PCX file format family

PCX, standing for PiCture eXchange, is an image file format developed by the now-defunct ZSoft Corporation of Marietta, Georgia, United States. It was the native file format for PC Paintbrush and became one of the first widely accepted DOS imaging standards, although it has since been succeeded by more sophisticated image formats, such as BMP, JPEG, and PNG. PCX files commonly store palette-indexed images ranging from 2 or 4 colors to 16 and 256 colors, although the format has been extended to record true-color (24-bit) images as well.

==PCX image formats== PCX was designed during the early development of PC display hardware and most of the formats are no longer used. The table below shows a list of the most commonly used PCX formats. Contemporary image editing programs may not read PCX files that match older hardware. {| class="wikitable" |+ Common PCX Image Formats ! Bit Depth || Planes || Number of Colors |- | 4 || 1 || 16 colors from a palette |- | 8 || 1 || 256 colors from a palette |- | 8 || 1 || 256 shades of gray |- | 4 || 4 || 4096 colors with 16 levels of transparency |- | 8 || 3 || 16.7 million, 24-bit "true color" |- | 8 || 4 || 16.7 million with 256 levels of transparency |- | 1 || 1 || 2 colors monochrome (1-Bit) (Win 3.1 Paintbrush) |- | 1 || 4 || 16 colors RGBi (4-Bit) in 4 planes (Win 3.1 Paintbrush) |}