AW to PICON Converter

AW to PICON online — personal icon image from documents

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Tiny Thumbnails

PICON produces compact icon-sized images — useful for file previews and personal icons on Unix systems.

Instant Processing

PICON files are minimal. Cloud servers generate them in mere seconds from your AW document.

Server-Side Conversion

All rendering runs remotely. Your device handles only the file upload and download.

How to convert AW to PICON

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose picon or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your picon file right afterwards

About formats

AW is the document format of Applix Words, the word processor component of the Applix office suite (later renamed Anyware Office) developed by Applix, Inc. for Unix and Linux workstations. The suite targeted enterprise Unix environments during the 1990s, providing word processing, spreadsheet, graphics, and presentation capabilities on platforms like Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, and Linux where Microsoft Office was unavailable. AW files store formatted text documents with support for character and paragraph styling, page layout, tables, headers and footers, and embedded graphics. The format uses a proprietary binary structure optimized for the Applix application's internal document model. Applix Words gained particular visibility in the Linux community during the late 1990s when it was bundled with several commercial Linux distributions as their default word processor before OpenOffice.org became widely available. One advantage was native Unix platform support — Applix provided professional word processing capabilities on Unix workstations at a time when few commercial alternatives existed. The format's tight integration with other Applix suite components enabled cross-referencing between word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Applix was acquired by Cognos in 2003, and the office suite was discontinued. AW files are primarily encountered today in archived documents from Unix enterprise environments of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Developer: Applix, Inc.
Initial release: 1992
PICON (Personal Icon) is a small-format image type used in the X Window System ecosystem, developed by Steve Kinzler at Indiana University around 1990 as part of the picons (personal icons) database project. Picons are small, typically 48x48 pixel, color images used as visual identifiers for people, organizations, domains, and Usenet newsgroups in Unix mail readers, news readers, and other communication tools. The picon format is essentially an XPM (X PixMap) image stored with specific naming conventions and directory structures that allow software to look up the appropriate icon based on email address, domain name, or newsgroup name. The picons database organized thousands of these small images in a hierarchical directory structure keyed by domain name components (e.g., faces/com/example/user.xpm), enabling mail clients like exmstrstrstr and faces to automatically display a sender's photo or organizational logo alongside their messages. The system predated the modern concept of contact photos and avatars by more than a decade. One advantage is the system's pioneering role in visual identity for electronic communication: picons introduced the idea that email and Usenet messages should display a visual representation of the sender — a concept that eventually became standard in every modern email client, messaging app, and social media platform. The XPM-based format ensures that picons are displayable on any system with X Window libraries. Picon images are supported by ImageMagick, GIMP, and X Window display utilities, and the historical picons database remains archived online at Indiana University.
Developer: Steve Kinzler
Initial release: 1990

Frequently Asked Questions

What is PICON?

PICON (Personal Icon) is a small XPM-based image format used for tiny thumbnails and personal icons on Unix systems.

Why convert AW to PICON?

PICON produces small thumbnail representations — useful for Unix desktop environments or file manager previews.

What opens PICON files?

Unix desktop environments, ImageMagick, and X Window System tools can display PICON images.

Is this free?

Yes, AW to PICON is free. Premium plans offer expanded capabilities.

What size are PICON images?

PICON images are very small — typically thumbnail-sized, designed for compact visual identification.

How fast is it?

Very quick. PICON files are tiny, and cloud servers produce them almost instantly.