PNG size growth when using RenderTargetBitmap and PngBitmapEncoder

Question

I'm using a method to merge some tile images into a single image. But if I apply it to four 30kb- PNG images, the resulting PNG image would be 500K (~4x more than what I expect)

This is some part of the code that I'm using (suggested by Cédric Bignon):

BitmapFrame frame1 = BitmapDecoder.Create(new Uri(path1), BitmapCreateOptions.None, BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad).Frames.First();
BitmapFrame frame2 = BitmapDecoder.Create(new Uri(path2), BitmapCreateOptions.None, BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad).Frames.First();
BitmapFrame frame3 = BitmapDecoder.Create(new Uri(path3), BitmapCreateOptions.None, BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad).Frames.First();
BitmapFrame frame4 = BitmapDecoder.Create(new Uri(path4), BitmapCreateOptions.None, BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad).Frames.First();

// Gets the size of the images (I assume each image has the same size)
int imageWidth = frame1.PixelWidth;
int imageHeight = frame1.PixelHeight;

// Draws the images into a DrawingVisual component
DrawingVisual drawingVisual = new DrawingVisual();
using (DrawingContext drawingContext = drawingVisual.RenderOpen())
{
    drawingContext.DrawImage(frame1, new Rect(0, 0, imageWidth, imageHeight));
    drawingContext.DrawImage(frame2, new Rect(imageWidth, 0, imageWidth, imageHeight));
    drawingContext.DrawImage(frame3, new Rect(0, imageHeight, imageWidth, imageHeight));
    drawingContext.DrawImage(frame4, new Rect(imageWidth, imageHeight, imageWidth, imageHeight));
}

// Converts the Visual (DrawingVisual) into a BitmapSource
RenderTargetBitmap bmp = new RenderTargetBitmap(imageWidth * 2, imageHeight * 2, 96, 96, PixelFormats.Pbgra32);
bmp.Render(drawingVisual);

// Creates a PngBitmapEncoder and adds the BitmapSource to the frames of the encoder
PngBitmapEncoder encoder = new PngBitmapEncoder();
encoder.Frames.Add(BitmapFrame.Create(bmp));

// Saves the image into a file using the encoder
using (Stream stream = File.OpenWrite(pathTileImage))
    encoder.Save(stream);

Anyone knows what is going on?

Answer 1

It's difficult to say without knowing the original images. PNG supports several color models and compressions. If, for example, the 4 original images have (different) palettes, and the composition will have to resort to a true colour format, and the total size will probably be way more than 4 times the original sizes.