PCX
PiCture eXchange
What is PCX?
PCX (PiCture eXchange) is one of the earliest widely used raster image formats, originally developed for the PC Paintbrush program by ZSoft Corporation. PCX uses simple run-length encoding (RLE) compression and supports color depths from 1-bit monochrome to 24-bit true color. While largely superseded by modern formats, PCX files are still encountered in legacy software, retro computing, and vintage game assets.
Key Features
Common Use Cases
Advantages
- Simple and fast RLE compression
- Very small overhead for the format structure
- Well-documented legacy format
- Supported by most image processing libraries
- Good for palette-based images
Limitations
- Outdated compression (RLE only)
- No transparency support
- No animation support
- No web browser support
- Limited to 24-bit color depth maximum
- Largely replaced by PNG and modern formats
Convert PCX Files
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