PCX 2

Partly documented

image · also known as ZSoft PC Paintbrush Bitmap (2)

PCX (Personal Computer eXchange) is a type of lossless bitmap image format first released in 1985 and last updated in 1991. This record describes the second version of the format released in 1987. PCX was a popular format among users of MS-DOS operating system and other IBM PC compatibles. It is native image file format for DOS-based program PC Paintbrush from ZSoft Corporation. PC Paintbrush was licensed to Microsoft and evolved into the Paint/Paintbrush application included with Windows operating system. The versions of Windows 3.0 through Windows 95, support the PCX format. The format has since been succeeded by other lossless image formats, such as GIF, BMP, JPEG, and PNG.

Identify it

Extensions	`.pcx.pcc`
MIME types	`image/vnd.zbrush.pcximage/x-pcx`
Signatures	`0a0201` at byte 0 (PCX 2)
PRONOM	`fmt/87`
Wikidata	`Q43866871`

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Open it

Listed for the family; check that the software handles this version.

DevILOpen sourcereads and writes · GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1
GIMPOpen sourcereads and writes · GNU General Public License, version 3.0
ImageMagickOpen sourcereads and writes · ImageMagick License
XfigOpen sourcereads and writes · GNU General Public License / MIT License
AbydosOpen sourcereads · GNU Lesser General Public License
Bio-Formats LibraryOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
ConverseenOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 3.0
digiKamOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later
GPSBabelOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 2.0 or later
GQViewOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License, version 2.0
imageioOpen sourcereads · 2-clause BSD License
KPaintOpen sourcereads · BSD licenses
LibreOffice DrawOpen sourcereads · Mozilla Public License, version 2.0
Misfit Model 3DOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License / GNU General Public License, version 2.0
PhotoRecOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
zgvOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
ABBYY FineReader OCR 7.0 Professional Editionreads and writes
ABBYY FormFillerreads and writes
ACD FotoCanvas Litereads and writes
ACD/ChemSketch 11.01writes
ACDSeereads and writes · proprietary license
ACDSee 5reads and writes
Adobe Acrobat 9 Proreads and writes
Adobe Illustratorwrites · proprietary license
Adobe PhotoDeluxe Business Edition 1.1reads and writes
Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0reads and writes
Advanced Photo Editorreads and writes
ArcSoft PhotoStudioreads and writes
Asepritewrites · proprietary license
Corel Flow 2.0reads and writes
Corel Painter version 12reads and writes
Corel Painter X3reads and writes
Corel Presentations 11reads and writes
DIAdemwrites
Digital Image Standard 2006 Editorreads and writes
DrawPlus X2writes
FastStone Image Viewer 5.2reads and writes
FotoFinish Designer 3.01reads and writes
GIMP 2.0.2reads and writes
Hijaak Digital Photo Studiowrites

And 89 more in the JSON record.

Convert it

To	With	Fidelity	Command and losses
Portable Network Graphics	ImageMagick	Lossless	`convert in.pcx out.png` Pixels kept; some metadata, colour profiles or layers may be dropped.
Tagged Image File Format	ImageMagick	Lossless	`convert in.pcx out.tif` Pixels kept; some metadata, colour profiles or layers may be dropped.
GIF 89a	ImageMagick	Lossy	`convert in.pcx out.gif` Reduced to 256 colours.
JPEG File Interchange Format 1.02	ImageMagick	Lossy	`convert in.pcx out.jpg` Lossy compression.
WebP	ImageMagick	Lossy	`convert in.pcx out.webp` Lossy compression.

Documentation

kaitai grammar: https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_formats/blob/master/image/pcx.ksy

Sources

From Kaitai Struct format gallery, PRONOM, Wikidata. Updated 2026-10-24.

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