About PCX Files
PCX Image
PCX (PiCture eXchange) is a legacy raster image format created by ZSoft for their PC Paintbrush program. It was one of the first widely supported image formats on IBM PC compatibles and uses simple run-length encoding compression.
Family
Raster & Vector Images
Extension
.pcx
MIME Type
image/x-pcx
Can Use As
HOW PCX
CAME TO BE.
PCX was the native format of PC Paintbrush, shipped by ZSoft Corporation in 1985 as one of the first pixel-art editors for the IBM PC. For much of the late 1980s and early 1990s PCX was the most common image format in the DOS world — clip-art libraries, screenshots, scanner exports, and every "paint by computer" kid’s workflow all traded PCX.
Then BMP shipped with Windows 1.0, GIF arrived from CompuServe, JPEG and PNG eventually dominated, and PCX faded to a footnote. The format survives in retrocomputing archives, legacy CAD, and some fax/scanning pipelines that never replaced their 1990s software. A .pcx file is simple RLE-compressed pixels with a 128-byte header — quirky but charming. The format’s historical importance is outsized: without PCX, Windows Paint might have launched with a worse default.
CURIOSITIES &
TRIVIA.
PC Paintbrush's PCX was effectively "the image format of DOS" from 1985 through ~1995 — anything drawn on a PC before Windows likely passed through PCX.
Windows Paint's clipboard briefly interoperated via PCX in early versions before switching to BMP.
PCX headers are exactly 128 bytes — a memorable fixed size that made parsers trivial.
ZSoft was acquired by SoftKey (later The Learning Company) in 1994, ending PC Paintbrush's evolution.
The RLE compression in PCX works on horizontal runs of identical bytes — efficient for cartoons, less so for photos.
STRENGTHS &
LIMITATIONS.
Strengths
- Simple format — easy to parse in any language.
- RLE compression keeps flat-color images compact.
- Historic archive format for 1985-1995 PC art.
- Stable since 1985 with no breaking changes.
Limitations
- Legacy — no new content created as PCX in 2026.
- Inefficient for photographs (RLE is wrong algorithm).
- Limited to 24-bit color depth.
- Web browsers do not display PCX.
Typical Sizes & Weights
Simple clipart
2-40 KB
VGA-era screenshot (320×200)
30-80 KB
Scanned page
200 KB - 2 MB
Technical Specifications
- MIME type
- image/x-pcx
- Extension
- .pcx
- Header
- 128 bytes fixed
- Compression
- Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
- Creator
- ZSoft Corporation (1985)
CONVERT FROM
PCX
Common Use Cases
Legacy DOS/Windows graphics, retro computing, vintage game assets
Related Formats
Popular comparisons
PCX vs JPG
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
PCX vs PNG
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
PCX vs WEBP
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
PCX vs AVIF
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
PCX vs GIF
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
PCX vs BMP
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
Popular PCX conversions
The most-requested destinations when starting from PCX.
Frequently Asked Questions about PCX
Frequently Asked Questions
PCX (PCX Image) is an image format used to store raster graphics — a two-dimensional grid of pixels describing a picture. It is part of the raster & vector images family and designed around a specific trade-off between file size, visual fidelity, and feature support (transparency, colour depth, compression type). Photographers, web designers, and content creators choose PCX when its particular strengths match the publishing target.
Most desktop photo viewers (Windows Photos, macOS Preview, GIMP, Photoshop, Affinity Photo) open PCX natively. On mobile, iOS Photos and Google Photos display PCX in the gallery when supported by the OS. If the format is rare or new, convert to JPG or PNG first — both are universally readable — using our PCX to JPG or PCX to PNG converter.
Upload the PCX to KaijuConverter and pick a target format (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, SVG, PDF). The conversion runs in the browser via ImageMagick and returns a download in seconds. No account or installation required; both input and output delete automatically within two hours.
It depends on the task. JPG is the smallest file size for photographs; PNG is lossless with transparency; PCX has its own niche that may favour colour depth, animation, or encoding efficiency over one or both of those. For the final web publish, test all three and measure file size plus visible quality on real content.