File formats: PCX (.pcx) files open and place

A new reader, written from the ZSoft PCX Technical Reference Manual, decodes
the run-length encoded scan lines of 1-bit images in the header palette's
first two colors (black and white when the version has no palette or the two
colors are the same), 1-bit images in two to four planes and 4-bit images
with the header's palette (the EGA colors for versions 0 and 3), 2-bit CGA
images in the colors that the header's CGA background and palette settings
pick, 8-bit images with the 256-color palette after the image data (gray
levels without one) and 24-bit images in three planes. The image is stored as PNG at the resolution of the header's HDpi and
VDpi fields.

Open and Place list PCX, and pasting a copied .pcx file and Glass's Load
Texture… read it by its header. A file of another depth or plane count, one
cut short and one whose pixels as RGBA pass the pixel allowance are refused
with a message before its pixels are decoded. The desktop packaging does not
associate .pcx files, and no export writes them.

Docs: docs/file-format-parity.md, docs/target-app-parity.md, docs/mcp.md,
docs/releasing.md.

docs/file-format-parity.md

@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ from the public specifications, and users' own `.ai` files are used locally only
 
 | | Illustrator | VectorCraft | Notes |
 |---|---:|---:|---|
-| Formats opened or placed | ~30 | 25 | missing: FreeHand, CorelDRAW, DWG, HEIC/HEIF, JPEG 2000, PICT, PCX, Pixar, Word `.doc`, PS |
+| Formats opened or placed | ~30 | 26 | missing: FreeHand, CorelDRAW, DWG, HEIC/HEIF, JPEG 2000, PICT, Pixar, Word `.doc`, PS |
 | Formats saved (Save As) | 6 (AI, AIT, PDF, EPS, SVG, SVGZ) | 6 + native | `.ai` written PDF-compatible (no Illustrator editing data) or as legacy version 7 (layers and groups, one artboard per file) |
 | Formats exported | ~16 | 17 | missing: DWG, 3D (OBJ/USDA/glTF); extra: GIF/PNG-8 palette export, DXF up to 2018, layered PSD |
 | **Overall (weighted by use)** | | **~75%** | `.ai` and PDF dominate the weighting |
@@ -106,7 +106,8 @@ the app's own editing copy of a file (an EPS after its `%%EOF`, a `.ai`'s `AIPri
 | WebP | export (Export for Screens) | yes | yes (lossless only; lossy written lossless with a warning) | |
 | HEIC / HEIF | open, place | no | no | |
 | JPEG 2000 | open, place | no | no | |
-| PICT, PCX, Pixar PXR | open, place (legacy) | no | no | rarely used |
+| PCX | open, place | yes (1 bit in the header palette's first two colors, black and white without them; 1 bit in two to four planes and 4 bits with up to 16 colors; 2 bits in the CGA colors the header's CGA palette settings pick; 8 bits with the 256-color palette, gray without one; 24-bit color in three planes) | no | the header's HDpi and VDpi size the image; a file of another depth or plane count, cut short or past the pixel allowance is refused with a message; tests in `crates/engine/src/cmd/fileio/tests_pcxread.rs` and `crates/engine/tests/import_fuzz.rs` |
+| PICT, Pixar PXR | open, place (legacy) | no | no | rarely used |
 | FreeHand `.fh*` | open (legacy) | no | no | |
 | CorelDRAW `.cdr` | open | no | no | |
 | Text `.txt` | place, export | place (Text Import Options) | yes | |

