Convert DICOM to PCX

DICOM, or Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine, is a standardized file format used in the field of medical imaging. It facilitates the storage, exchange, and transmission of medical images and related information between devices from different manufacturers, ensuring interoperability in healthcare environments. Originating from efforts by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and the American College of Radiology (ACR) in the 1980s, DICOM's evolution has played a crucial role in the development of advanced medical imaging technologies and systems.

The PCX file extension, standing for PiCture eXchange, is a raster image format developed by ZSoft Corporation in 1985 for its PC Paintbrush software. It became one of the first widely accepted DOS imaging standards, supporting palette-indexed images from 2 to 256 colors and later true-color (24-bit) images. PCX files use RLE (Run-Length Encoding) compression, making them smaller in size. Although largely replaced by formats like BMP, JPEG, and PNG, PCX was pivotal in early computer graphics and is still supported by various image processing software.