[idar]

I have some pictures that I took in 1998 that have a .PIC extension. I have tried to open them with several photo applications (picasa2; photo shop, paint shop pro, photogallery) and get an invalid file error. Any ideas about what might have happened? Or are my pictures lost forever?

Oh, I took the pictures on 35 mm film and when I had them developed (probably at WalMart) I also got a floppy with the digital pictures on it. Then I saved them off the disc onto my computer, that was 3 computers ago.....

[xgerryx]

Try irfanview, it will open most image files. If that doesn't work upload one of the files so we can have a go at it.

[idar]

No luck with irfanview either. Here is one of the files. See what you can do.
I had to put it in a zip file to upload it.

Thanks

[xgerryx]

A bit of a long shot, have you still got the original floppy's.

Going by the small file size (35KBs), it seems there is not enough info for a reasonable image.

[Soundy]

http://filext.com/file-extension/pic - see if any of the programs listed there sound like something you used to have on your old computer. Several of them list XnView as well, but it wouldn't open your file for me.

[Broni]

It may be corrupted
.pic associates itself on my computer with Apple Picture Viewer, but when I try to open it:

[Soundy]

So this is about, what, six threads in row that I provide a link and then someone makes some reply they never would have made if they'd actually looked at that link?

There are a NUMBER of different programs that use or have used the .PIC extension, not all of them graphics programs (filext.com lists 25 different programs that have used that extension over the years).

QuickTime thinking it's corrupted COULD mean it's corrupted... it's FAR MORE likely that it's one of the (at least) 24 other formats that use the .PIC extension.

[Broni]

Since the original poster said:

I have some pictures[...]I took the pictures on 35 mm film and when I had them developed

I assume, the file contains a picture, or....I may be wrong.

[Soundy]

There are at least a dozen of those 25 programs that are (or were) common photo editors or paint programs, any of which could have saved the files in its own proprietary format.

[Broni]

Frankly speaking, I've never seen any graphic file, which would have so unique format, that it may be open just by some ONE particular program.

[Soundy]

Just because you haven't run across one, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Ten years ago, there were a lot of little hackneyed graphics apps floating around that used their own proprietary formats, and then disappeared... apps like IrfanView do a tremendous job of supporting a wide number of obscure formats, but those from ancient apps that were here-today-gone-later-today are a bit much to keep up with, especially if the specs of the format aren't available.

Back in the BBS days, when 9600 baud modems were ridiculously fast, there was a local BBS that hosted real-estate listings, and developed their own custom compression algorithm for posting photos of houses. It did a great job of crushing images to tiny file sizes with relatively little loss of quality, but you had to download and run their viewer to display the pictures, and as much as they tried to sell it to the BBS community, as far as I know, nobody else ever picked it up. Find one of those graphics files today, and you'll likely never find a third-party viewer for it, because nobody outside of the 604 has probably ever even heard of it.

Heck, even Photoshop saves to its own *proprietary* format. It's easy for other apps like IrfanView to include at least viewing support for them, because the spec is available and the program has been around a long time and is popular, so there's a REASON for third-party apps to support it, but it's still a proprietary format that's specific to Photoshop.

A perfect example of this same issue is Microsoft Works... even MS Office won't open Works files, for viewing or otherwise. MS has VIEWERS for SOME versions of Works files, but in general, if someone sends you a file in an MS Works format - a spreadsheet, for example - you're pretty much stuck having to use the same version of MS Works to view it. I've even had problems viewing older Works files with newer versions of Works, that's how bad the compatibility is. Yet Works is bundled on a lot of manufacturers' new PCs, even today.

Anyway, we're getting off track... again, the OP should take a look at that filext.com link, browse through the listed apps that used a .PIC extension, and see if any of them sound familiar - maybe Micrografx Draw, which I know was somewhat popular for a few years in the mid-late 90s but then disappeared. If any of them ring a bell, that may be what format they're in, and it will give us a lead in finding the proper app to recover them.

[idar]

Ok boys, lets not argue. I have both PSP5 and Photo Suite, but neither on will open these files. Photo Suite doesn't even see them and PSP says it is not a valid pic file.
However, PSP shows that these files are from PC Paint, so I am going to see if I can download that and see if it works. I'll let you know.

[Soundy]

Looking at the header information, the one file you posted does appear to be a bitmapped image of some sort - there's a "JPEG" string in there, so they may be using a variant of JPEG compression.

And of course, the possibility that they're corrupted still exists.

[Broni]

idar
Are you talking about that DOS based PC Paint from early '80s?

[idar]

apparently so and no I can't download it. So now what?

I am beginning to think the pictures are corrupt and lost. Very sad, it was a great vacation with some wonderful pictures that I hate to lose.

Oh well...........