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Image MIME Reference
PaintShop-Pro-PSP

PaintShop Pro Image

image/x-paintshoppro
VS

Sony SR2 Raw Image

image/x-sony-sr2
Sony-SR2

A complete technical comparison of PaintShop Pro Image and Sony SR2 Raw Image — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature PaintShop-Pro-PSP Sony-SR2
Transparency (Alpha) Yes ✕ No
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support Yes Yes
EXIF Metadata Yes Yes
ICC Color Profile Yes Yes
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 →
Sony SR2 Raw Image
image/x-sony-sr2
Extension
.sr2
Container TIFF-based (Proprietary)
Compression Uncompressed / Sony Proprietary Lossless
Algorithm
NoneSony Proprietary Lossless
Color Depth 12-bit (Per Channel)
Developed by Sony Corporation
Released 2005
Magic Bytes
49 49 2A 00
Full Sony-SR2 reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser PaintShop-Pro-PSP Sony-SR2
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
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
Sony-SR2

Sony-SR2 Strengths

  • Retains raw, unprocessed sensor data from legacy cameras, allowing modern raw processors to extract vastly superior image quality than what was possible in 2005
  • Utilizes a standard TIFF container structure, ensuring that community-maintained open-source decoding libraries (like LibRaw) can easily parse and maintain support for it indefinitely
Limitations
  • Completely obsolete format that has not been utilized in a new camera release in over a decade
  • MIME detection via magic bytes is unreliable due to TIFF header spoofing, requiring deeper EXIF inspection
  • Cannot be natively viewed in web browsers or standard operating system image viewers without specialized decoders

When to choose which format

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)
Sony-SR2
Use Sony-SR2 when…
  • Legacy Sony Cyber-shot/Alpha Photography
  • Non-destructive Image Post-Processing
  • Raw Imaging Archival

More comparisons

PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs ACES → Sony-SR2 vs ACES → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs APNG → Sony-SR2 vs APNG → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVCI → Sony-SR2 vs AVCI → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVCS → Sony-SR2 vs AVCS → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVIF → Sony-SR2 vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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