| Description |
XBIN (eXtended BIN) is a character graphics format, widely used for ANSI art. It was designed to be a successor to BIN format [fmt/208] and uses a specialized run-length encoding (RLE) compression algorithm. Although XBIN is considered to be a graphics format, it is not required to have an image. The format can be used for storing pre-made fonts and pre-made palettes which can be loaded from a viewer/editor. It is closely tied to the capabilities of the text modes of VGA graphics cards. The font can be customized, though limited to 16 colours only.
XBIN allows for binary images up to 65536 columns wide, and 65536 lines high, with an alternate set of palette colours either in blink or non-blink mode. It also allows for different textmode fonts from 1 to 32 scanlines high, consisting of either 256 or 512 different characters, and its file size is smaller by using more efficient compression system to its predecessor BIN format [fmt/208]. |
Details: File format summary
: detailed report on file format 
The National Archives and Records Administration / The National Archives and Records Administration
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