PDB - Program Database

What is a PDB file

The PDB file format is the standard database format used by Palm based PDA devices, Pegasus, Quicken, and more. This data format stores various types of data like eBooks, word processing documents, images, maps, spreadsheets etc in a structured format. It's crucial to know which program created the PDB file in order to open it. Only the programs responsible for the creation of the file can display and process it correctly.

PDB files are used in the C++ programming language. It is most commonly associated with the PalmPilote mobile devices. It supports reflowable content but lacks some of the features found in modern eBook formats (e.g. only providing basic content tables). The PDB file format was designed for low storage capacity on Palm devices in the 1990s and because of that it featured RLE compression.

Here's a small, but not exhaustive list of programs that can open PDB documents:

  • ICE Book Reader
  • Palm Reader
  • Microsoft Visual Studio
  • Pegasus
  • Quicken