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Image MIME Reference
ACES

ACES Image Container File

image/aces
VS

Clip Studio Paint Document

image/vnd.clip
CLIP

A complete technical comparison of ACES Image Container File and Clip Studio Paint Document — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature ACES CLIP
Transparency (Alpha) Yes Yes
Animation Support ✕ No Yes
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support Yes ✕ No
EXIF Metadata ✕ No ✕ No
ICC Color Profile ✕ No Yes
ACES Image Container File
image/aces
Extension
.exr
Container OpenEXR (SMPTE ST 2065-4)
Compression Lossless / Uncompressed
Algorithm
PIZZIPRLEB44Uncompressed
Color Depth 16-bit (Half-float), 32-bit (Float)
Developed by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) / SMPTE
Released 2013
Magic Bytes
76 2F 31 01
Full ACES reference →
Clip Studio Paint Document
image/vnd.clip
Extension
.clip.lip
Container SQLite 3 Database
Compression Proprietary Blob Compression (within SQLite)
Algorithm
Proprietary (Celsys Blob Encoding)
Color Depth 8-bit (Monochrome), 8-bit (Grayscale), 24-bit (RGB), 32-bit (CMYK)
Developed by Celsys, Inc.
Released 2012
Magic Bytes
53 51 4C 69 74 65 20 66 6F 72 6D 61 74 20 33 00
Full CLIP reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser ACES CLIP
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
ACES

ACES Strengths

  • Industry standard for high-end visual effects, compositing, and color grading
  • Supports 16-bit half-float data, accurately capturing immense dynamic range without clipping
  • Standardized by SMPTE (ST 2065-4) to guarantee universal color interoperability across different post-production facilities
Limitations
  • Considerably larger file sizes than conventional consumer image formats
  • Completely unsupported in web browsers and most standard desktop viewers
  • Requires specialized compositing or color grading software to interpret and view the scene-linear data correctly
CLIP

CLIP Strengths

  • SQLite backend provides incredibly robust data integrity, preventing catastrophic project loss if the application crashes during a save
  • Allows for massive multi-page comic projects and animation timelines to be handled efficiently without loading the entire project into RAM simultaneously
  • Industry standard for manga, anime, and webtoon professional workflows
Limitations
  • Heavily closed-source and proprietary, meaning no third-party applications (like ImageMagick or GIMP) can parse or render the files
  • Standard MIME identification tools will misidentify the file as a generic SQLite database, causing friction in automated file-upload validations
  • Zero web browser support

When to choose which format

ACES
Use ACES when…
  • Visual Effects (VFX)
  • Digital Intermediate (DI)
  • Color Grading
  • Archival
CLIP
Use CLIP when…
  • Digital Illustration and Concept Art
  • Manga and Webtoon Production
  • 2D Frame-by-Frame Animation
  • High-Resolution Print Production

More comparisons

ACES vs APNG → CLIP vs APNG → ACES vs AVCI → CLIP vs AVCI → ACES vs AVCS → CLIP vs AVCS → ACES vs AVIF → CLIP vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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