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Image MIME Reference
MODI

Microsoft Document Imaging

image/vnd.ms-modi
VS

PaintShop Pro Image

image/x-paintshoppro
PaintShop-Pro-PSP

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

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature MODI PaintShop-Pro-PSP
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support ✕ No Yes
EXIF Metadata ✕ No Yes
ICC Color Profile ✕ No Yes
Microsoft Document Imaging
image/vnd.ms-modi
Extension
.mdi
Container TIFF Variant
Compression LZW / Proprietary MS Compression
Algorithm
LZW (Modified)
Color Depth 1-bit (Monochrome), 8-bit (Grayscale), 24-bit (RGB)
Developed by Microsoft Corporation
Released 2001
Magic Bytes
49 49 2A 00
Full MODI 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 MODI PaintShop-Pro-PSP
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
MODI

MODI Strengths

  • Historically provided an excellent all-in-one scanned document format with built-in OCR and annotations before PDF editing became universally accessible
  • Tightly integrated with Microsoft Office and SharePoint workflows in the early 2000s
Limitations
  • Completely proprietary and obsolete; Microsoft abandoned it in favor of standard TIFF and PDF
  • Causes widespread identification conflicts since its file signature is identical to a standard TIFF
  • Extremely difficult to open on modern operating systems without relying on third-party conversion utilities
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

MODI
Use MODI when…
  • Legacy Scanned Document Archival
  • Microsoft Office XP/2003/2007 Workflows
  • Embedded OCR Text Storage
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

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