Free webp to jpg
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Image MIME Reference
CLIP

Clip Studio Paint Document

image/vnd.clip
VS

PaintShop Pro Image

image/x-paintshoppro
PaintShop-Pro-PSP

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

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature CLIP PaintShop-Pro-PSP
Transparency (Alpha) Yes Yes
Animation Support Yes ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support ✕ No Yes
EXIF Metadata ✕ No Yes
ICC Color Profile Yes Yes
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 →
PaintShop Pro Image
image/x-paintshoppro
Extension
.psp.pspimage.tub.pat
Container PSP Chunk-based Format
Compression Uncompressed / RLE (Run-Length Encoding) / LZ77
Algorithm
RLELZ77
Color Depth 8-bit (Indexed), 16-bit (Grayscale), 24-bit (RGB), 32-bit (RGBA), 48-bit (High Color)
Developed by Jasc Software / Corel Corporation (Alludo)
Released 1990
Magic Bytes
7E 42 4B 00
Full PaintShop-Pro-PSP reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser CLIP PaintShop-Pro-PSP
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
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
PaintShop-Pro-PSP

PaintShop-Pro-PSP Strengths

  • Provides robust, non-destructive editing capabilities with full support for vector layers, adjustment layers, and layer blend modes
  • Historically offered a highly capable and affordable alternative to Adobe Photoshop's PSD format for Windows users
  • Features proprietary support for 'Picture Tubes' (.tub), a unique brush technology that paints sequential or random raster objects along a path
Limitations
  • Deeply proprietary format tied exclusively to the Corel/Alludo ecosystem
  • Third-party software support (like GIMP or ImageMagick) is often limited to parsing older .psp files, frequently failing to render complex layers in modern .pspimage files
  • No support in modern web browsers; must be exported to a flattened web format (JPEG/PNG) for online viewing

When to choose which format

CLIP
Use CLIP when…
  • Digital Illustration and Concept Art
  • Manga and Webtoon Production
  • 2D Frame-by-Frame Animation
  • High-Resolution Print Production
PaintShop-Pro-PSP
Use PaintShop-Pro-PSP when…
  • PaintShop Pro Multi-layer Project Archival
  • Digital Art and Photo Retouching
  • Picture Tubes (.tub) and Custom Patterns (.pat)

More comparisons

CLIP vs ACES → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs ACES → CLIP vs APNG → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs APNG → CLIP vs AVCI → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVCI → CLIP vs AVCS → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVCS → CLIP vs AVIF → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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