Free webp to jpg
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Image MIME Reference
PNG

Portable Network Graphics (Legacy MIME)

image/x-png
VS

X Window Dump (Legacy MIME Alias)

image/x-xwindowdump
XWD

A complete technical comparison of Portable Network Graphics (Legacy MIME) and X Window Dump (Legacy MIME Alias) — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

PNG wins on browser support

Feature Support

Feature PNG XWD
Transparency (Alpha) Yes Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading Yes ✕ No
HDR Support Yes ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
Portable Network Graphics (Legacy MIME)
image/x-png
Extension
.png
Container PNG Chunk Structure (IHDR, IDAT, IEND)
Compression Deflate (Lossless)
Algorithm
Deflate (LZ77)
Color Depth 1-bit to 16-bit (Grayscale), 8-bit (Indexed Palette), 24-bit (True Color), 32-bit (True Color with Alpha), 48-bit (High Color), 64-bit (High Color with Alpha)
Developed by PNG Development Group
Released 1996
Magic Bytes
89 50 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A
Full PNG reference →
X Window Dump (Legacy MIME Alias)
image/x-xwindowdump
Extension
.xwd.wd
Container XWDHeader / XWDFileHeader Structure
Compression Uncompressed
Algorithm
None
Color Depth 8-bit (Indexed), 16-bit (High Color), 24-bit (True Color), 32-bit (True Color with Alpha/Padding)
Developed by MIT / X Consortium (X Window System)
Released 1987
Magic Bytes
00 00 00 64 (Typically indicates a 100-byte header size followed by version)
Full XWD reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser PNG XWD
Chrome Chrome
✓ 1
 ✕
Firefox Firefox
✓ 1
 ✕
Safari Safari
✓ 1
 ✕
Edge Edge
✓ 12
 ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✓
 ✕
PNG

PNG Strengths

  • The underlying format provides flawless, lossless compression and perfect 8-bit alpha channel transparency
  • Universally supported by every modern operating system, image editor, and web browser
Limitations
  • The 'image/x-png' string is an obsolete vendor quirk that forces backend developers to write redundant normalization logic in file upload scripts
  • If left unnormalized, strict MIME validators or content security policies on modern systems may incorrectly reject valid PNG files
XWD

XWD Strengths

  • Provides an exact, raw pixel dump directly from the X11 display server memory without compression overhead
  • Extremely fast for Unix environments to generate during low-level graphical debugging
Limitations
  • Completely uncompressed, resulting in large, bloated file sizes
  • Zero support in web browsers or modern desktop environments without specialized graphics translation tools
  • Verbose legacy MIME strings like 'image/x-xwindowdump' require backend normalization in modern applications

When to choose which format

PNG
Use PNG when…
  • Legacy Internet Explorer File Uploads
  • Older ASP/PHP Web Applications
  • Lossless Web Graphics
XWD
Use XWD when…
  • X Window System (X11) Display Debugging and Screenshots
  • Legacy Unix/Linux System Administration

More comparisons

PNG vs ACES → XWD vs ACES → PNG vs APNG → XWD vs APNG → PNG vs AVCI → XWD vs AVCI → PNG vs AVCS → XWD vs AVCS → PNG vs AVIF → XWD vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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