PBM to PCX Converter

PBM to PCX — straightforward online converter

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Private and Secure

Your PBM uploads are purged right after processing, and converted PCX outputs expire within 24 hours — privacy by design.

Cross-Platform Support

Convert PBM to PCX from any operating system. The tool runs in your browser — desktop, tablet, or phone.

Instant Results

Your PBM to PCX conversion is done within moments. The pipeline is optimized for speed and minimal wait times.

How to convert PBM to PCX

1

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

2

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

3

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

About formats

PBM (Portable Bitmap) is the monochrome (black and white, 1-bit) member of the Netpbm family of image formats, created by Jef Poskanzer in 1988 as part of the Pbmplus toolkit for Unix systems. The format exists in two variants: ASCII (magic number P1), where each pixel is represented as a text character '0' (white) or '1' (black) separated by whitespace, and binary (magic number P4), where pixels are packed eight per byte for compact storage. Both variants begin with a plain-text header specifying the magic number, image width and height, and optional comments. PBM was designed as the simplest possible image format — a bridge format for converting between the many incompatible raster formats that proliferated across different Unix systems and applications during the 1980s. The Netpbm philosophy was to convert any source format to PBM/PGM/PPM as an intermediate step, then convert to the target format, using the portable formats as a universal exchange layer. One advantage is extreme simplicity — the ASCII variant can be literally typed by hand in a text editor, and both variants are trivial to parse and generate in any programming language without external libraries. The format's role as a universal image processing intermediate is another strength: hundreds of Netpbm command-line tools accept PBM input, enabling complex image manipulation pipelines through Unix pipes. PBM remains used in computer science education, OCR preprocessing, and any context where a dead-simple monochrome image representation is needed.
Developer: Jef Poskanzer
Initial release: 1988
PCX (PiCture eXchange) is a raster image format created by ZSoft Corporation in 1985 as the native format of their PC Paintbrush application, one of the first painting programs for IBM PC compatibles. The format uses a simple run-length encoding (RLE) compression scheme that works by replacing consecutive identical pixel values with a count-value pair, achieving modest compression on images with large areas of uniform color. A PCX file consists of a 128-byte header (specifying dimensions, color depth, palette information, DPI, and encoding method), the RLE-compressed pixel data organized in scan-line order, and an optional 256-color palette appended after the image data. The format evolved through several versions supporting increasing color depths: 1-bit monochrome, 4-bit (16 colors), 8-bit (256 colors), and 24-bit true color using multiple color planes. PCX became one of the most popular image formats during the DOS era, widely supported by paint programs, word processors, desktop publishers, and early games throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. One advantage was broad DOS-era software compatibility — PCX served as a practical interchange format when competing programs used proprietary raster formats. The simplicity of RLE decoding is another strength, requiring minimal CPU and memory resources ideal for the hardware of that period. While PNG, JPEG, and other modern formats have replaced PCX in contemporary use, the format remains encountered in legacy archives and retro computing contexts.
Developer: ZSoft Corporation
Initial release: 1985

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert PBM to PCX?

Switch to PCX for legacy paintbrush format — it works with more applications and platforms than PBM typically does.

What programs open PCX files?

Open PCX with IrfanView, XnView, GIMP, ACDSee. On mobile devices, built-in gallery apps or third-party viewers also handle this format.

Will image dimensions change during conversion?

No — the converter keeps the same image size. Dimensions only change if you explicitly set resize options.

Is the conversion process secure?

Yes — uploaded PBM files are deleted right after conversion, and PCX results are removed within 24 hours from our servers.

What if my PBM file is corrupted?

The converter validates your file on upload. If the PBM data is unreadable or corrupt, you will get an error before processing begins.

Will I lose image quality converting PBM to PCX?

The conversion preserves the original quality of your PBM file. Any inherent quality limits in PBM carry over, but nothing additional is lost.