Sobre os arquivos PCX
Imagem PCX
Formato bitmap ZSoft Paintbrush (1985). Padrão original do Paintbrush MS-DOS. Tecnicamente legacy mas ainda encontrado em arquivos antigos e fax.
Família
Raster & Vector Images
Extensão
.pcx
Tipo MIME
image/x-pcx
Pode ser usado como
COMO NASCEU O
FORMATO PCX.
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\u2019s 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\u2019s historical importance is outsized: without PCX, Windows Paint might have launched with a worse default.
CURIOSIDADES E
FATOS INTERESSANTES.
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.
VANTAGENS E
LIMITAÇÕES.
Vantagens
- 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.
Limitações
- 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.
Tamanhos típicos de arquivo
Simple clipart
2-40 KB
VGA-era screenshot (320×200)
30-80 KB
Scanned page
200 KB - 2 MB
Especificações técnicas
- MIME type
- image/x-pcx
- Extension
- .pcx
- Header
- 128 bytes fixed
- Compression
- Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
- Creator
- ZSoft Corporation (1985)
CONVERTER A PARTIR DE
PCX
Casos de uso comuns
Legacy DOS/Windows graphics, retro computing, vintage game assets
Formatos relacionados
Comparativos populares
PCX vs JPG
Diferenças, tamanho de arquivo e quando escolher cada formato.
PCX vs PNG
Diferenças, tamanho de arquivo e quando escolher cada formato.
PCX vs WEBP
Diferenças, tamanho de arquivo e quando escolher cada formato.
PCX vs AVIF
Diferenças, tamanho de arquivo e quando escolher cada formato.
PCX vs GIF
Diferenças, tamanho de arquivo e quando escolher cada formato.
PCX vs BMP
Diferenças, tamanho de arquivo e quando escolher cada formato.
Conversões populares de PCX
Os destinos mais procurados ao converter arquivos PCX.
Perguntas frequentes sobre PCX
Perguntas frequentes
PCX (PCX Image) is an image formato used to store raster graphics — a two-dimensional grid of pixels describing a picture. It is part of the raster & vector images family e designed around a specific trade-off between tamanho do arquivo, visual fidelity, e feature support (transparency, colour depth, compressão type). Photographers, web designers, e content creators choose PCX when its particular strengths match the publishing target.
Most desktop photo viewers (Windows Photos, macOS Preview, GIMP, Photoshop, Affinity Photo) abrir PCX natively. On mobile, iOS Photos e Google Photos display PCX no gallery when suportado por the OS. If the formato is rare ou new, converter to JPG ou PNG first — both are universally readable — usando our PCX to JPG ou PCX to PNG converter.
Upload the PCX to KaijuConverter e pick a target formato (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, SVG, PDF). The conversion runs in o navegador via ImageMagick e returns a baixar in seconds. No account ou installation required; both input e output delete automatically within two hours.
Depende de the task. JPG is the smallest tamanho do arquivo para photographs; PNG is sem perdas com transparência; PCX has its own niche that may favour colour depth, animation, ou codificação efficiency over one ou both of those. para the final web publish, test all three e measure tamanho do arquivo plus visible quality on real content.