Free webp to jpg
EN
Image MIME Reference
Alias-PIX

Alias PIX Image

image/x-alias-pix
VS

DjVu Document

image/vnd.djvu
DjVu

A complete technical comparison of Alias PIX Image and DjVu Document — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature Alias-PIX DjVu
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No Yes
HDR Support ✕ No ✕ No
EXIF Metadata ✕ No ✕ No
ICC Color Profile ✕ No ✕ No
Alias PIX Image
image/x-alias-pix
Extension
.pix.als.alias.img
Container Alias PIX Header
Compression Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
Algorithm
RLE
Color Depth 24-bit (RGB), 8-bit (Matte/Grayscale variant)
Developed by Alias Research (Later Alias|Wavefront / Autodesk)
Released Early 1990s
Magic Bytes
No explicit magic bytes (Relies on 10-byte integer header)
Full Alias-PIX reference →
DjVu Document
image/vnd.djvu
Extension
.djvu.djv
Container Interchange File Format (IFF)
Compression JB2 (Bi-tonal Text) / IW44 (Wavelet Background) / BZZ (General Data/Text)
Algorithm
JB2IW44BZZ
Color Depth 1-bit (Foreground Text), 24-bit (Background)
Developed by AT&T Labs (Yann LeCun, Léon Bottou, Patrick Haffner, Paul G. Howard)
Released 1996
Magic Bytes
41 54 26 54 46 4F 52 4D
Full DjVu reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser Alias-PIX DjVu
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
Alias-PIX

Alias-PIX Strengths

  • The highly simplified structure made it incredibly fast to encode and decode on early 1990s SGI hardware
  • Lossless Run-Length Encoding (RLE) saved disk space without degrading the quality of final 3D renders
Limitations
  • Completely obsolete, having been replaced by more robust formats like TIFF, TGA, and EXR in modern 3D pipelines
  • The lack of a distinct magic byte signature makes reliable automated file detection almost impossible
  • Does not support integrated alpha channels, instead requiring cumbersome, separate 'Matte' files to denote transparency
DjVu

DjVu Strengths

  • Unmatched compression ratios for high-resolution scanned documents (often 5 to 10 times smaller than equivalent JPEG/TIFF-based PDFs)
  • Separates text layers cleanly from backgrounds, allowing for highly legible text even at low file sizes
  • Embedded OCR (Optical Character Recognition) text layers allow for fast searching
Limitations
  • Lacks native support in modern operating systems and web browsers, requiring third-party software
  • Largely superseded by PDF/A and modern PDF compression standards in standard corporate workflows
  • Not suitable for vector graphics or born-digital documents (like Word exports), where standard PDF is far superior

When to choose which format

Alias-PIX
Use Alias-PIX when…
  • Legacy Alias PowerAnimator Textures
  • 1990s SGI Workstation Render Outputs
  • Historical 3D Graphics Archival
DjVu
Use DjVu when…
  • Scanned Books and Manuals
  • Digital Libraries (e.g., Internet Archive)
  • Historical Document Archiving

More comparisons

Alias-PIX vs ACES → DjVu vs ACES → Alias-PIX vs APNG → DjVu vs APNG → Alias-PIX vs AVCI → DjVu vs AVCI → Alias-PIX vs AVCS → DjVu vs AVCS → Alias-PIX vs AVIF → DjVu vs AVIF → All comparisons →
Share this comparison