docs/mcp.md

@@ -422,7 +422,7 @@ objects' fills or strokes differ (`fillMixed` / `strokeMixed`, drawn as a "?" pr
 | `invoke_menu` | `{command, params?}` | Invokes a menu item by command id. Includes UI commands such as `view.*` and `window.*` in remote mode. |
 | `open_panel` | `{panel}` | Remote only. `panel` is a panel id (`layers`, `swatches`, `colorGuide`, …, as `window.panel` takes) or its display label (`"Color Guide"`), in any case. |
 | `screenshot` | `{path?, scale?, artboard?, window?, max_side?, traceViews?}` | Returns MCP image content (`image/png`, base64) plus a text block. Renders the artboard with the pixels of a PNG `export` with `background: "white"` at the same scale; `traceViews:true` draws Image Trace objects in the view set with `imageTrace.setView`, as in the app's window; `window:true` captures the app window (remote only), as `ui_screenshot` does, and `max_side` (1–4096, window captures only) scales the returned image down as described for `ui_screenshot`. With `path` the backend (the headless session or the app) writes the PNG there too; a window capture written there keeps its full size with `max_side`. |
-| `open_file` | `{path}` | Opens any readable file as a new active document: `.vectorcraft`/`.drawcraft`, `.vctemplate`, `.svg`/`.svgz`, `.pdf`/`.ai`, `.ait`, `.eps`/`.epsf`, `.ps`, `.dxf`, `.emf`, `.wmf`, PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, TIFF, BMP, Targa (`.tga`/`.vda`/`.icb`/`.vst`), PSD/PSB (an image opens as a document of its pixel size; a Photoshop file as its merged image). Templates (`.vctemplate`, `.ait`) open as a new untitled document. PDF, `.ai` and SVG files saved with Preserve Editing reopen as the document they carry. The reply is `document.open`'s: its `warnings` say what didn't come in as it was (an EPS whose PostScript can't be read opens as its preview, and the warning names the PostScript error, the operator and the procedure). `run_command document.formats` lists the formats. |
+| `open_file` | `{path}` | Opens any readable file as a new active document: `.vectorcraft`/`.drawcraft`, `.vctemplate`, `.svg`/`.svgz`, `.pdf`/`.ai`, `.ait`, `.eps`/`.epsf`, `.ps`, `.dxf`, `.emf`, `.wmf`, PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, TIFF, BMP, Targa (`.tga`/`.vda`/`.icb`/`.vst`), PCX, PSD/PSB (an image opens as a document of its pixel size; a Photoshop file as its merged image). Templates (`.vctemplate`, `.ait`) open as a new untitled document. PDF, `.ai` and SVG files saved with Preserve Editing reopen as the document they carry. The reply is `document.open`'s: its `warnings` say what didn't come in as it was (an EPS whose PostScript can't be read opens as its preview, and the warning names the PostScript error, the operator and the procedure). `run_command document.formats` lists the formats. |
 | `save_file` | `{path?, compress?, version?, preview?, options?}` | Runs `document.save`: the document's own file in its own format (native `.vectorcraft` unless it was opened from or saved as SVG, PDF or a restorable `.ai`; then `warnings` say what that format loses). A path's extension picks the format (`.vectorcraft`, `.vctemplate`, `.pdf`, `.svg`, `.svgz`, `.ai`: a PDF carrying the native document, which reopens editable). For a native file, `compress: true` gzips it (default: the `useCompression` preference, Preferences › File Handling › Use Compression), `version` (1 to 4) writes it for an older VectorCraft (1 and 2 are never compressed, and `version: 2` with `compress: true` is an error), and `preview: true` embeds a PNG of the first artboard. `options` passes the format's save options as `run_command document.formats` lists them. When `compress`, `version` or `preview` is given both at the top level and in `options` with different values, the call is an error (`` `compress: true` and `options.compress: false` disagree: give the option once ``) and nothing is written. The save drops each option the written format doesn't read. The reply's `warnings` then name each such option given (for example `` `compress` was not used: SVG files don't read it `` for an `.svg` path, and `` `options.preview` was not used: … `` for a key in `options`; a `.ai` file reads `compress` but not `version` or `preview`). `run_command document.save` and the other save commands refuse any option given beside the path and in `options` with different values, and give the same warning for a top-level `compress`, `version` or `preview`. The headless session and the app receive the same `app.save` params, and the app is also sent `wait: true`: the call returns once the file is written, or with the error (such as a path outside the write root), even with Background Save on. When the save asks first (the question before replacing a file that opened with losses, or on macOS and Linux the file dialog for an untitled document without `path`), the reply is `{pending}` or `"cancelled"` as before, and the save that runs after the answer uses the Background Save preference. |
 | `export` | `{path?, format?, scale?, artboard?, range?, selection?, outlineText?, options?}` | `svg`, `svgz`, `pdf`, `ai` (the PDF-compatible `.ai` that Save writes, which carries the document when every artboard is written in order), `eps`, `dxf`, `emf`, `wmf`, `png`, `jpg`, `webp`, `gif`, `png8` (an indexed `.png`), `tiff`, `bmp`, `tga`, `psd` (layered), `txt` (the document's text), `vectorcraft` or `template` (a native template). The tool's `format` enum and `document.formats` list them, generated from the engine's format table. When `format` is omitted, it comes from the path's extension. PDF and `.ai` write one page per artboard: all of them, or `artboard` (0-based) / `range` (`"1-3, 5"`, 1-based). SVG and SVGZ write one file per chosen artboard. EPS writes one file of the visible art; with `artboard`, `range`, `options.artboards` or `options: {"useArtboards": true}` it writes one file per chosen artboard, after a central file of the visible art when there are two or more, and `useArtboards: false` keeps the one file. Rasters, DXF, EMF and WMF write one artboard, or one file per chosen artboard with `options: {"useArtboards": true}`. Rasters also take `options: {"rect": [x, y, width, height]}` (page points, y down): that area of the page at the given `ppi`/`scale`, without an artboard and without changing the document; it is refused with `artboard`, `artboards`, `range` or `useArtboards`, with a non-positive or non-finite size, and for non-raster formats. `options` carries more format options (e.g. `{"quality": 80}` for JPEG). `selection: true` exports the selected objects cropped to their bounds (the reply adds their `bounds`, and reports `format` and the encoder's `warnings` as a whole-document export does); `outlineText: true` writes SVG text as paths. Template layers are left out, live effects are kept, and exporting `vectorcraft` never changes the document's path. Without `path` the bytes come back as `dataBase64`. Both backends run the same `document.export` call. |
 | `add_text` | `{text, x?, y?, width?, height?, fit?, fitMinPercent?, path?, mode?, pathEffect?, size?, font?, color?, justify?, vertical?}` | Point type at (x, y) (`justify`: `left`, `center` or `right` starts, centres or ends each line on x); area type with `width`/`height` (`fit`: `none`, `autoHeight`, `shrinkText`, as `text.areaOptions`); or `path` + `mode` (`area`/`onPath`) to flow text in or along a path, with `pathEffect` (`rainbow`, `skew`, `3dRibbon`, `stairStep`, `gravity`); `justify` (also `auto`, `justifyAll`) aligns the paragraphs of every kind, as `text.setStyle` does later. `vertical: true` uses the existing vertical writing mode for every kind (default `false`, horizontal). Returns `{id}`, with `overflow: true` when the text doesn't fit its frame or path. |
@@ -3559,7 +3559,7 @@ image `object.rasterize` makes with the same options.
 ## Glass textures
 
