Convert PCX to PFM

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.

The Portable Floatmap (PFM) file format, also known as Portable FloatMap, is an image file format designed to store High Dynamic Range (HDR) images using floating-point values. Developed in the spirit of the Portable Pixmap format, PFM files contain image data with resolutions and byte order specified in the header. This format is particularly useful for applications requiring precise image data, such as computer graphics and image processing. PFM has been widely adopted in the IT industry for its ability to handle a wide range of pixel values beyond the standard 0-255 range, making it ideal for HDR imaging and other advanced visualizations.