What is the advantage of png format over gif?

I would like to whether gif format is better or png format for web images. Which one will take less size on the disk without compromising the quality?
I heard png is more suitable for web pages than the gif. How?

 

There are a lot of thread here for this.Try search tool.

 

I searched for it but unable to get the exact thing I want. I want some more information. Especially why it is more better than gif? I tried with variety of key words. Could you please suggest any post? Thank you.

 

Well first of all.... .png's can handle transparent backgrounds while most of the times you're going to have problems with a .gif. Gif is usually used for animated images or something really small. .png has better quality.

 

PNG is excellent for advanced transparency. Like semi transparent elements, transparent shadows and things like that.
It also handles compression very well, so you can often produce very small files.

 

PNG combines the best characteristics of JPG and GIF. Lossless compression, Dynamic color palette, No software patents and True alpha transparency. The reason it hasn't been used more widely is the lack of support for it in old versions of IE.

 

Thank you everyone. I am glad to see your replies. Really good information. Is there any software which helps in making png files freely?

 

you can easily convert anything into .png, making your own is easy also. Just use adobe Photoshop any version I use CS5. GIMP does it also. make sure to delete the background before saving as .png though.

 

Whether gif is suitable or png for smaller files. I mean up to around 5-6kb ?

 

GIF is smaller in size but it doesn't support transparent background. PNG supports transparent background.