 Glass (`distort.glass`) takes an image file as its surface in `params.textureImage`, as `{path}` or
-`{name?, dataBase64}`: a PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, TIFF, BMP, Targa, PSD or PSB file, decoded within the pixel allowance the
+`{name?, dataBase64}`: a PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, TIFF, BMP, Targa, PSD, PSB or PCX file, decoded within the pixel allowance the
 renderer draws images in, counted as RGBA. `effect.apply` and `effect.setParams` store the image's gray levels in the effect as a grayscale PNG
 in base64 and set `texture: "loaded"` unless the params give a `texture`. `effect.list` reports the stored string,
 and a command given that string stores it unchanged. Any other string, a file that is not an image, or an image past

docs/releasing.md

@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ to the target triple, so host build scripts aren't affected.
 AppStream metainfo, the MIME type for VectorCraft documents, the icons and the licence files.
 
 **Document types.** The desktop entry's `MimeType` lists every format File › Open reads but PSD,
-PSB, `.ps` PostScript and Targa, so file managers list VectorCraft under Open With for them.
+PSB, `.ps` PostScript, Targa and PCX, so file managers list VectorCraft under Open With for them.
 `ai.storyteller.vectorcraft.mime.xml` declares the types that shared-mime-info lacks: VectorCraft
 documents and templates, `.ait` templates and Affinity files (`application/x-affinity`). An `.af`
 file gets the Affinity type by its content, and `.afdesign` and `.afpub` files by their extension.

