View source for Ability Office PhotoPaint

{{FormatInfo
|formattype=electronic
|subcat=Graphics
|extensions={{ext|apx}}
|released=1994
}}
'''Ability Office PhotoPaint''' (APX) is the native format of the PhotoPaint program in the Ability Office suite, though this program also supports some other, more widely-used formats. It is apparently a different program from [[Corel Photo-Paint image|Corel Photo-Paint]], though they both seem to be intended as replacements for [[Adobe Photoshop]], and support the [[PSD]] format among others.

The format stores 24 bits per pixel (uncompressed?), so its files are bulky but include a large amount of information in a loss-free manner. It does not appear to be widely supported or documented, so your best bet when encountering such a file would be to obtain Ability Office (a 30-day trial version is downloadable) in order to load the file and save it out in a better-supported format.

== Identification ==
Files (at least ones in the current version as of early 2014) begin with the hex bytes <code>53 44 33 53</code>, which spell <code>SD3S</code> in ASCII. They also have <code>4D 58 52 42</code> (spelling <code>MXRB</code>) at position 20 hex (32 decimal).

== See also ==
* [[Ability Database]]
* [[Ability Spreadsheet]]
* [[Ability Write]]

== Sample files ==
* [http://www.dan.info/sampledata/test.apx test.apx] - Simple test file (100 x 100 image, all pixels RGB hex 47EF61, so it seems it is compressed)
* [http://www.dan.info/sampledata/sample.apx sample.apx] - Full-size image of a photo

== Other links ==
* [[Wikipedia:Ability Office|Wikipedia article on Ability Office]]
* [http://www.ability.com/ Ability Software site]