Reference

PCX

PCX is one of the oldest PC image formats, created by ZSoft for PC Paintbrush in the 1980s. It uses simple run-length encoding and was common in DOS-era graphics before GIF, PNG, and JPEG took over.

Files & formatsGeneral

PCX

Also known as: PiCture eXchange, .pcx file, ZSoft PCX

PCX is one of the oldest PC image formats, created by ZSoft for PC Paintbrush in the 1980s. It uses simple run-length encoding and was common in DOS-era graphics before GIF, PNG, and JPEG took over.

Early ZSoft PC Paintbrush image format
Uses simple run-length compression
Largely obsolete; convert to PNG or JPEG

How PCX stores images

PCX compresses with basic run-length encoding (RLE), which shrinks runs of identical pixels well but does little for photographs. It supported palette and later true-color images across DOS and early Windows software.

You will mostly meet PCX in old clip-art collections, scanner output, and legacy software, rather than anything created today.

Opening PCX files

Many image editors and converters still read PCX. For everyday use, convert it to PNG for lossless quality or JPEG for photos, then keep working with the modern copy.

Related terms

Keep reading the reference.

Files & formatsBMPBMP (.bmp), or bitmap, is an old Windows image format that usually stores pixels with little or no compression. The result is very large files — often many times the size of the same image as JPEG or PNG — so it is rarely a good way to keep photos.GeneralWindows Files & formatsGIFGIF (.gif) is an old image format best known for short looping animations. It is limited to 256 colors and uses inefficient compression, so an animated GIF is often far larger than the same clip saved as an MP4 video.General Files & formatsPNGPNG (.png) is a lossless image format that keeps every pixel exact and supports transparency. That makes it ideal for screenshots, logos, and graphics, but files are much larger than JPEG or WebP — so a folder full of PNG screenshots can quietly fill storage.General