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Image MIME Reference
Kodak-DCR

Kodak Digital Camera Raw

image/x-kodak-dcr
VS

MacPaint Image

image/x-macpaint
MacPaint

A complete technical comparison of Kodak Digital Camera Raw and MacPaint Image — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature Kodak-DCR MacPaint
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No ✕ No
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support Yes ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
Kodak Digital Camera Raw
image/x-kodak-dcr
Extension
.dcr
Container TIFF/EP
Compression Uncompressed / Lossless JPEG
Algorithm
NoneLossless JPEG (ITU-T81)
Color Depth 12-bit (Per Channel)
Developed by Eastman Kodak Company
Released 1998
Magic Bytes
49 49 2A 00 or 4D 4D 00 2A
Full Kodak-DCR reference →
MacPaint Image
image/x-macpaint
Extension
.mac.pntg.pnt.macp
Container Raw pixel payload with a 512-byte pattern header
Compression PackBits (Run-Length Encoding)
Algorithm
PackBits (Apple RLE)
Color Depth 1-bit (Monochrome)
Developed by Apple Computer, Inc. (Bill Atkinson)
Released 1984
Magic Bytes
None (Relies on classic Mac OS 'PNTG' OSType)
Full MacPaint reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser Kodak-DCR MacPaint
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
Kodak-DCR

Kodak-DCR Strengths

  • Preserves the full dynamic range and uncompressed raw sensor data captured by foundational professional digital cameras
  • Utilizes the standard TIFF container structure, ensuring that open-source decoders like LibRaw can easily parse and interpret the files long after official vendor support has ended
Limitations
  • Completely obsolete proprietary format tied to camera hardware that is no longer manufactured
  • Shares the TIFF magic header, leading to widespread misidentification by automated MIME detection libraries
  • Cannot be natively viewed in web browsers or standard operating system image viewers without specialized codecs
MacPaint

MacPaint Strengths

  • Profoundly historically significant as the format that introduced millions to the concept of bitmap digital painting
  • Extremely simple PackBits compression makes it easy for emulator developers or archivists to write parsers from scratch in under an hour
Limitations
  • Severely limited: strictly black and white, and hard-locked to exactly 576 x 720 pixels
  • Lack of standard magic bytes makes programmatic file sniffing unreliable on modern filesystems without relying on the file extension
  • Completely obsolete and unsupported by modern web browsers or consumer image viewers

When to choose which format

Kodak-DCR
Use Kodak-DCR when…
  • Vintage Professional Digital Photography (Kodak DCS series)
  • Non-destructive Image Post-Processing
  • Raw Imaging Archival
MacPaint
Use MacPaint when…
  • Historical Apple Macintosh Archival
  • Early 1980s Digital Art Preservation
  • Retro UI/UX Academic Research

More comparisons

Kodak-DCR vs ACES → MacPaint vs ACES → Kodak-DCR vs APNG → MacPaint vs APNG → Kodak-DCR vs AVCI → MacPaint vs AVCI → Kodak-DCR vs AVCS → MacPaint vs AVCS → Kodak-DCR vs AVIF → MacPaint vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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