docs/target-app-parity.md

@@ -527,7 +527,7 @@ Moved from the ROADMAP's "Shipped so far" on 2026-10-10. Update it when a featur
 - **Artboard deletion keys:** Delete/Backspace delete selected boards in one Undo step, retaining the original first board in the current order when all are selected, as in the public [Delete artboards guide](https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/create-manage-artboards/add-edit-artboards/delete-artboards.html). The last board and active drags stay protected; neither key clears selected artwork. Headless shortcut regressions in `tests/distortkeys.rs` cover reordered boards, artwork, saved state and Undo/Redo.
 - **Locked artboards:** a click in the Artboards panel's lock column locks or unlocks an artboard in one undo step (`artboard.setProps {index, locked}`), and the native format saves the lock. The Artboard tool doesn't move, copy, resize or delete a locked artboard, Rearrange and Fit to Artwork Bounds leave it as it is, and its name isn't edited on the canvas. The art on it (each object whose bounds overlap it, a group as one object) acts as locked art until it is unlocked: clicks, marquees, `select.set`, `select.all` and the tools pass over it, and commands that act on the selection leave it; art drawn or pasted onto it stays selected and editable until the selection leaves it out. Tests in `crates/doc/src/lib.rs`, `tests/panelcmds.rs`, `xform/artboard.rs`, `panels/artboards.rs` and `canvas.rs` cover them. Public references: [Lock artboards](https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/create-manage-artboards/organize-manage-artboards/lock-artboards.html) and [Managing Artboards in Illustrator](https://creativepro.com/managing-artboards-in-illustrator/).
 - **Linux RPM packaging:** 64-bit runtime capabilities replace Fedora-specific required package names (#1275); glibc 2.35, libm and libgcc_s are declared alongside dynamically loaded xkbcommon and Vulkan/EGL. Generated x86_64/aarch64 metadata and isolated synthetic-provider resolution checked; real-distro install/start-up QA remains pending.
-- **Linux file associations:** the desktop entry lists the MIME type of every format File › Open reads but PSD, PSB, `.ps` PostScript and Targa, `.ai`, `.ait` and EPS included, and the MIME package declares the types shared-mime-info lacks (VectorCraft documents and templates, `.ait`, Affinity), so file managers list VectorCraft under Open With for them, as Finder does on macOS. `the_linux_desktop_entry_opens_every_readable_format` in `apps/vectorcraft/src/main.rs` checks both files against `OPEN_EXTS`. On Debian 13, Ubuntu 24.04 and Fedora 42, `desktop-file-validate` accepts the desktop entry, `update-mime-database` accepts the MIME package, and `gio` registers the app for every one of these types.
+- **Linux file associations:** the desktop entry lists the MIME type of every format File › Open reads but PSD, PSB, `.ps` PostScript, Targa and PCX, `.ai`, `.ait` and EPS included, and the MIME package declares the types shared-mime-info lacks (VectorCraft documents and templates, `.ait`, Affinity), so file managers list VectorCraft under Open With for them, as Finder does on macOS. `the_linux_desktop_entry_opens_every_readable_format` in `apps/vectorcraft/src/main.rs` checks both files against `OPEN_EXTS`. On Debian 13, Ubuntu 24.04 and Fedora 42, `desktop-file-validate` accepts the desktop entry, `update-mime-database` accepts the MIME package, and `gio` registers the app for every one of these types.
 
