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Image MIME Reference
EDMICS-RLC

Fuji Xerox EDMICS-RLC

image/vnd.fujixerox.edmics-rlc
VS

Macromedia FreeHand Document

image/x-freehand
FreeHand

A complete technical comparison of Fuji Xerox EDMICS-RLC and Macromedia FreeHand Document — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature EDMICS-RLC FreeHand
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No Yes
Animation Support ✕ No Yes
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support ✕ No ✕ No
EXIF Metadata ✕ No ✕ No
ICC Color Profile ✕ No Yes
Fuji Xerox EDMICS-RLC
image/vnd.fujixerox.edmics-rlc
Extension
.rlc.edm
Container Fuji Xerox EDMICS Wrapper
Compression Run-Length Coding (RLC / RLE)
Algorithm
Run-Length Coding (RLC)
Color Depth 1-bit (Monochrome), 8-bit (Grayscale)
Developed by Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
Released 1990s
Magic Bytes
Unknown (Proprietary Container)
Full EDMICS-RLC reference →
Macromedia FreeHand Document
image/x-freehand
Extension
.fh.fh4.fh5.fh7.fh8.fh9.fh10.fh11.ft11
Container Proprietary Binary (Aldus Graphic Document)
Compression Uncompressed / Deflate (in later versions)
Algorithm
NoneDeflate (Optional in later versions)
Color Depth Vector Data (RGB/CMYK)
Developed by Altsys / Aldus / Macromedia
Released 1988
Magic Bytes
41 47 44 31 to 41 47 44 34
Full FreeHand reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser EDMICS-RLC FreeHand
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
EDMICS-RLC

EDMICS-RLC Strengths

  • Simple, computationally inexpensive Run-Length Coding enabled rapid compression and decompression on low-power legacy hardware
  • Deeply integrated into Fuji Xerox enterprise hardware for seamless, automated scan-to-archive workflows
Limitations
  • Completely proprietary and closed-source, making modern archival extraction and migration extremely difficult
  • No support in modern image processing libraries like ImageMagick, libvips, or standard viewers without bespoke decoding tools
  • RLC compression is far less efficient than modern algorithms like PNG (Deflate) for complex documents
FreeHand

FreeHand Strengths

  • Historically one of the most powerful and intuitive vector editors on the market, praised for multi-page support long before Adobe Illustrator implemented it
  • Files are generally compact and self-contained
Limitations
  • Completely abandoned proprietary format; Adobe actively blocked native import in modern versions of Illustrator
  • No support in modern web browsers; must be converted to SVG
  • Versioning fragmentation means parsers must account for wildly different binary structures depending on the specific .fhX extension used

When to choose which format

EDMICS-RLC
Use EDMICS-RLC when…
  • Fuji Xerox EDMICS Enterprise Systems
  • Archival of Scanned Engineering Documents
  • Legacy Corporate Scanning Pipelines
FreeHand
Use FreeHand when…
  • Legacy Graphic Design Portfolios
  • Historical Desktop Publishing Archival
  • Old Corporate Logo Vectors

More comparisons

EDMICS-RLC vs ACES → FreeHand vs ACES → EDMICS-RLC vs APNG → FreeHand vs APNG → EDMICS-RLC vs AVCI → FreeHand vs AVCI → EDMICS-RLC vs AVCS → FreeHand vs AVCS → EDMICS-RLC vs AVIF → FreeHand vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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