Free webp to jpg
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Image MIME Reference
FPX

FlashPix

image/vnd.fpx
VS

Windows Icon (Legacy MIME)

image/x-icon
ICO

A complete technical comparison of FlashPix and Windows Icon (Legacy MIME) — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

ICO wins on browser support

Feature Support

Feature FPX ICO
Transparency (Alpha) Yes Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support ✕ No ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
FlashPix
image/vnd.fpx
Extension
.fpx
Container Microsoft OLE Structured Storage (COM)
Compression JPEG (Lossy) / Uncompressed / Single-color (Solid)
Algorithm
JPEGNone
Color Depth 8-bit (Grayscale/Indexed), 24-bit (RGB), 32-bit (CMYK/RGBA)
Developed by Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Live Picture
Released 1996
Magic Bytes
D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1
Full FPX reference →
Windows Icon (Legacy MIME)
image/x-icon
Extension
.ico
Container ICO Directory Structure
Compression Uncompressed (DIB/BMP) / Deflate (Embedded PNG)
Algorithm
NoneDeflate (via PNG)
Color Depth 1-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit, 24-bit (True Color), 32-bit (RGBA)
Developed by Microsoft Corporation
Released 1985
Magic Bytes
00 00 01 00
Full ICO reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser FPX ICO
Chrome Chrome
✕
✓ 1
Firefox Firefox
✕
✓ 1
Safari Safari
✕
✓ 1
Edge Edge
✕
✓ 12
IE IE (Legacy)
✕
✓
FPX

FPX Strengths

  • Allowed early, low-RAM computers to view and edit massive, high-resolution digital photos instantly by only loading the needed tiles and resolutions
  • Pioneered the multi-resolution pyramid and tiling concepts heavily used today in modern deep-zoom and web mapping applications (like Google Maps)
Limitations
  • Completely obsolete and unsupported by modern web browsers or operating systems
  • Uses the complex, proprietary Microsoft OLE container format, making it incredibly difficult to parse or extract data from without dedicated legacy libraries
  • Prone to being misidentified by MIME sniffers as an old Microsoft Office document
ICO

ICO Strengths

  • Universally supported by every web browser in existence for website favicons
  • Packs multiple resolutions into a single file, eliminating the need to serve different files for the taskbar vs. the desktop
  • Modern support for embedded PNGs (since Windows Vista) allows for excellent 32-bit transparency (alpha channels) and drastically reduced file sizes
Limitations
  • Internal file structure is convoluted due to decades of legacy cruft, such as the requirement for BMP data to lack a standard file header but double the height property for an archaic XOR/AND mask
  • Larger file size compared to a single optimized PNG or SVG, as it literally stores the same image multiple times at different scales
  • The MIME type landscape is highly fragmented (x-icon vs. vnd.microsoft.icon), causing occasional caching or strict-MIME validation errors on restrictive servers

When to choose which format

FPX
Use FPX when…
  • Legacy Digital Photography
  • Kodak Picture CDs (Historical)
  • Early High-Resolution Image Viewers
ICO
Use ICO when…
  • Website Favicons (favicon.ico)
  • Windows Application Executable Icons (.exe)
  • Desktop Shortcut Icons

More comparisons

FPX vs ACES → ICO vs ACES → FPX vs APNG → ICO vs APNG → FPX vs AVCI → ICO vs AVCI → FPX vs AVCS → ICO vs AVCS → FPX vs AVIF → ICO vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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