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XWD

X Window Dump (Legacy MIME Alias)

image/x-xwindowdump Released 1987 · by MIT / X Consortium (X Window System)

The image/x-xwindowdump MIME type is a legacy, descriptive alias for the X Window Dump (XWD) format. Developed for the X Window System (X11) in the late 1980s, XWD files are created when the X server serializes the raw pixel contents of a display window into a binary file. While 'image/x-xwd' or 'image/xwd' are more commonly used in modern configurations, 'image/x-xwindowdump' was historically registered in older Apache web servers, email handlers, and Unix MIME tables to explicitly describe the file's origin. The underlying file structure remains identical to standard XWD files, featuring a 100-byte header followed by raw framebuffer data.

Legacy & Raster Graphics Transparency Production Ready

Technical Specifications

MIME Type
image/x-xwindowdump
Extensions
.xwd.wd
Container
XWDHeader / XWDFileHeader Structure
Compression
Uncompressed
Algorithms
None
Color Depth
8-bit (Indexed), 16-bit (High Color), 24-bit (True Color), 32-bit (True Color with Alpha/Padding)
Metadata
None
Capabilities
Transparency
Animation
Progressive Loading
Alpha Channel
HDR Support
Official Specification
Aliases: image/x-xwdimage/xwdapplication/x-xwindowdump

Magic Bytes & HTTP Headers

File Signature (Magic Bytes)
00 00 00 64 (Typically indicates a 100-byte header size followed by version)
ASCII: None (Big-endian header size integer)
HTTP Headers
Content-Type: image/x-xwd
Content-Type: image/x-xwindowdump
HTML Accept Attribute
accept="image/x-xwd, image/x-xwindowdump, .xwd"

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
  • 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

Developer Code Snippets

import magic
# Libmagic will identify XWD files based on their structural header signature
print(magic.from_file('screenshot.xwd', mime=True)) # Outputs 'image/x-xwd'
const fs = require('fs');
// Inspecting the first 8 bytes for header size 100 (0x64) and version 7 (0x07)
const buffer = Buffer.alloc(8);
const fd = fs.openSync('screenshot.xwd', 'r');
fs.readSync(fd, buffer, 0, 8, 0);
fs.closeSync(fd);
const headerSize = buffer.readUInt32BE(0);
const version = buffer.readUInt32BE(4);
const isXWD = headerSize === 100 && version === 7;
console.log('Is X Window Dump:', isXWD);
import (
    "encoding/binary"
    "os"
)
// Checking the header size and version manually in Go:
// file, _ := os.Open("screenshot.xwd")
// buf := make([]byte, 8)
// file.Read(buf)
// headerSize := binary.BigEndian.Uint32(buf[0:4])
// version := binary.BigEndian.Uint32(buf[4:8])
// isXWD := headerSize == 100 && version == 7
// Normalizing legacy MIME types during file uploads
$mime = $_FILES['upload']['type'];
if ($mime === 'image/x-xwindowdump') {
    $mime = 'image/x-xwd';
}
echo $mime;

File Detection Steps

How to programmatically detect a image/x-xwindowdump file by reading its raw bytes:

  1. 1 XWD files lack a human-readable magic string, but feature a reliable 8-byte big-endian header structure.
  2. 2 The first 4 bytes contain a 32-bit big-endian integer representing the header length (typically 100, or Hex: 00 00 00 64).
  3. 3 The next 4 bytes (offset 4) define the file version (typically version 7, or Hex: 00 00 00 07).
  4. 4 When encountering 'image/x-xwindowdump' in legacy server logs or file uploads, you can safely normalize the MIME string to 'image/x-xwd'.

Software Support

ImageMagick ImageMagick
GIMP GIMP
X
XnView
X
X11 xwd / xwud utilities

Conversion Tools

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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/xwd.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/x-xwindowdump and image/x-xwd?

There is no difference in the underlying image file. Both refer to the X Window Dump (XWD) screenshot format. 'image/x-xwindowdump' is simply a more verbose, descriptive legacy alias found in older server configurations.

How do I open an XWD file?

Modern web browsers and default desktop viewers do not support XWD files natively. You must use utility software like ImageMagick or GIMP to convert them into standard formats like PNG or JPEG.

How can I detect an XWD file programmatically?

XWD files begin with a binary header. You can identify them by reading the first 4 bytes as a big-endian 32-bit integer representing the header size (typically 100 bytes or 0x64), followed by the version number 7 at offset 4.

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