 - **Architecture:** 19+ crates with enforced layering (`cargo xtask layers`). Every action is a command (~400 engine + ~50 UI). Undo is unlimited via structural sharing. `command.batch` runs several commands as one transaction.
 - **Automation:**
@@ -1005,6 +1005,7 @@ Moved from the ROADMAP's "Shipped so far" on 2026-10-10. Update it when a featur
     `document.pdfInfo` reads an EPS, a `.ps` file or a `.ai` in PostScript form as one page the size of its bounding box (a US Letter page without one), and its `thumbnail: 1` is a PNG of what that page prints (`crates/engine/src/cmd/fileio/tests_pdfimport.rs`).
   - EPS export with Use Artboards writes a central EPS file of the whole document, bounded by its visible art, beside the file of each artboard when it writes two or more artboards; a document with no visible art gets only the artboard files (`crates/engine/src/cmd/fileio/tests_eps.rs`).
   - Targa files (`.tga`, `.vda`, `.icb`, `.vst`) open, place linked or embedded, relink and update at their pixel size: color-mapped, true-color and black-and-white, raw or run-length encoded, in any of the four row orders. The image descriptor's attribute bits and the extension area's Attributes Type decide the transparency: a file with no attribute bits, or with attribute data the Attributes Type calls undefined, opens opaque; with one bit, a 16-bit true-color pixel takes that bit as its alpha, and a color-mapped pixel takes the bit of the 16-bit color map entry it indexes; premultiplied colors are divided by their alpha. Open and Place recognize a Targa file by its extension, and `clipboard.importImage` and Glass's Load Texture… by its header; a Targa file copied in a file manager pastes as a bitmap (`crates/engine/src/cmd/fileio/tests_tiffbmp.rs`, `crates/engine/src/tests/links.rs`).
+  - PCX files (`.pcx`) open and place, from the ZSoft PCX Technical Reference Manual: 1 bit in the header palette's first two colors (black and white when the version has no palette or both colors are the same), 1 bit in two to four planes and 4 bits with up to 16 colors from the header's palette (the EGA colors for versions 0 and 3), 2 bits in the CGA colors that the header's CGA palette settings pick (background, color burst, palette and intensity), 8 bits with the 256-color palette after the image data (gray levels without one) and 24-bit color in three planes, run-length encoded. The header's HDpi and VDpi size the image. A file of another depth or plane count, one cut short, and one whose pixels as RGBA pass the pixel allowance are refused with a message before its pixels are decoded. Open and Place recognize a PCX file by its extension, and `clipboard.importImage` and Glass's Load Texture… by its header; a PCX file copied in a file manager pastes as a bitmap (`crates/engine/src/cmd/fileio/tests_pcxread.rs`).
   - EPS and DXF in and out, EMF/WMF in and out; PNG (with PNG-8), JPEG, WebP, GIF, TIFF, BMP, Targa and layered PSD export; grayscale TIFFs with an alpha channel or other extra channels place, relink and open, the alpha as the image's transparency (#1466 in part); PSD and PSB files open and place, linked or embedded, as their merged image in every colour mode and depth (#918). EPS import runs a PostScript Level 3 interpreter written from the PostScript Language Reference: resource categories and `resourceforall`, local and global VM (`currentglobal`/`setglobal`/`gcheck`), `clipsave`/`cliprestore`, subarrays and substrings that share storage, the standard dictionaries in `systemdict`, `dictstack`, `internaldict`, executable filters and strings, `load` by any key, `//name` immediate names, `token`, `execform`, user paths, `cshow`, `rootfont`, `cachestatus`, colour rendering and halftone queries, file `status` and data read with `flushfile`, and `pdfmark` marks dropped (Discord feedback, #466, #469, #474). Masked images (`ImageType 3` in its three interleavings) and reusable streams are read, and an image's several data sources are read in turn, as the reference defines (procedures that read one file get their own rows: such images came in banded, #498). `restore` puts dictionaries back as they were at the `save`, so programs that count their saves in a dictionary read to their end (part of #505). Tiling patterns come in as pattern swatches, uncoloured ones too; Type 3 fonts' glyphs as their outlines, spaced by `ashow`/`widthshow`/`xshow`/`kshow`; mesh and function-based shadings (types 1, 4–7) as gradient meshes; sampled functions (type 0) and Flate/LZW predictors are read. It is tested with programs written from the specification in the ways common generators use these features; Inkscape/cairo EPS files open as vectors. When a file's PostScript still can't be read, it opens as its TIFF preview, its Windows metafile preview (as vectors) or its EPSI preview, and the warning (in the status bar, `document.open`/`app.open`/MCP `open_file` replies and `vectorcraft-cli info`) names the error, the operator that raised it and the procedures it ran in. Legacy PostScript `.ai` files (Illustrator 3–8, written with the prolog that defines their operators) keep their groups and nested groups (`u` … `U`), between and inside clipping groups; EPS and EMF/WMF import nest clips (and groups) at most 128 deep, so a hostile file can't exhaust the stack. DXF TEXT justified Fit or Aligned spans its two points (stretched, or scaled as a whole). PDF export writes type as real, searchable text in embedded subset fonts by default, as Illustrator's PDF presets do (Convert Text to Outlines is an option; printer's marks stay shapes), so text-heavy PDFs stay small (#733). DXF export writes each fill as its outlines followed by its hatch, so laser and cutter software, which skips hatches, gets filled art and type too (#546).
   - TIFFs that store each channel as its own plane (PlanarConfiguration 2) place, relink and open as the same image stored pixel by pixel does, 8 and 16 bits: grayscale with an alpha channel or other extra channels, and CMYK with or without them. A planar CMYK TIFF keeps its ink amounts and is stored as a CMYK TIFF with each pixel's inks together, at the file's resolution. A TIFF whose header claims more strips or tiles than can be counted is refused as too large to draw (#1466 in part; `crates/engine/src/cmd/fileio/tests.rs`).
   - 1-bit TIFFs compressed with CCITT Group 3 (ITU-T T.4) place, relink and open: Compression 2 (modified Huffman) and Compression 3 with one-dimensional rows or, with T4Options bit 0, two-dimensional ones, with or without fill bits, in strips or tiles, with either FillOrder and either polarity. Rows in T.4's uncompressed mode are not read. A file whose pixels would take more than the decoding allowance as RGBA is refused as too large to draw (#1466 in part; `crates/engine/src/cmd/fileio/tests.rs`).
@@ -1110,7 +1111,7 @@ Moved from the ROADMAP's "Shipped so far" on 2026-10-10. Update it when a featur
 
