nowfound

Work · June 15, 2025

Meow – An Image File Format I made because PNGs and JPEGs suck for AI

One of the biggest context AI LLMs can get from images is their metadata, but it's extremely underutilized. and while PNG and JPEG both offer metadata, it gets stripped way too easily when sharing and is extremely limited for AI based workflows and offer minimal metadata entries for things that are actually useful. Plus, these formats are ancient (1995 and 1992) - it's about time we get an upgrade for our AI era. Meet MEOW (Metadata-Encoded Optimized Webfile) - an Open Source Image file format which is basically PNG on steroids and what I also like to call the purr-fect file format. Instead…

Meow – An Image File Format I made because PNGs and JPEGs suck for AI launched on June 15, 2025 with 98 votes, #440 of 7,999 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.

Visit github.com ↗Alternativestop 6% of June 2025

In plain words

Meow is an open-source image file format designed for AI workflows that embeds metadata directly into image pixels using steganography rather than storing it separately. Built as a modern alternative to PNG and JPEG, it preserves contextual information that AI language models can extract from images without the metadata being lost during file sharing. The format encodes data in the least significant bits of pixels, maintaining visual quality while retaining information useful for AI-based tasks.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Meow Meow brings adorable cat photos to your iPhone home screen with beautiful, customizable widgets. Choose from three styles: Standard (pure cuteness), Time (with digital clock), or Calendar (with date display). Each widget auto-refreshes with new random cat images throughout the day, or tap to refresh instantly. Perfect for cat lovers who want their home screen to spark joy every time they unlock their phone. Free, no ads, just cats! 🐱✨

The most Purr-fect Image File Format for your AI workflows - Kuberwastaken/meow

In the maker’s words, at launch

One of the biggest context AI LLMs can get from images is their metadata, but it's extremely underutilized. and while PNG and JPEG both offer metadata, it gets stripped way too easily when sharing and is extremely limited for AI based workflows and offer minimal metadata entries for things that are actually useful.…

Does a similar job

all alternatives →
  • Convertfiles.ai2023 · convertfiles.ai · ▲424

    Convert your images online for free

  • MemeNgin2021 · memengin.com · ▲79

    A node based image engine for meme creators

  • Meowrse Code2015 · misc.website · ▲83

    Say it in Morse Code. With Cats.

  • MemeGen AI2025 · popvid.ai · ▲44

    Turn Photo into an Eye-Catching Video in One Click

  • TinyPNG2014 · tinypng.com · ▲119

    Compress PNG images that preserves full alpha transparency

  • MemeGen.ai – Turn Any Photo into an AI Meme Video (No Prompts Needed)2025 · meme-gen.ai · ▲56

    Hi HN, I’ve spent the past few months building https://meme-gen.ai – a tool that transforms any photo into an AI-generated meme video. It’s built for simplicity: no need to write prompts, tweak settings, or have any experience with AI or video editing. Just upload a photo, and our system instantly animates it into a short, funny video meme. It’s designed to be zero-friction and fun – something you can use in seconds and share in a click. I built this because I wanted to make AI video creation truly accessible to everyday users – not just developers or creators with editing…

More work this month

the category →

Source: Show HN post ↗ · launch text quoted in part

Launched alongside, June 2025

the whole month →
  • IM

    Hey HN! Pilots everywhere are required to keep a logbook of all their flying hours, aircraft, airports, and so on. Since I track everything digitally (some people still just use paper logbooks!), I put together some data visualizations and a few 3D globes to show my flying history. This globe is probably my favourite so far: https://jameshard.ing/pilot/globes/all If you’ve got ideas for other graphs or ways to show this kind of data, I’d love to hear them!

    Life & fun · 2025 · jameshard.ing

  • Stunning presentations with AI. No design skills required.

    AI · 2025 · chroniclehq.com

  • Build native mobile apps for iOS and Android without code.

    Dev tools · 2025 · bble.io

  • Twenty▲989

    Build your Enterprise CRM with an AI-friendly SDK

    Dev tools · 2025 · twenty.com

  • All your connections, across all your socials.

    AI · 2025 · pally.com

  • I was the main contributor to workout.lol, an open-source fitness app to easily build a workout routine. The project had traction (1.4k GitHub stars, 95 forks, ~20K visits/month), but was eventually sold due to video licensing hurdles. The new owner stopped maintaining it, and the repo went abandoned. Over the next 9 months, I sent 15 emails to try to save it : no replies. Feature requests & issues were ignored. The community was left with a "broken" tool let's say. I couldn't just let it die So I built the new version from scratch with the same open-source spirit, but a better…

    Dev tools · 2025 · github.com