PCX to PNG

PCX is one of the oldest widely used raster formats: it comes from the ZSoft Paintbrush paint program of the early 1980s and was the de-facto standard for scanners, fax software and DOS programs for decades. A 128-byte header describes resolution, colour depth and palette, followed by byte-wise run-length-encoded (RLE) image rows. Browsers do not open PCX directly - this tool reads the file with its own decoder and exports a PNG.

The four common PCX variants are read: 8-bit/1-plane with an appended 256-colour VGA palette, 24-bit/3-plane (true colour, one plane per red/green/blue), 1-bit/1-plane (black-and-white using the two header colours) and 1-bit/4-plane (16-colour EGA using the 16-entry header palette). Other, rarer bit-depth/plane combinations are honestly rejected rather than producing a wrong image.

The RLE decoding follows the simple PCX rule: a byte whose top two bits are both set is a repeat marker (the lower six bits give the count), any other byte stands for itself. PCX has no alpha channel - the resulting PNG is always fully opaque. The conversion runs entirely locally in the browser, even offline.

Today you mostly run into PCX with old scanned documents, archived DOS-era graphics or assets from older games. PNG, by contrast, is opened directly by every program, browser and website - ideal for finally being able to view or reuse such a file again.

Specifications

In 3 steps

1. Drop or select your PCX file(s).
2. The RLE image rows are decoded locally.
3. Download the PNG (several as a ZIP).

Limitations: Supported are 8-bit/1-plane (with a VGA palette), 24-bit/3-plane, 1-bit/1-plane and 1-bit/4-plane (EGA); other bit-depth/plane combinations are honestly rejected. An 8-bit PCX without the expected appended palette is rejected too. PCX has no transparency - the PNG is opaque.

FAQ

Related tools

DDS to PNG · HDR to PNG · WBMP to PNG