 - **Moving objects with raster effects (#1257):** during a drag or a dialog's preview, an object whose content only moved draws its cached drop shadows, outer glows and filtered content (Gaussian Blur, Feather and the Photoshop-style filters) from the rasters of an earlier frame at the nearest whole pixel, without running the effects again. The renderer first draws the moved content where the old content lies in its raster and compares the pixels. De-Interlace runs again. The frame after the drag runs the effects again and draws what a fresh renderer draws; on the desktop, the canvas renders that frame on the render worker. `texture_drag_perf` times a drag's frames and the frame after it.
 
-- **Glass's Load Texture:** Effect › Distort › Glass… has a Load Texture… button that reads a PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, TIFF, BMP, Targa, PSD or PSB file and adds Loaded Texture to the Texture menu (`textureImage`: `{path}` or `{name?, dataBase64}`, stored in the effect and saved with the document as a grayscale PNG in base64). The texture lies one image pixel per point at Scaling 100%, centered on the object and repeated; each pixel's luma is the surface's height, from 0 for black to 1 pt for white, and a transparent pixel counts as middle gray. Scaling and Invert act on it as on the built-in textures. A Glass saved without `textureImage` draws and saves as before.
+- **Glass's Load Texture:** Effect › Distort › Glass… has a Load Texture… button that reads a PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, TIFF, BMP, Targa, PSD, PSB or PCX file and adds Loaded Texture to the Texture menu (`textureImage`: `{path}` or `{name?, dataBase64}`, stored in the effect and saved with the document as a grayscale PNG in base64). The texture lies one image pixel per point at Scaling 100%, centered on the object and repeated; each pixel's luma is the surface's height, from 0 for black to 1 pt for white, and a transparent pixel counts as middle gray. Scaling and Invert act on it as on the built-in textures. A Glass saved without `textureImage` draws and saves as before.
 
 - **Raster effects after document and view changes:** a cached drop shadow, outer glow or filtered content is made again when something its content reads from outside the object changes: a pattern's art or tiling, a symbol shown inside another symbol, a brush definition, an image's pixels, the raster resolution (De-Interlace), Page Knockout Group, the substitution highlights (Highlight Substituted Fonts and Highlight Alternate Glyphs in Preferences › Type, Highlight Substituted Glyphs in Document Setup), a layer's Dim Images, the color settings, the fonts, Pixel Preview, Anti-aliased Artwork, Overprint Preview and isolation mode. A thumbnail under Color Halftone or Mezzotint is made again when the document's color mode changes. Raster effects (blur, shadow, glow, grain) drawn after a pattern, radial or freeform gradient fill export at their place and size (#1541, fixes #1536).