What is .pcx file?
ZSoft Paintbrush is a raster image. Images are compressed.File extension is .pcx.
Software handling .pcx files
Rest7 Free Online ConverterStructure of .pcx images
The header is 128 bytes long.| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Magic | UInt8 | Always =10 |
| Version number | UInt8 | 0 = PC Paintbrush version 2.5 2 = PC Paintbrush 2.8 with palette information 3 = PC Paintbrush 2.8 without palette information 4 = PC Paintbrush for Windows 5 = PC Paintbrush 3.0 or later, PC Paintbrush Plus |
| Compression | UInt8 | 1 = RLE. Must be 1 |
| Dimension | UInt16 | = 1, 2 or 3 |
| BitsPerPixel | UInt8 | Bits per pixel per plane |
| Xmin | UInt16 | |
| Ymin | UInt16 | |
| Xmax | UInt16 | |
| Ymax | UInt16 | |
| DPIX | UInt16 | DPI horizontally |
| DPIY | UInt16 | DPI vertically |
| Palette | UInt24[16] | 16-color palette, 3 bytes per color (RGB). 48 bytes in total |
| Reserved | UInt8 | = 0 |
| BitPlanet | UInt8 | Number of bit planes |
| BytesPerRow | UInt16 | Bytes of Video memory per row |
| ColorInterpretation | UInt16 | 0 = color or black&white, 1 = grayscale. Unreliable |
| ScreenWidth | UInt16 | |
| ScreenHeight | UInt16 | |
| Reserved | UInt8[54] | 54 bytes, each is 0 |
Data types:
UInt8, UInt16, UInt32, UInt64 - Unsigned Integer 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit
Int8, Int16, Int32, Int64 - Signed Integer 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit
UMint16, UMint32 - Unsigned Motorola Integer 16 bit, 32 bit (Big Endian)
Char8, Char16 - Char 8 bit, 16 bit
Real world .pcx samples
Here are some real world example pictures.
