PixFolio catalog

File Format
Name	PixFolio catalog
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics PixFolio catalog
Extension(s)	.cat, .cix
Released	≤1991

PixFolio, including its predecessor ShowGIF (also written Showgif), is an image viewer and image file management application for Windows 3.x. It was developed by Allen C. Kempe and (for some versions) Paul R. Hachey.

It "catalog" database consists of a .CAT data file, and a companion .CIX index file. The CAT file contains thumbnail images, and other metadata.

Disambiguation

Note that there are several other unrelated programs named ShowGIF.

Identification

CAT: There's no nice way to identify a CAT file. Robust identification seems possible, though. The first 373 bytes of the file (and of each item) possibly have a fixed layout, but variable-length segments exist after that.

For example, byte 0x3a appears at offsets 356 and 359, as part of the ASCII timestamp. Certain bytes must be ASCII digits. Etc.

CIX: (TODO)

Software

There are many versions of PixFolio. Selected versions are listed here.

• ShowGIF v1.08
• ShowGIF v1.09l
• PixFolio v1.00
• PixFolio v1.04.14
• PixFolio v2.0.29 (beta)
• PixFolio v2.0.104
• PixFolio v2.0.155
• Chip Hitware Vol. 3 → CHIPHIT3/MULTMEDI/GRAFIK/PIXFOLIO/PIXF16.ZIP - PixFolio v2.0.170

Sample files

• Aztech's Super Games → FOR_PC/*.{CAT,CIX}