Net-FPX

Network FlashPix

image/vnd.net-fpx Released 1996 · by Digital Imaging Group (Kodak, HP, Live Picture, Microsoft)

The image/vnd.net-fpx MIME type represents the Network FlashPix format, a specialized extension of the FlashPix architecture (image/vnd.fpx). Developed in the late 1990s by the Digital Imaging Group (Kodak, HP, Live Picture, and Microsoft), it was designed to work hand-in-hand with the Internet Imaging Protocol (IIP). It enabled early web servers to stream massive, high-resolution photographs over slow dial-up connections by transmitting only the specific multi-resolution tiles needed for the user's current zoom level and screen viewport.

Legacy & Network Streaming Transparency Progressive Production Ready

Technical Specifications

MIME Type

image/vnd.net-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

Magic Bytes & HTTP Headers

File Signature (Magic Bytes)

D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1

ASCII: ÐÏ.à¡±.á

HTTP Headers

Content-Type: image/vnd.net-fpx

HTML Accept Attribute

accept="None"

Browser Support Matrix

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

Advantages & Limitations

Advantages

Revolutionized web imaging in the late 1990s by proving that massive gigapixel images could be navigated seamlessly over 56k dial-up modems
Pioneered the tile-based, multi-resolution pyramid concepts that eventually evolved into modern standards like IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework)

Limitations

Completely obsolete, having been replaced by standard JPEG servers and modern tiling formats like Deep Zoom or JPEG 2000/XR
Relied on proprietary Java applets or ActiveX controls to render the tiles dynamically in a web browser
Extremely complex to parse server-side due to the heavy OLE filesystem container

Developer Code Snippets

import magic
# Libmagic cannot differentiate Net-FPX from standard FPX. It will detect the OLE header.
print(magic.from_file('streamed.fpx', mime=True)) # Likely outputs 'application/CDFV2' or 'application/vnd.ms-office'

const mime = require('mime');
// Relying on extensions for legacy network formats is standard, though .fpx usually maps to image/vnd.fpx rather than net-fpx
console.log(mime.getType('streamed.fpx'));

import "net/http"
// Go's HTTP sniffing detects the OLE bytes and defaults to application/octet-stream.

$mime = mime_content_type('streamed.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.net-fpx file by reading its raw bytes:

1 As a network streaming variant, this MIME type was typically determined by HTTP negotiation rather than local file sniffing.
2 If saved locally as a raw stream, it shares the Microsoft OLE Structured Storage signature (D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1) identical to standard FlashPix and legacy MS Office documents.

Software Support

L

Live Picture Image Server (Historical)

ImageMagick

Conversion Tools

Share & Embed

Markdown Badge

[![Net-FPX Format](https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/net-fpx/badge.svg)](https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/net-fpx)

Interactive iframe Widget

<iframe src="https://freewebptojpg.com/mime/image/net-fpx/embed" width="100%" height="280" style="border:1px solid #cbd5e1;border-radius:8px;" title="Net-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/net-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 the difference between image/vnd.fpx and image/vnd.net-fpx?

While both refer to the FlashPix format, image/vnd.fpx represents the static, local file container. image/vnd.net-fpx was specifically used during HTTP negotiations and Internet Imaging Protocol (IIP) sessions to denote that the server was streaming dynamic, requested tiles of a FlashPix image rather than forcing the client to download the entire file.

What is the Internet Imaging Protocol (IIP)?

IIP was a 1997 protocol designed to query and stream multi-resolution images over HTTP. It allowed web clients to ask a server for specific tiles of an image (e.g., 'give me the top-left corner at 25% resolution'). It laid the architectural groundwork for modern deep-zoom technologies like IIIF and Google Maps.

Can I open an image/vnd.net-fpx file today?

Net-FPX was primarily a streaming transport type rather than a standalone file you would save to a hard drive. Saved locally, it is identical to a standard FlashPix (.fpx) file, which is obsolete and requires legacy viewers like IrfanView or conversion via ImageMagick to open.