Picture Catalog (Spinnaker .CAT)

File Format
Name	Picture Catalog (Spinnaker .CAT)
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics Picture Catalog (Spinnaker .CAT)
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).

See also Template Catalog (Spinnaker .TCT), a similar format.

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.

Software

• Deark

Sample files

• [1] → *.CAT
• [2]
• [3] → WPFSPUB*.ZIP (see WPFSPUB2.ZIP/ART.PPK)
• dexvert samples — image/pictureCatalogSpinnaker