pixel format (file format) (PCX)

Pixel Format (PCX) is a graphics file format for pixel graphics that can be read by almost all graphics programs. The PCX file format was developed by ZSoft Corp. for storing and transferring graphics created with PC Paintbrush.

A PCX file has a raster format and consists of a sequence of pixel color values. It begins with a 128- byte header that contains information about the size of the image, the horizontal and vertical resolution, the program version used, the number of colors, and the length of each line. Only one image can be stored in a PCX file at a time. For compression, the PCX format can use Run Length Encoding( RLE). The PCX file format works with 1, 4, 8, 24 and 32 bits. The file extension for PCX files is *.pcx.