PCX vs WEBP
A detailed comparison of PCX Image and WebP Image — file size, quality, compatibility, and which format to choose for your workflow.
PCX Image
Raster & Vector ImagesPCX (PiCture eXchange) is a legacy raster image format created by ZSoft for their PC Paintbrush program. It was one of the first widely supported image formats on IBM PC compatibles and uses simple run-length encoding compression.
About PCX filesWebP Image
Raster & Vector ImagesWebP is a modern image format developed by Google that provides superior lossless and lossy compression. Files are typically 25-35% smaller than equivalent JPEG or PNG images at the same visual quality.
About WEBP filesStrengths Comparison
PCX Strengths
- Simple format — easy to parse in any language.
- RLE compression keeps flat-color images compact.
- Historic archive format for 1985-1995 PC art.
- Stable since 1985 with no breaking changes.
WEBP Strengths
- Smaller file sizes than JPEG, PNG, and GIF at equivalent visual quality.
- Single format for lossy photos, lossless graphics, transparency, and animation.
- Full alpha channel support with smaller files than PNG.
- Now universally supported in all modern browsers.
- Open-source reference implementation (libwebp) by Google.
Limitations
PCX Limitations
- Legacy — no new content created as PCX in 2026.
- Inefficient for photographs (RLE is wrong algorithm).
- Limited to 24-bit color depth.
- Web browsers do not display PCX.
WEBP Limitations
- Some older software and image editors still don't read WebP natively.
- Max dimensions are 16,383 × 16,383 — lower than JPEG or PNG.
- Print workflows rarely support WebP (no CMYK, limited color management).
- Editing tools are less mature than JPEG/PNG; round-tripping can lose quality.
Technical Specifications
| Specification | PCX | WEBP |
|---|---|---|
| MIME type | image/x-pcx | image/webp |
| Extension | .pcx | — |
| Header | 128 bytes fixed | — |
| Compression | Run-Length Encoding (RLE) | VP8 (lossy) or VP8L (lossless) |
| Creator | ZSoft Corporation (1985) | — |
| Color depth | — | 8 bits per channel |
| Max dimensions | — | 16,383 × 16,383 pixels |
| Transparency | — | Full 8-bit alpha channel |
| Animation | — | Supported since WebP 2012 revision |
Typical File Sizes
PCX
- Simple clipart 2-40 KB
- VGA-era screenshot (320×200) 30-80 KB
- Scanned page 200 KB - 2 MB
WEBP
- Web photo (vs JPEG equivalent) 25–35% smaller
- Transparent logo (vs PNG) 20–30% smaller
- Animated replacement for GIF 60–80% smaller
- Hero banner (1920×1080) 150–400 KB
Ready to convert?
Convert between PCX and WEBP online, free, and without installing anything. Encrypted upload, automatic deletion after 2 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
PCX (PCX Image) is an image format used to store raster graphics — a two-dimensional grid of pixels describing a picture. It is part of the raster & vector images family and designed around a specific trade-off between file size, visual fidelity, and feature support (transparency, colour depth, compression type). Photographers, web designers, and content creators choose PCX when its particular strengths match the publishing target.
WebP is a modern image format developed by Google in 2010. It supports both lossy and lossless compression, transparency, and animation, while delivering files 25-35% smaller than JPEG and PNG equivalents.
Most desktop photo viewers (Windows Photos, macOS Preview, GIMP, Photoshop, Affinity Photo) open PCX natively. On mobile, iOS Photos and Google Photos display PCX in the gallery when supported by the OS. If the format is rare or new, convert to JPG or PNG first — both are universally readable — using our PCX to JPG or PCX to PNG converter.
WebP files open natively in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and most modern image viewers. On Windows, the Photos app supports WebP. On macOS, Preview handles it from macOS Big Sur onward.
Upload the PCX to KaijuConverter and pick a target format (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, SVG, PDF). The conversion runs in the browser via ImageMagick and returns a download in seconds. No account or installation required; both input and output delete automatically within two hours.
It depends on the task. JPG is the smallest file size for photographs; PNG is lossless with transparency; PCX has its own niche that may favour colour depth, animation, or encoding efficiency over one or both of those. For the final web publish, test all three and measure file size plus visible quality on real content.