I can usually count on Mone or Bresnahan for PC-related questions.

People have tried to send me e-mail attachments that have a .pcx extension. I think it's some kind of image format, but my computer has no idea what program to use to display it. What is a .pcx, and is there something I can download to view it with?

I believe it is a proprietary image format used by the email program Lotus Notes. Not sure what can be used to view the file on a PC. I'm pretty sure Photoshop will open it, but that's a very expensive program.

The latest one I got was from a Lotus user, and I think it was screen prints that he pasted into a message.

pcx is used by paintbrush. It's a pretty widely-supported format. Try opening the file using Imaging for Windows (the Kodak utility that is often located under Programs->Accessories).

What Tanager said.

I didn't have those programs, but I solved the problem temporarily by downloading an examination copy (45 days) of a file viewer that handles the format.

Thanks folks.

What mone said.

...from Webopedia dot you-know-what...(which looks terrific, btw):


" Originally developed by ZSOFT for its PC Paintbrush program, PCX is a graphics file format for graphics programs running on PCs. It is supported by most optical scanners, fax programs, and desktop publishing systems. Files in the PCX format end with a ".pcx" ( pronounced dot -p-c-x) extension. Two other common bit map formats are BMP and TIFF. "

My knowledge of computers is rudimentary compared the the rest of you at this particular thread, ...but while we're at it: I like using a program called Microsoft Photo Editor. I though I'd lost it when I got a new computer running Microsoft XP. MS Photo Editor didn't seem to be in the new software bundle the new computer came with. Then I found the "open with" command (available with a right click on a photo). Presto - there's the program, even though I can't find the program any other way. It doesn't seem to show up in the list of programs that show up when I hit the "start" button in Windows, where the other programs live. Check MS Photo Editor out - you may have it and not know it (or quite possibly, I'm the only one clueless enough not to have known it was there all the time), and it's full of very cool "effects" for photos.

Cheers,
Chaz