PackBits

File Format
Name	PackBits
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics PackBits

PackBits (or Apple Macintosh PackBits, or Macintosh RLE) is a form of run-length encoding often used to compress image data.

It is byte-oriented (as opposed to pixel-oriented), so depending on how the image data is organized, it may be ineffective for images that use more than one byte per pixel.

Related formats

Formats that may use PackBits compression include MacPaint, TIFF, ILBM, and Prism Paint.

Specifications

• TIFF 6.0 Specification, Section 9: PackBits Compression
• Technical Note TN1023: Understanding PackBits

Resources

• Wikipedia article