Award BIOS logo

Award BIOS logo (also known as EPA or AWBM) is a family of image formats associated with Award BIOS firmware. These formats are used by those who wish to change the image shown on the boot screen of certain computers. The default image is usually an "Energy Star" logo.

Format
There are at least two main versions of the format, sometimes called "version 1" and "version 2". Additionally, different versions of the BIOS have different restrictions on the size of the image, etc. There is evidence that different BIOS versions may even render the same file differently.

Version 1
Version 1 images are rendered in text mode, by customizing the character graphics. Consequently, each 8×14 cell of pixels can only use two different colors.

There is no identifying signature, but most files begin with or, based on the usual dimensions of the image in cells.

Version 2
Version 2 files begin with a signature of " ". This is a more typical kind of image format, not based on character graphics. It appears in two variants: "planar 4-bit" and "packed 8-bit".

All values are little-endian.

Specifications

 * Award BIOS logo format (v1)

Software

 * Konvertor
 * XnView
 * RECOIL
 * AWBMTools - Has source code to read and write (some) v2 files
 * Deark
 * Tom's Editor

Sample files

 * BIOS EPA-Logos
 * http://www.bios-mods.com/logo/index.php
 * http://whatis.rest7.com/how-to-open-epa-file
 * https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/image/epa/

Links

 * Changing the EPA logo in Award BIOS