e"><b>image</b></a>.  If the bit depth of the PNG file is
less than or equal to 8, an <a
href="#8-bit-image"><b>8-bit-image</b></a> will be returned;
otherwise, a <a href="#16-bit-image"><b>16-bit-image</b></a> will be
returned.

<p>Applications that would like to receive images of consistent bit
depth (rather than 8 or 16 depending on the PNG file) can apply the
function <a href="#f_8-bit-image"><b>8-bit-image</b></a> or the
function <a href="#f_16-bit-image"><b>16-bit-image</b></a> to the
result of <b>dec