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FPX

FlashPix

image/vnd.fpx Released 1996 · by Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Live Picture

The image/vnd.fpx MIME type represents the FlashPix image format. Developed in 1996 by a consortium including Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Live Picture, it was engineered to handle high-resolution digital photographs efficiently on early, resource-constrained computers. FlashPix stores images in a tiled, multi-resolution pyramid structure within a Microsoft OLE structured storage container, allowing software to rapidly load and render only the specific resolution and area of an image currently being viewed.

Legacy & Photography Transparency Production Ready

Technical Specifications

MIME Type
image/vnd.fpx
Extensions
.fpx
Container
Microsoft OLE Structured Storage (COM)
Compression
JPEG (Lossy) & Uncompressed & Single-color (Solid)
Algorithms
JPEGNone
Color Depth
8-bit (Grayscale/Indexed), 24-bit (RGB), 32-bit (CMYK/RGBA)
Metadata
EXIF ICC
Capabilities
Transparency
Animation
Progressive Loading
Alpha Channel
HDR Support
Official Specification
Aliases: image/fpx

Magic Bytes & HTTP Headers

File Signature (Magic Bytes)
D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1
ASCII: ÐÏ.ࡱ.á
HTTP Headers
Content-Type: image/vnd.fpx
HTML Accept Attribute
accept="image/vnd.fpx, .fpx"

Browser Support Matrix

Browser Status Min Version
Chrome Chrome
Not Supported
Firefox Firefox
Not Supported
Safari Safari
Not Supported
Edge Edge
Not Supported
Internet Explorer Internet Explorer
Not Supported Legacy

Advantages & Limitations

Advantages
  • 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

Developer Code Snippets

import magic
# Libmagic relies on the OLE header and may output 'application/CDFV2' or 'application/vnd.ms-office' instead of 'image/vnd.fpx'
print(magic.from_file('photo.fpx', mime=True))
const FileType = require('file-type');
const type = await FileType.fromFile('photo.fpx');
console.log(type?.mime); // Parsers often mistake FPX for legacy Microsoft documents (.doc, .xls) because they share the identical OLE container signature.
import "net/http"
// http.DetectContentType will not reliably identify FPX. It detects the binary OLE header and usually falls back to 'application/octet-stream'.
$mime = mime_content_type('photo.fpx');
echo $mime; // Standard setups will often output 'application/octet-stream' or an Office MIME type

File Detection Steps

How to programmatically detect a image/vnd.fpx file by reading its raw bytes:

  1. 1 Check the first 8 bytes for the Microsoft OLE Structured Storage signature (D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1).
  2. 2 Because other legacy files (like older MS Office docs) use this exact same OLE container, deep inspection is required to traverse the directory structure inside the container and find the specific FlashPix 'Data Object' and 'Image Contents' streams to confirm it is actually an FPX image.

Software Support

ImageMagick ImageMagick
X
XnView
I
IrfanView

Conversion Tools

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[![FPX Format](https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/fpx/badge.svg)](https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/fpx)
Interactive iframe Widget
<iframe src="https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/fpx/embed" width="100%" height="280" style="border:1px solid #cbd5e1;border-radius:8px;" title="FPX Specs"></iframe>

JSON API

All data on this page is available as a free, open JSON API. Use it in your project, documentation, or tooling.

GET https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/fpx.json Open JSON
Free to use
No auth required
CORS enabled
Use from any domain
Cached 24h
Cache-Control headers set

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a FlashPix (.fpx) file?

FlashPix is a legacy image format created in 1996. It stores multiple resolutions of an image in a single file, allowing software to quickly display high-resolution photos by loading only the tiles required for the current zoom level, rather than loading the entire massive file into memory.

How do I open an FPX file?

Because FlashPix is completely obsolete, modern web browsers and most standard OS image previewers cannot open it natively. You will need specialized legacy software, viewers like IrfanView or XnView, or conversion tools like ImageMagick to translate it into a modern format like JPEG or TIFF.

Why is my FlashPix file being detected as a Microsoft Word document?

FlashPix files are built using the Microsoft OLE Structured Storage format—the exact same container format used by early Microsoft Office documents (like .doc and .xls). Standard MIME sniffers often read the shared container header and mistakenly identify the file as an Office document.

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