PCX to PALM Converter
Processing entirely on your device — large files may take a moment.
ZSoft Paintbrush PCX and Palm Pilot Bitmap exist for different jobs: 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. Convert images to PALM bitmaps for retro PDA projects.
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 PALM
| PCX | PALM | |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | 128B header + RLE rows + 769B palette | Palm Pilot Bitmap coder |
| Compatibility | DOS era, GIMP, ImageMagick | ImageMagick, specialty tools |
| Best for | Retro game and clipart archives | Legacy and specialty pipelines |
How to convert PCX to PALM
- 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 PALM". The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly — no upload, no queue, no waiting.
- 3
Download results
Download each converted PALM 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 PALM format
The Palm Pilot Bitmap coder of the ImageMagick set — the retro-pda format is written natively by the magick.wasm engine, entirely in your browser.
Obscure coder formats like this are exactly what template-driven converters list and never actually convert — here it really works.
+ Strengths
- ✓Written natively by ImageMagick
- ✓Runs entirely in your browser
- ✓Free, private, no watermarks
! Limitations
- −Niche format — few modern readers
- −Feature subset varies by coder
- −Keep the original for re-editing
Why convert PCX to PALM?
Converting makes sense where the strengths of PALM meet what PCX cannot give you. Written natively by ImageMagick Meanwhile Effectively dead since Windows 95 One pass through the converter above puts your file on the right side of that trade-off.
Frequently asked questions
Is this PCX to PALM 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 I lose quality converting PCX to PALM?
No — PALM is a lossless format, so every pixel of the converted image matches your original PCX file. You can also adjust the quality/size balance before converting when the target format supports compression.
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.
Will transparent areas survive the conversion to PALM?
Transparency is kept whenever PALM 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.