Also Known As: PC Paint, PIC, .PIC, .CLP
| Type | Bitmap |
| Colors | 24-bit maximum |
| Compression | RLE, uncompressed |
| Maximum Image Size | 64Kx64K pixels |
| Multiple Images Per File | No |
| Nemerical Format | Little-endian |
| Originator | Paul Mace Inc. |
| Platform | MS-DOS |
| Supporting Applications | Too numerous to list |
| See Also | PCX |
Usage
Paint programs.
Comments
A device-specific format designed for PC
(MS-DOS) hardware.
Vendor specifications are available for this format.
The Pictor PC Paint format is device-dependent and is specifically designed around the needs of the IBM family of display adapters (CGA, EGA, VGA, and so on). Because of this, the PIC format resembles PCX, another popular paint file format designed specifically for IBM hardware. This format uses the .PIC extension.
Contents:
File Organization
File Details
For Further Information
The header structure for the Pictor PC Paint format is 17 bytes long and consists of the following fields:
typedef struct _PicHeader
{
WORD Id; /* Magic number (always 1234h) */
WORD Width; /* Width of image in pixels */
WORD Height; /* Height of image in pixels */
WORD XOffset; /* X of lower left corner of image */
WORD YOffset; /* Y of lower left corner of image */
BYTE PlaneInfo; /* BPP and number color planes */
BYTE PaletteFlag; /* Color palette/video flag */
BYTE VideoMode; /* Video mode of image */
WORD PaletteType; /* Type of color palette */
WORD PaletteSize; /* Size of color palette */
} PICHEAD;
Id is an identification value. This value is always 1234h.
Width and Height contain the size of the image in pixels.
XOffset and YOffset indicate the position of the image on the display screen. The default values of 0 and 0 indicate that the image starts at the origin point in the lower-left corner of the screen.
PlaneInfo contains two values. Bits 0 through 3 contain the number of bits per pixel per plane in the image. Bits 4 through 7 contain the number of additional color planes; there is always a minimum of one color plane. This value is 0 for one color plane, 2 for three color planes, and so on. These values may be used to determine the type of display hardware for which the image data is formatted. A value of 02h in this field indicates CGA data; a value of 31h indicates EGA data; and a value of 08h indicates VGA data.
The original version of the PC Paint format did not include any information on video modes or color palettes. Version 2.0 of the format adds the ability to store this additional information and increases the size of the header.
PaletteFlag contains the value FFh if the version of the PC Paint file is 2.0 or greater. In this case, data is present for the remaining three fields of the header. If the Marker field value is not FFh, then image data immediately follows the header.
VideoMode contains a single ASCII alphanumeric character indicating the screen mode used to create the image. This is useful only for setting the screen mode before displaying the image. The following mode values are used:
0 40 column text F EGA 640x350x4 1 80 column text G EGA 640x350x16 2 Monochrome text H EGA 720x348x2 (Hercules) 3 EGA 43-line text I EGA 320x200x16 (Plantronics) 4 VGA 50-line text J EGA 320x200x16 A CGA 320x200x4 K EGA 640x400x2 (AT&T or Toshiba 3100) B EGA 320x200x16 L VGA 320x200x256 C CGA 640x200x2 M VGA 640x480x16 D EGA 640x200x16 N EGA 720x348x16 (Hercules InColor) E EGA 640x350x2 O VGA 640x480x2
PaletteType indicates the type of color palette that is found after the header. A value of 0 indicates that no color palette is present (i.e., the image does not use a color palette, typical of monochrome image data). A value of 1 indicates a CGA color palette and border color. A value of 2 indicates a PC Jr. or non-ECD 16-color palette. A value of 3 indicates an EGA palette. A value of 4 indicates a VGA palette.
The CGA palette data is a single byte in size and the border data is also one byte in size. (See the PCX article for information on interpreting CGA palette data.) PC Jr. palette data, which may also be a generic 16-color palette, is stored as a 16-byte palette, one color value per byte. The VGA palette is stored as 256 3-byte triples, the same as in the PCX format.
PaletteSize stores the number of bytes of palette data that follow the header. For a CGA palette, this value is 2. For the PC Jr. and EGA palettes, this value is 16. For a VGA palette, this value is 768.
