Network Graphics) in a kind of backronym-ish way). There was intention from the start for PNG to be "ping." PNG was the suggested file extension for the proposed PING format, and later it just became PNG with a meaning completely different from the original PING acronym.

If that was acceptable on any level, PETA and PTA could be pronounced the same way. Like with PNG, we could just say, “Well the ‘P’ is pronounced ‘Pee’ which is cute and makes us clever, so ‘PTA’ is pronounced ‘Pee-Tah.’” It’s not. PTA is an abbreviation, PETA is an acronym. GIF has a valid excuse for going either way (and this is commonly done and acceptable). PNG does not.

With this logic, JPG/JPEG should never be pronounced "jay-peg" and MPG/MPEG should never be pronounced "em-peg", yet these are the most common (and accepted) pronunciations of these abbreviations.

Again, English is a bit of a mess. People do what they want, and what makes something "correct" is if society deems it acceptable. There's no hard and fast rule that declares PNG cannot be pronounced "ping".

English is a bit of a mess. People do what they want, and what makes something "correct" is if society deems it acceptable.

I'd thought it was the case with all languages :D