PCX

File Format
Name	PCX
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics PCX
Extension(s)	.pcx
MIME Type(s)	image/x-pcx
PRONOM	fmt/90, others

Overview

PCX was the native format of a DOS-based program PC Paintbrush, and was for a time (especially the late 1980s) a very popular image format among users of IBM PC compatibles and the PC/MS-DOS operating system. Much clip art was distributed in this format. However, it was tied closely to platform-specific attributes such as the particular graphic modes available in early PCs, and later lost ground to more platform-independent graphic formats like GIF, JPEG, and PNG.

Identifiers

• PCX v0: fmt/86
• PCX v2: fmt/87
• PCX v3: fmt/88
• PCX v4: fmt/89
• PCX v5: fmt/90

See also

• DCX

Specifications

• http://www.fileformat.info/format/pcx/spec/index.htm

Software

• ImageMagick
• Netpbm: ppmtopcx, pcxtoppm

Sample files

• http://samples.libav.org/image-samples/pcx/

Resources

• Wikipedia article
• PCX Format, from the DOS Game Modding Wiki
• PCX File Format Summary, from the Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats