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RLE to AW Converter

Export research imagery as AW format online for free

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Academic Archive

Preserve pioneering computer graphics imagery by converting RLE rasters to AW — accessible to researchers and historians alike.

Cross-Platform Access

Whether you are on Windows, macOS, Linux, or mobile — RLE to AW conversion is available from any connected device.

Browser-Based Tool

No downloads or plugins needed — convert RLE to AW directly in your web browser on any operating system or device.

How to convert RLE to AW

1

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

2

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

3

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

About formats

RLE (Run-Length Encoded) in the context of the Utah RLE format refers to a raster image file format developed by Spencer W. Thomas at the University of Utah's Computer Science Department around 1983, as part of the Utah Raster Toolkit. The format stores images using a scanline-oriented run-length encoding scheme that compresses sequences of identical pixel values into count-value pairs, achieving good compression ratios for images with large areas of solid color — typical of computer-generated graphics and rendered scenes common in computer science research at the time. Utah RLE supports 1 to 255 color channels per pixel, with 8 bits per channel, and includes a header specifying image dimensions, number of channels, background color, and an optional color map. The format accommodates alpha channel data as an additional channel, and empty scanlines (matching the background color) can be omitted entirely for further compression. The Utah Raster Toolkit provided a suite of Unix command-line tools for manipulating RLE images — operations like compositing, scaling, rotating, color manipulation, and format conversion — establishing a software paradigm later echoed by Netpbm and ImageMagick. One advantage is the format's foundational role in computer graphics: the Utah Raster Toolkit and its RLE format emerged from the same research environment that produced the Phong shading model, Gouraud shading, and the teapot — and much of the early computer graphics research output was stored in this format. The format is supported by ImageMagick, GIMP, and various legacy graphics tools.
Initial release: 1983
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

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert RLE to AW?

RLE raster images from the Utah toolkit are hard to open today. A AW conversion unlocks them for modern viewers and editing software.

What programs can open AW?

Applix Words on Linux is the native editor. Conversion is typically the best route since Applix is no longer widely available.

Does RLE to AW preserve quality?

The conversion keeps your image data intact — AW does not introduce compression artifacts, ensuring the output matches the original closely.

Is RLE to AW conversion fast?

Conversion is handled on cloud servers and usually completes in a few seconds. Larger or higher-resolution RLE images may take slightly longer.

Does Convertio support batch RLE to AW conversion?

Yes — upload multiple RLE files in one session and convert them all to AW simultaneously. Batch processing saves time on repetitive tasks.