The image data in a Pictor Paint image file may be stored in a compressed RLE format. Following the color palette data (if present) is a 16-bit data word that indicates how many run-length encoded blocks of data follow. If the image data in the Pictor file is not compressed, this value is 0.
Raw Pictor images never contain any color palette information, although the color palette information fields may be present in the header. The image data begins immediately after the header and is displayed starting at the bottom-left corner of the display screen. The image data always is stored by scan line and in consecutive color planes.
The RLE scheme used in the PC Paint format encodes runs of identical pixel values into blocks (also called packets). The number of data blocks in an image file is indicated by the 16-bit value found after the color palette information.
Each run-length encoded block begins with a 5-byte header. This header, which contains the information necessary to decode the image data stored in its data block, has the following format:
typedef struct _PicBlockHead
{
WORD BlockSize; /* Size of encoded block including header */
WORD RunLength; /* Size of decoded pixel data */
BYTE RunMarker; /* Start-of-run indicator */
} PICBLKHEAD;
BlockSize is the size of the entire block of encoded image data including the block header. This value is useful for reading the entire data block into memory before decoding it.
RunLength contains the total number of pixels encoded in this block.
RunMarker contains a unique character marker that identifies the start of an encoded run in this block. Data blocks may contain multiple runs of pixels, and this marker delineates the start of each encoded run in the block.
Each encoded data block may contain one or more runs of pixel data. The runs may be eight bits in length (1 to 255 pixels), or 16 bits in length (1 to 65,535 pixels). For buffering reasons, a run typically does not exceed 8192 pixels (or bytes) in length. It is also possible to store a literal run of pixels in a data block that is not encoded at all.
The first five bytes of an encoded data block make up the block header. Following the header is normally a RunMarker character designating the start of an encoded run. The byte following a RunMarker is the RunLength. This is an 8-bit value that stores the length of the pixel run. If this value is not zero, then the byte that follows it, the RunValue, is the actual pixel value that is to be repeated RunLength times:
WORD BlockSize Size of encoded block including header WORD RunLength Size of decoded pixel data BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator BYTE RunLength Length of the pixel run (8-bit run length) BYTE RunValue The value of the pixel run
If the RunLength value is 0 then a 16-bit word value, the RunCount, follows the RunLength field. The byte following the RunCount is the actual pixel run that is to be repeated RunCount times:
WORD BlockSize Size of encoded block including header WORD RunLength Size of decoded pixel data BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator BYTE RunLength Length of the pixel run (8-bit run length) WORD RunCount Length of the pixel run (16-bit run length) BYTE RunValue The value of the pixel run
If the RunMarker is missing from a data block, the byte read is assumed to be a literal pixel value and is written directly to the output:
WORD BlockSize Size of encoded block including header WORD RunLength Size of decoded pixel data BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator BYTE PixelValue No RunMarker, literal pixel value
The RunMarker character is an arbitrary value chosen to delineate the start of each encoded run in a data block. The RunMarker value should not be the same as any RunValue or PixelValue in the data block. Each data block uses a RunMarker value appropriate to the data in the data block. The following example is of a data block that uses a RunMarker value that is the same as a pixel RunLength value. This arrangement could confuse a Pictor RLE decoder:
WORD BlockSize Size of encoded block including header WORD RunLength Size of decoded pixel data BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator BYTE RunLength Length of the pixel run (8-bit run length) BYTE RunValue The value of the pixel run
Because there is no "end of data block" marker, a PC Paint decoder must keep track of the number of pixels decoded in each data block, and must compare this value to the value of the RunLength field of the block header. When these values are equal, the block is finished and the next block, if any, should be read.
The decoded format of the image data varies depending upon the type of graphics display adapter that was used to create the image. Monochrome images are stored eight pixels per byte. EGA images are stored two pixels per byte in four planes of 4-bit index values each, in a BGRI order. VGA image data is stored one pixel per byte, each byte being an index value into the color palette. When there is more than one color plane, the image data is stored by plane first, then by pixel (plane 0, plane 1, plane 2, and so on).
