PCX to GIF Converter
Processing entirely on your device — large files may take a moment.
PCX was THE DOS-era image format: ZSoft Paintbrush's RLE-compressed raster that every 1990s game, scanner and clipart CD shipped in. Simple enough that its spec fits on one page. Turning a short video clip into a GIF is the fastest way to share a looping moment anywhere.
Because the whole conversion happens on your device, it is instant, unlimited and genuinely private — no accounts, no watermarks, no files on anyone's server. Multiple files are converted in one go.
How PCX compares to GIF
| PCX | GIF | |
|---|---|---|
| Compatibility | DOS era, GIMP, ImageMagick | Autoplays everywhere |
| Best for | Retro game and clipart archives | Short loops and memes |
How to convert PCX to GIF
- 1
Select your files
Drag & drop your PCX files onto the area above, or click to browse. You can add multiple files at once for batch conversion.
- 2
Convert instantly
Click "Convert to GIF". The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly — no upload, no queue, no waiting.
- 3
Download results
Download each converted GIF file individually, or grab everything at once as a ZIP archive.
About the PCX format
PCX was the image format of the DOS decade: ZSoft Paintbrush's run-length-encoded raster that every scanner, game and clipart CD adopted because it was published, simple and fast on 286 hardware. The header is a fixed 128 bytes, the palette hides in the final 769, and the whole file can be decoded by one while-loop.
Retro gaming archives and 90s clipart collections are full of PCX files. Converting them to PNG or JPG finally makes them viewable — the pixels were always fine, the container was just ancient.
+ Strengths
- ✓Decoded by a single RLE loop — no dependencies
- ✓Ubiquitous in DOS-era archives
- ✓Supports paletted and 24-bit variants
! Limitations
- −Effectively dead since Windows 95
- −Rows padded — some files have alignment quirks
- −256-color ceiling for most real-world files
About the GIF format
GIF (CompuServe, 1987) is the animation format the modern web refuses to retire. Each frame is a 256-color palette image, frames stack into a looping sequence, and every browser autoplays it silently without any video codec involved. That autoplay-anywhere behavior is exactly why memes, reaction loops and UI micro-animations still ship as GIF.
The cost is efficiency: 256 colors per frame (no true gradients), no audio, and video-like content balloons to ten times the size of an MP4 of the same loop. Modern replacements — WebP animation, AVIF sequence, silent MP4 — beat it on every axis except universality of autoplay.
+ Strengths
- ✓Autoplays silently everywhere, no codec needed
- ✓Perfect for simple loops, stickers and memes
- ✓Lossless LZW within each 256-color frame
! Limitations
- −256-color palette ruins photos and gradients
- −Enormous files for video-like content
- −No audio support
Why convert PCX to GIF?
Think of it as moving your file to the container that fits the job. Effectively dead since Windows 95 GIF works differently: Autoplays silently everywhere, no codec needed If any of that sounds like your task, run the conversion — it takes seconds and nothing leaves your device.
Frequently asked questions
Is this PCX to GIF converter really free?
Yes — completely free, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily conversion limits. The site is supported by advertising.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly, so your files never leave your device — that is what makes it instant and private.
Does it work on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android?
Yes. Anything with a modern browser works: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. No software installation is required.
Will converting PCX to GIF reduce quality?
GIF uses lossy compression, so a small amount of recompression is unavoidable. The quality slider lets you choose between maximum fidelity and smallest file size — the default is visually indistinguishable for photos.
Will transparent areas survive the conversion to GIF?
Transparency is kept whenever GIF actually supports an alpha channel. If the target format has none (like JPG), transparent areas are flattened onto a white background — that is a property of the format, not of this tool.
What happens to EXIF data and other metadata?
Conversions here re-encode the image, and re-encoding generally does not carry the original metadata over. If the EXIF data of your PCX files matters (camera model, GPS, timestamps), keep the original file as the master and treat the converted copy as the shareable version.