{"id":"image-vnd-fpx","mimeType":"image/vnd.fpx","name":"FlashPix","shortName":"FPX","category":"Legacy \u0026 Photography","extensions":[".fpx"],"description":"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.","seo":{"title":"image/vnd.fpx MIME Type | Complete Developer Reference \u0026 Magic Bytes","description":"Complete reference for the image/vnd.fpx MIME type: magic bytes, FlashPix history, HTTP headers, developer snippets, and technical specifications.","faqs":[{"question":"What is a FlashPix (.fpx) file?","answer":"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."},{"question":"How do I open an FPX file?","answer":"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."},{"question":"Why is my FlashPix file being detected as a Microsoft Word document?","answer":"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."}]},"index":{"compression":["JPEG (Lossy)","Uncompressed","Single-color (Solid)"],"browserSupport":{"score":1,"label":"None"},"commonUses":["Legacy Digital Photography","Kodak Picture CDs (Historical)","Early High-Resolution Image Viewers"]},"technical":{"magicBytes":{"hex":"D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1","ascii":"ÐÏ.ࡱ.á"},"container":"Microsoft OLE Structured Storage (COM)","compressionAlgorithm":["JPEG","None"],"colorDepth":["8-bit (Grayscale/Indexed)","24-bit (RGB)","32-bit (CMYK/RGBA)"],"transparency":true,"animation":false,"metadata":{"exif":true,"xmp":false,"iccProfile":true},"alphaChannel":true,"progressiveLoading":false,"hdrSupport":false},"history":{"developer":"Eastman Kodak, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Live Picture","released":"1996","specification":"FlashPix Format Specification 1.0.2"},"browserSupport":{"chrome":false,"chromeVersion":"None","firefox":false,"firefoxVersion":"None","safari":false,"safariVersion":"None","edge":false,"edgeVersion":"None","internetExplorer":false},"softwareSupport":[{"name":"ImageMagick","logo":"image-magic.webp"},{"name":"XnView","logo":""},{"name":"IrfanView","logo":""}],"conversion":{"convertTo":["jpeg","tiff","png"],"convertFrom":[]},"developer":{"httpHeaders":[{"header":"Content-Type","value":"image/vnd.fpx"}],"htmlAccept":"image/vnd.fpx, .fpx","fileDetection":["Check the first 8 bytes for the Microsoft OLE Structured Storage signature (D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1).","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."]},"prosCons":{"pros":["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)"],"cons":["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"]},"specifications":{"url":"https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/image/vnd.fpx","rfc":"","mimeAliases":["image/fpx"]},"developerSnippets":{"python":"import magic\n# Libmagic relies on the OLE header and may output 'application/CDFV2' or 'application/vnd.ms-office' instead of 'image/vnd.fpx'\nprint(magic.from_file('photo.fpx', mime=True))","nodejs":"const FileType = require('file-type');\nconst type = await FileType.fromFile('photo.fpx');\nconsole.log(type?.mime); // Parsers often mistake FPX for legacy Microsoft documents (.doc, .xls) because they share the identical OLE container signature.","go":"import \"net/http\"\n// http.DetectContentType will not reliably identify FPX. It detects the binary OLE header and usually falls back to 'application/octet-stream'.","php":"$mime = mime_content_type('photo.fpx');\necho $mime; // Standard setups will often output 'application/octet-stream' or an Office MIME type"},"relatedFormats":["jpeg","tiff","jpx"]}