From NAPLPS to PCX: Why Forgotten Graphic Formats Still Matter for DTP

Before JPEG owned the early web, formats like NAPLPS, PCX, and BSAVE solved compression and portability under slow networks. Their lessons still shape how we think about file readiness.

In the early internet era, unreliable connections made compression invaluable. JPEG eventually won mass adoption, but it was not the only contender. Understanding earlier formats clarifies why modern production still obsesses over portability, file size, and reconstructability.

NAPLPS (circa 1983) was a vector format developed by the Canadian Communications Research Centre for Telidon videotex, later used in broadcasting and services such as Prodigy. It encoded complex graphics as short object commands—ideal when bandwidth was scarce—and was an early attempt at portable graphics. As transfer speeds rose and raster compression matured, that advantage faded.

PCX, tied to PC Paintbrush and early MS Paint, was a raster workhorse of the late 1980s. When higher-resolution standards arrived, interest cooled. MSP, another early Paint format, was abandoned almost as quickly as it appeared—openable but not savable, and limited to black and white while business already demanded color.

BSAVE, named for a Microsoft BASIC command, dumped raw screen memory to disk and loaded it back. That approach powered early digitizer workflows and helped seed PCPaint—whose success pushed Microsoft toward licensing PC Paintbrush and building the Paint lineage designers still recognize.

For DTP teams, the point is not nostalgia. File formats come and go; the production requirement does not: deliver graphics that survive transfer, open correctly, and remain editable when the next language or channel arrives. Knowing the history makes today’s format decisions less mystical and more intentional.