TheDraw COM File

TheDraw COM File is a format for ANSI Art-style character graphics, associated with the DOS software TheDraw. The format was introduced in TheDraw v3.20 (1989-04).

It is in the form of a DOS .COM file that, when executed, prints the graphics to the screen.

Format details
There are three "types" of the format, distinguished by the byte at offset 6 having value 0, 1, or 2.

Types 1 and 2 were introduced in version 4.00. TheDraw selects the type to use automatically. Type 1 seems to be rare, and is used only if the image is incompressible.

Identification
Type 0 files start with bytes, and have  at offset 6.

Type 1 files start with bytes, and have  at offset 6.

Type 2 files start with bytes, and have  at offset 6.

Types 0 and 2 have the signature string "" at offset 9, followed by byte.

Type 1 has the shorter string "" at offset 9, followed by.

See also P-Screen COM Screen, which looks a lot like type 0, except for the different signature string.

Specifications

 * An overview of the decompression algorithm for type 2 is in the UNCRUNCH.PAS file included with TheDraw 4.x.

Software

 * TheDraw - Refer to TheDraw Save File (v3.20+)

(Or just execute the file in a DOS environment.)

Sample files

 * - Most of the .COM files
 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/theDrawCOM/