PCX (PC Paintbrush Exchange) is one of the earliest PC bitmap formats, created by ZSoft for their PC Paintbrush program in the MS-DOS era. PCX uses simple RLE (Run-Length Encoding) compression and supports 1-bit monochrome through 24-bit true color. Despite being largely superseded by modern formats, PCX files still appear in legacy software archives, retro gaming communities, and older industrial systems that were built around this format.

BMP (Bitmap) is Windows' native uncompressed raster format with universal compatibility. Converting PCX to BMP transforms these legacy files into a format that every modern operating system, image viewer, and application can open without any issues. It is the most straightforward modernization path for PCX files.

Modern operating systems and applications have dropped PCX support. Windows Photo Viewer, macOS Preview, web browsers, and most current image editors cannot open PCX files. Converting to BMP provides immediate accessibility on any modern system. BMP's simplicity and universal support make it the closest modern equivalent to PCX's role as a basic bitmap format.

PCX files are also encountered in data recovery and digital archaeology scenarios. When extracting assets from legacy software, DOS game archives, or vintage clip art collections, converting PCX to BMP is the first step to making these images usable in modern workflows.

The PCX file is decoded by parsing its 128-byte header (manufacturer, version, encoding, bits per pixel, palette type) and decompressing the RLE-encoded scanline data. PCX supports 1-bit monochrome, 4-bit (16 colors), 8-bit (256 colors with VGA palette), and 24-bit (true color) modes. The 256-color palette in 8-bit PCX files is stored in the final 769 bytes of the file. Indexed color images are expanded to full RGB during decoding. The pixel data is written as a Windows BMP v3 file with 24-bit color depth. ImageMagick handles the PCX format decoding.

Most cannot. Windows 10/11, macOS, and common image viewers have dropped PCX support. A few programs like IrfanView and GIMP still support PCX, but BMP conversion provides universal access.

Yes. PCX uses lossless RLE compression. The BMP output contains identical pixel data to the original PCX file.

All PCX color depths: 1-bit monochrome, 4-bit (16 colors), 8-bit (256 colors), and 24-bit true color. All are converted to 24-bit BMP.

PCX uses RLE compression which is effective for images with large areas of the same color. BMP stores uncompressed pixels, so files are typically 2-10x larger depending on the image content.

PCX was the standard bitmap format on DOS and early Windows (3.1/95). It was used by PC Paintbrush, many DOS games, early desktop publishing, fax software, and scientific imaging equipment of the era.

Device	PCX	BMP
Windows PC	Partial	Native
macOS	Partial	Partial
iPhone/iPad	Partial	Partial
Android	Partial	Partial
Linux	Partial	Partial
Web Browser	No	No

Feature	PCX	BMP
Full Name	PiCture eXchange	Bitmap Image
Extension	.pcx	.bmp
Best For	Legacy format	Uncompressed

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