Image MIME Reference
FPX
FlashPix
image/vnd.fpx
VS
North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax
image/naplps
NAPLPS
A complete technical comparison of FlashPix and North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.
Equal browser support
Feature Support
| Feature | FPX | NAPLPS |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency (Alpha) | Yes | ✕ No |
| Animation Support | ✕ No | Yes |
| Progressive Loading | ✕ No | Yes |
| 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
North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax
image/naplps
Extension
.nap.naplps
Container
NAPLPS Byte Stream
Compression
Uncompressed (Tokenized ASCII Commands)
Algorithm
None (Coordinate encoding)
Color Depth
16-color palette (Indexed from larger color spaces)
Developed by
ANSI / CSA (Based on Canadian CRC's Telidon)
Released
1983
Magic Bytes
1B (Variable / ESC sequences)
Browser Support Comparison
| Browser | FPX | NAPLPS |
|---|---|---|
Chrome
|
✕ | ✕ |
Firefox
|
✕ | ✕ |
Safari
|
✕ | ✕ |
Edge
|
✕ | ✕ |
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
NAPLPS
NAPLPS Strengths
- Extremely bandwidth-efficient, enabling colorful graphical interfaces over early 300 baud dial-up connections
- Resolution-independent vector scaling allowed the exact same file to be displayed accurately on varied early PC monitors and television sets
Limitations
- Completely obsolete and unsupported by modern web technologies
- Relies heavily on stateful parsing and terminal emulators rather than straightforward file decoding
- Easily misidentified by MIME sniffers as plain text or generic binary streams due to the lack of a standardized file header
When to choose which format
FPX
Use FPX when…
- Legacy Digital Photography
- Kodak Picture CDs (Historical)
- Early High-Resolution Image Viewers
NAPLPS
Use NAPLPS when…
- 1980s Videotex Services
- Prodigy Online Service Graphics
- Historical BBS Terminal Graphics
- Legacy Teletext Broadcasts