.PIC File Extension

Bitmap image created by IBM Lotus or a variety of other applications; possible programs include Advanced Art Studio, Micrografx Draw, and SoftImage 3D; should not be confused with the .PICT format.

Deep Raster image created by Houdini, a 3D modeling and animation application; stores a run-length encoded image, including the colors, color map, and size of the picture; supports any number of planes per pixel; stores images that can be included with 3D scenes.

The PIC format is proprietary and is the native format used for internal Deep Raster images saved with Houdini.

A PIC file may also be an image file saved in the PICtor raster image format. It is the native file format used by Pictor Paint (PC Paint) and Graphics Animation System for Professionals (GRASP), which were both developed by John Bridges for the MS-DOS operating system.

PICtor PIC files are uncommon since the programs that support them are no longer developed. They were often used in the 1980s and 1990s to save and share images but are now rare. If you do encounter a PIC file, it most likely is an old image created by an MS-DOS paintbrush program. The image may also be a frame of a video sequence.

The PICtor format is similar to the Paintbrush Bitmap Image .PCX format. It includes a header that contains information about the display device, which allows it to be viewed on different systems. After the header, the format stores image data that may be uncompressed or compressed with Run-length encoding (RLE)compression.

You can open a PIC file with PMView Pro in Windows. You can also convert the PIC file to a more common format with FFmpeg and view it with an image viewer.

Image generated by Apple QuickTime or the Apple QuickDraw API; contains a raster graphic stored in the .PICT format; used for storing image captures or other still frames.