Picture Catalog (Spinnaker .CAT)

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File Format
Name Picture Catalog (Spinnaker .CAT)
Ontology
Extension(s) .cat
Released ~1992

Picture Catalog (.CAT) is a file format used by at least two Windows 3.x applications by Spinnaker: PFS:Publisher, and Brochures and Mailers. It contains thumbnail images, and other metadata.

It's plausible that the format is also used by the Spinnaker versions of PFS:First Publisher, but this hasn't been determined.

The format is Windows-centric, so it's probably not used by any of the DOS software in the "PFS" family. See also ART (PFS: First Publisher).

Format details

CAT appears to be derived from the IFF "CAT" aggregate format, except that it uses little-endian byte order. The FourCCs remain in the same order as they would in IFF.

Identification

Files begin with ASCII "CAT ", and have "CLIPFORM" at offset 8.

Sample files

  • [1] → *.CAT
  • [2]
  • [3] → WPFSPUB*.ZIP (see WPFSPUB2.ZIP/ART.PPK)
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