Extending the correct answer from SigTerm, here is some background of why you got the effect you did for opening a PNG file in text mode:
The PNG format explains its 8-byte file header as follows:
The first eight bytes of a PNG file always contain the following values:
(decimal) 137 80 78 71 13 10 26 10
(hexadecimal) 89 50 4e 47 0d 0a 1a 0a
(ASCII C notation) \211 P N G \r \n \032 \n