解决问题： ./lib/libz.so.1: version `ZLIB_1.2.9' not found (required by /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng16.so.16)

I found the same issue on ubuntu 17.10. I solved the problem in this way: moving the libz.so.1 from the folder and creating a link for libz.so.1 in lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1. In particular the commands are:
cd /your_directory_software/../lib/ (the directory in which is present libz.so.1)
sudo mv libz.so.1 libz.so.1.old
sudo ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1

After that the applications should work fine as in my case.
Simone