The following pseudocode details the decoding process of the Pictor RLE image data:
StartOfDataBlock:
Read BlockSize value from data block header
Read RunLength value from data block header
Read RunMarker value from data block header
StartOfRun:
If the next byte is a RunMarker
If the byte following the RunMarker is not 0
Read the next byte as the RunLength
Read the next byte as the RunValue
Write the RunValue `RunLength' times.
else
If the byte following the RunMarker is 0
Read the next word as the RunCount
Read the next byte as the RunValue
Write the RunValue `RunCount' times.
else
If the byte following the header is not a RunMarker
Write the byte as a literal PixelValue
If the number of pixels written so far equals the RunLength
Goto StartOfDataBlock:
else
If the number of pixels written so far does not equal the RunLength
Goto StartOfRun:
Below are several examples of Pictor PC Paint run-length encoded data blocks. These examples show how one or more different types of runs may be encoded in the same data block.
The following encoded data block is 10 bytes in size and contains a single run 800 pixels in length. The start-of-run indicator is the value FFh. The RunLength field is 0, so the RunCount field contains the number of pixels in the run. The RunValue is the actual pixel value in the run.
WORD BlockSize Size of encoded block including header WORD RunLength Size of decoded pixel data (800) BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator (run 1) BYTE RunLength Length of the literal run WORD RunCount Length of the encoded run BYTE RunValue The value of the pixel run
The following encoded data block is 13 bytes in size and contains two runs. A total of 8256 pixels are encoded in this data block and the RunMarker is the value 80h. This first run is 64 pixels in length and has a value of 7. The second run is 8192 pixels in length and has a value of 1.
WORD BlockSize Size of data block including header WORD RunLength Size of decoded pixel data (64 + 8192) BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator (Run 1) BYTE RunLength Length of the pixel run BYTE RunValue Value of the pixel run BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator (Run 2) BYTE RunLength Value is 0, get 16-bit RunCount WORD RunCount Length of the pixel run BYTE RunValue Value of the pixel run
The following encoded data block is 1039 bytes in size and contains two encoded runs and a literal run. The RunMarker in this block is the value 00h. The value FFh cannot be used because the block contains a run with this value. The first run is 1024 pixels in length, and each pixel has the value 01h. Following this run are three literal pixel values that are considered the second run in the block (literal pixel runs are not prefaced with a RunMarker). The third run contains 12 pixels each of the value FFh.
WORD BlockSize Size of data block including header WORD RunLength Size of decoded pixel data (1024+1+1+1+12) BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator (Run 1) BYTE RunLength Value is 0, get 16-bit RunCount WORD RunCount Length of the pixel run BYTE RunValue Value of the pixel run BYTE PixelValue No RunMarker, literal pixel value (Run 2) BYTE PixelValue No RunMarker, literal pixel value BYTE PixelValue No RunMarker, literal pixel value BYTE RunMarker Start-of-run indicator (Run 3) BYTE RunLength Length of the pixel run BYTE RunValue Value of the pixel run
Four changes were made to Pictor PC Paint to support hicolor (65.536K colors) and truecolor (16,777,216 colors) video modes, and to correct past problems in compressing text-mode images.
First, the two 4-bit fields for the number of bit planes and number of bits per pixel (PlaneInfo) were combined into one field to support pixel depths greater than eight bits. The newly supported modes, and their hex values, are:
01 1 bit plane 1 bit per pixel 2 colors 02 1 bit plane 2 bits per pixel 4 colors 04 1 bit plane 4 bits per pixel 16 colors 11 2 bit planes 1 bit per pixel 4 colors 31 4 bit planes 1 bit per pixel 16 colors 08 1 bit plane 8 bits per pixel 256 colors 10 1 bit plane 16 bits per pixel 32,768 and 65,536 colors 18 1 bit plane 24 bits per pixel 16,777,216 colors 28 3 bit planes 8 bits per pixel 16,777,216 colors
Second, all text-mode images are now stored at 16 bits per pixel instead of eight bits per pixel, as in the past.
Third, the video mode may now be specified using two letters. The mark field, which always contained the value 0xFF in the past, is now the second letter. Valid values for the mark field are currently the ASCII characters 1, 2, and 3.
