Windows clipboard

File Format
Name	Windows clipboard
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Temporary files Windows clipboard
Extension(s)	.clp

The Windows clipboard holds data being temporarily copied/cut and pasted within programs running under the Microsoft Windows operating system. There are various sub-formats of it to handle different sorts of text, graphical, and other data. While this is usually just held in memory, sometimes it may be saved in files with a .clp extension.

Identification

.clp files begin with a 2-byte signature. Known signatures:

• 0x50 0xc3 (Windows 3.1)
• 0x51 0xc3 (NT)
• 0x52 0xc3 ("BK")

Specifications

Documentation of the .clp file format is lacking, but ReactOS is open source, and appears to support at least one version of the standard format (WriteClipboardFile() in clipbrd/fileutils.c).

Software

For .clp files:

• Clipboard Viewer / ClipBook Viewer - Included with Microsoft Windows prior to Vista.
• XnView - Can read graphical files.
• IrfanView - Can read graphical files.
• Deark

Sample files

• PGACLP.ZIP
• dexvert samples — image/windowsClipboard

Links

• Standard Clipboard Formats
• How can I get an image out of the clipboard without losing the alpha channel in .NET?
• How do I read a jpg or png from the windows clipboard in python and vice versa?
• Win32::Clipboard Perl module