What is the VPB file format?
Files with the .vpb extension store bitmaps - raster images created on Quantel video graphics workstations, used since the 1980s for producing computer graphics for TV stations. Video PaintBox workstations were adopted by major broadcasters such as NBC and revolutionized television program production.
The .vpb format stores TV-resolution frames - PAL 720×576 or NTSC 720×486-class - as uncompressed YCbCr 4:2:2 data in the ITU-R BT.601 colour space. Image dimensions and the limited colour model were tightly linked to broadcast video standards of the era. Internally, the binary file uses a big-endian record-based header with Pascal-style (16-bit length-prefixed) strings, followed by the raw interleaved raster payload; no fixed magic bytes identify it.
.vpb files were used chiefly for generating TV graphics and news-program overlays on Quantel devices during the 1980s and 1990s. This format is no longer supported, and no official format documentation is available. Reverse-engineering projects have recovered enough of the structure for practical conversion - the open-source vpb-converter is the primary tool, and XnView MP can view many .vpb files directly. Modern workflows have migrated to open formats such as .TGA or .TIF.
Note: the .vpb extension is also used by Microsoft Photos backup image files - an entirely different, unrelated format.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWA .vpb is an inert legacy image file with no scripting, so direct risk is low. Practical caveats: the format is undocumented, so a given .vpb may not open in any available tool, and you may need the reverse-engineered converter. Avoid generic "VPB viewer" download portals that bundle adware; XnView and the open-source converter are the safe choices.
Format details
in a nutshellPrograms that open VPB files
Windows2 apps
XnView / XnView MP
Freemium Open the .vpb directly - XnView includes a reader for many Quantel VPB images.
vpb-converter (open source)
Open-source Run the Python converter to turn the .vpb into a standard image (e.g. PNG/TIFF) you can open anywhere. 
macOS1 app
Linux1 app
XnView MP / vpb-converter
Freemium Use XnView MP to view, or run the GeoSpark vpb-converter Python script to convert to PNG/TIFF. Technical details
deep spec| Encoding | Binary (proprietary) |
| Byte order | Big-endian throughout |
| Colour encoding | YCbCr 4:2:2, interleaved Cb Y Cr Y sequence, ITU-R BT.601 colour space, 8 bits per channel |
| Compression | None - raw uncompressed raster payload |
| File structure | Record-based header (mandatory and optional records, Pascal-style 16-bit length-prefixed strings) followed by uncompressed image data |
| Magic bytes / file signature | None publicly documented; identified by header structure analysis via reverse engineering |
| Typical file size | Hundreds of KB to a few MB (one TV-resolution frame per file) |
| Image dimensions | Tied to broadcast video standards: PAL 720×576 or NTSC 720×486-class frames |
| MIME type | image/x-quantel-vpb |
| Developer | Quantel Ltd. (UK broadcast and post-production hardware manufacturer) |
| Also known as | Quantel Picture, Video Paintbox image, Quantel Paintbox file |
| Platform origin | Dedicated Quantel Paintbox and Video PaintBox hardware systems (1980s-1990s) |
| Superseded by | Open broadcast and post-production formats such as TGA, TIFF, and DPX as Quantel hardware was retired |
| Documentation status | No official public documentation; format partially recovered via reverse engineering (notably the GeoSpark vpb-converter open-source project) |
| Released | 1980s, with Quantel Paintbox / video graphics systems |
| Latest version | Proprietary, undocumented; format frozen with the discontinued Quantel hardware |
VPB conversions
Community Q&A
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