The hicolor extensions expanded the list of video modes supported by the .PIC format:
0 10 40x25 color text 1 10 80x25 color text 2 10 80x25 B&W text 3 10 EGA 80x43, VGA 80x50 color text 4 10 VESA 80x60 color text 5 10 VESA 132x25 color text 6 10 VESA 132x43 color text 7 10 VESA 132x50 color text 8 10 VESA 132x60 color text A 02 CGA 4 color B 04 PCjr/Tandy 16 color C 01 CGA 640x200 2 color D 31 EGA 640x200 16 color E 01 EGA 640x350 2 color F 11 EGA 640x350 4 color G 31 EGA 640x350 16 color H 01 Hercules 720x348 2 color I 31 VGA 640x350 16 color J 31 EGA 320x200 16 color K 01 AT&T/Toshiba 640x400 2 color L 08 VGA/MCGA 320x200 256 color M 31 VGA 640x480 16 color N 31 Hercules InColor 720x348 16 color O 01 VGA/MCGA 640x480 2 color P 01 EGA/VGA 800x600 2 color Q 31 EGA/VGA 800x600 16 color R 08 S-VGA 640x400 256 color S 08 S-VGA 640x480 256 color T 08 S-VGA 800x600 256 color U 01 S-VGA 1024x768 2 color V 31 S-VGA 1024x768 16 color W 08 VGA 360x480 256 color X 08 S-VGA 1024x768 256 color Y 31 S-VGA 1280x1024 16 color Z 08 S-VGA 1280x1024 256 color L1 10 S-VGA 320x200 hicolor 15 s1 10 S-VGA 640x480 hicolor 15 t1 10 S-VGA 800x600 hicolor 15 x1 10 S-VGA 1024x768 hicolor 15 z1 10 S-VGA 1280x1024 hicolor 15 l2 10 S-VGA 320x200 hicolor 16 s2 10 S-VGA 640x480 hicolor 16 t2 10 S-VGA 800x600 hicolor 16 x2 10 S-VGA 1024x768 hicolor 16 z2 10 S-VGA 1280x1024 hicolor 16 l3 18 S-VGA 320x200 hicolor 24 S3 18 S-VGA 640x480 hicolor 24 T3 18 S-VGA 800x600 hicolor 24 X3 18 S-VGA 1024x768 hicolor 24 Z3 18 S-VGA 1280x1024 hicolor 24
The last change modified the compression algorithm to include 16- and 24-bit images. Each packed block has a similar format to the original byte-packed blocks of the previous compression method.
The first two bytes are 16-bit lengths of packed data, including the 4-byte header. The second two bytes are 16-bit lengths of unpacked data. What follows is a signed, 16-bit integer which, if negative, is a repeat count followed by a 16-bit repeat value (or 24-bit repeat value in 24-bit images). If the signed 16-bit integer is positive, then it is a run count of the number of 16-bit values (or 24-bit values) that follow. This repeats until the end of the packed block is reached.
Pictor PC Paint 1.0 was developed for Mouse Systems in 1984 and supported only the BSAVE unpacked screen file format and stored only images using the 4-color CGA mode. PC Paint 1.5 supported a modified BSAVE format that allowed images larger than the screen to be stored and supported a rudimentary form of image compression. This revision 1.5 format was very short-lived, and very few image files of this format exist.
The header for the BSAVE format is as follows:
typedef struct _BsaveHeader
{
BYTE Marker; /* Marker value for packed data */
WORD ScreenSegment; /* PC screen memory segment */
WORD ScreenOffset; /* PC screen memory offset */
WORD DataSize; /* Size of screen data */
} BSAVEHEAD;
Marker is the byte value used to mark the start of an packed data run. This value is typically FDh or FEh if the image data is packed.
ScreenSegment is the segment address of the CGA video memory on the PC creating the BSAVE file. This value is typically B800h.
ScreenOffset is the offset address of the CGA video memory on the PC creating the BSAVE file. This value is typically 00h.
DataSize is the size of the screen image data stored in the file. This value is 16,384 for 4-color images, 32,768 for 16-color images, and 00h if the image data is packed. If DataSize is not 00h, then the image data immediately follows the header and is written literally to the PC's video memory. If the value is 00h, then two additional fields appear in the header:
WORD SizeOfData; /* Total size of unpacked data in bytes */ WORD NumberOfBlocks; /* Number of packed blocks */
SizeOfData is the total size of unpacked image data in bytes.
