PackBits

PackBits is a fast, simple lossless compression scheme for run-length encoding of data.

Apple introduced the PackBits format with the release of MacPaint on the Macintosh computer. This compression scheme can be used in TIFF files. TGA files also use this RLE compression scheme, but treats data stream as pixels instead of bytes.

A PackBits data stream consists of packets with a one-byte header followed by data. The header is a signed byte; the data can be signed, unsigned, or packed (such as MacPaint pixels).

In the following table, ''n'' is the value of the header byte as a signed integer.

Note that interpreting 0 as positive or negative makes no difference in the output. Runs of two bytes adjacent to non-runs are typically written as literal data. There is no way based on the PackBits data to determine the end of the data stream; that is to say, one must already know the size of the compressed or uncompressed data before reading a PackBits data stream to know where it ends.

Apple Computer (see the external link) provides this short example of packed data:
FE AA 02 80 00 2A FD AA 03 80 00 2A 22 F7 AA

The following code, written in Microsoft VBA, unpacks the data:

Sub UnpackBitsDemo()
Dim File As Variant
Dim MyOutput As String
Dim Count As Long
Dim i As Long, j As Long

File = "FE AA 02 80 00 2A FD AA 03 80 00 2A 22 F7 AA"
File = Split(File, " ")

For i = LBound(File) To UBound(File)
Count = Application.WorksheetFunction.Hex2Dec(File(i))
Select Case Count
Case Is >= 128
Count = 256 - Count 'Two's Complement
For j = 0 To Count 'zero-based
MyOutput = MyOutput & File(i + 1) & " "
Next j
i = i + 1 'Adjust the pointer
Case Else
For j = 0 To Count 'zero-based
MyOutput = MyOutput & File(i + j + 1) & " "
Next j
i = i + j 'Adjust the pointer
End Select
Next i

Debug.Print MyOutput
'AA AA AA 80 00 2A AA AA AA AA 80 00 2A 22 AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA
End Sub

The same implementation in JavaScript:

/**
* Helper functions to create readable input and output
*
* Also, see this fiddle for interactive PackBits decoder:
* https://jsfiddle.net/y13xkh65/3/
*/

function str2hex (str)

function hex2str (hex)

/**
* PackBits unpack function
*
* @param data
* @return
*/
function unpackBits (data) {
var output = '',
i = 0;

while (i < data.length) {
var hex = data.charCodeAt(i);

if (hex

128) {
// Do nothing, nop
}
else if (hex > 128) {
// This is a repeated byte
hex = 256 - hex;

for (var j = 0; j <= hex; ++j) {
output += data.charAt(i + 1);
}

++i;
}
else {
// These are literal bytes
for (var j = 0; j <= hex; ++j) {
output += data.charAt(i + j + 1);
}

i += j;
}

++i;
}

return output;
}

var original = 'FE AA 02 80 00 2A FD AA 03 80 00 2A 22 F7 AA',
data = unpackBits(hex2str(original));

// Output is: AA AA AA 80 00 2A AA AA AA AA 80 00 2A 22 AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA AA
console.log(str2hex(data));

External links

Apple webpage describing the PackBits format


taken from the https://www.fileformat.info site with permission from Corion.net


the article on site https://www.universal-document-converter.com also describes the algorithm.
Lossless compression algorithms