NumberOfBlocks is the number of packed data blocks stored in the file.
Following these fields is the image data in packed format.
At offset 8000 in each BSAVE file is the string "PCPAINT 1.0" or "PC Paint V1.5" indicating the format of the file. This ID string is followed by a byte indicating the current palette number and a second byte current border color number.
Early versions of Pictor PC Paint supported an image file format used to store image sections "clipped" from larger images. This clipping format uses the file extension .CLP and may store data in either a packed or unpacked form.
The header of the Pictor PC Paint clipping format is 11 or 13 bytes in length, depending upon how the image data is stored. The following 11 bytes appear in the header of every .CLP file:
typedef struct _ClpHeader
{
WORD NumberOfBytes; /* Size of the file, including header */
WORD XSize; /* Width of image in pixels */
WORD YSize; /* Length of image in pixels */
WORD XOffset; /* Left offset of image on display */
WORD YOffset; /* Top offset of image on display */
BYTE BitsPerPixel; /* Pixel depth */
} CLPHEAD;
NumberOfBytes is the total number of bytes in the clipped image.
XSize and YSize specify the size of the image in pixels.
XOffset and YOffset specify the location of the image on the display.
BitsPerPixel is the size of each pixel in bits. If this value is FFh, then the clipped image data is stored packed; otherwise, it is stored unpacked. If the BitsPerPixel value is not FFh, then the uncompressed image data follows the 11-byte header. If the BitsPerPixel value is FFh, then two additional fields appear in the header:
BYTE RealBits; /* Number of bits per pixel */ BYTE Marker; /* Marker byte value for packed data */
RealBits contains the number of bits per pixel (the value stored in BitsPerPixel if the data were not packed).
Marker is the value used to mark the beginning of a packed run.
The packed data then follows these fields. Packed data is stored as three bytes: the marker value, the run count, and the run value. A run value is repeated run count times. If a byte is read, and it does not contain the expected marker value, then the byte is written literally to the output.
Pictor PC Paint supports an image file format used to store collections of other images (usually .PIC and .CLP) in a single file. This Overlay format uses the file extension .OVR. It is also possible for .OVR files to contain other types of data besides image data. This is accomplished by appending a dummy 11-byte .PIC header to the data to fool PC Paint.
The header of an .OVR file is a list of each image file stored in the Overlay file. There is one entry in this list for each file stored in the .OVR file, plus an additional NULL entry to mark the end of the list. The format of this array is as follows:
typedef struct _PictureName
{
WORD SizeOfList; /* Size of the name list in bytes */
struct _NameList /* List of files in .OVR file */
{
LONG FileOffset; /* Location of image in the .OVR file */
CHAR Name[12]; /* Name of image file */
} NameList[SizeOfList / sizeof(NameList)];
} PICTURENAME[];
SizeOfList is the total size of the name list in bytes, including the NULL entry at the end of the list.
NameList is an array of structures. There is one element per file stored, plus an additional NULL entry to mark the end of the list.
FileOffset is the location of this entry's file in the .OVR file. This offset is measured from the beginning of the .OVR file, and this value is 00h for the NULL list entry.
Name is the original filename of the file. This field is NULL padded for names shorter than 12 bytes and contains all NULLs for the NULL list entry.
The actual images stored in the .OVR file follows the NULL list entry.
As an example, let's say we have two files called IMAGE.PIC (2048 bytes in size) and IMAGE1.CLP (384 bytes in size) stored in an .OVR file. The internal format of the .OVR file would be as follows:
Field Name Value SizeOfList 48 FileOffset 50 Name "IMAGE.PIC\0\0\0" FileOffset 2097 Name "IMAGE.CLP\0\0\0" FileOffset 0 Name "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0" [ Image data for IMAGE.PIC starting at offset 50 ] [ Image data for IMAGE.CLP starting at offset 2097 ]
For further information about the Pictor PC Paint format, see the specification included on the CD-ROM.
The Pictor PC Paint image file format is supported by Paul Mace Software.
Paul Mace Software
Attn: Steven Belsky
400 Williamson Way
Ashland, OR 97520
Voice: 503-488-0224
FAX: 503-488-1549
BBS: 503-482-7435
WWW: http://www.pmace.com/
Copyright © 1996, 1994 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
