MODCA
title: "MODCA" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["graphics-file-formats", "printing", "advanced-function-presentation", "ibm-software"] topic_path: "general/graphics-file-formats" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MODCA" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::data[format=table title="Infobox file format"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | MO:DCA |
| extension | , , , |
| mime | image/, document/ |
| typecode | |
| owner | IBM |
| genre | Image file format, Document file format |
| extended from | Document Content Architecture |
| magic | , , |
| :: |
| name = MO:DCA | screenshot = | caption = | extension = , , , | mime = image/, document/ | typecode = | uniform type = | owner = IBM | genre = Image file format, Document file format | container for = | contained by = | extended from = Document Content Architecture | extended to = | magic = , , MO:DCA (Mixed Object:Document Content Architecture) is an IBM compound document format for text and graphics elements in a document. The 'Mixed Object' refers to the fact that an MO:DCA file can contain multiple types of objects, including text, images, vector graphics, and barcodes.
Overview
MO:DCA supports Revisable Documents, which are editable like revisable-form text, Presentation Documents, which provide specific output formatting similar to final-form text, and Resource Documents, which hold control information such as fonts. An MO:DCA file consists of a sequential, ordered hierarchy of independent objects - documents, pages, data objects, and resource objects such as fonts and ICC profiles. Each object is delimited by begin/end structures, and objects to be rendered specify presentation parameters and resource requirements in structures called "environment groups". Since the pages in MO:DCA documents appear in sequential order, presentation can start as soon as the first page is received.
Formats for specific objects are specified in various OCAs (Object Content Architectures): PTOCA for presentation text that has been formatted for output, GOCA for vector graphics objects, IOCA for bitmapped Images, FOCA for fonts, and BCOCA for barcodes. MO:DCA is implemented as IBM's Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) page description language.
A number of applications use MO:DCA, including eViewer, a MO:DCA viewer used by IBM solutions, IBM DisplayWrite, and printers and other devices supporting AFP.
Encoding
MO:DCA-P carries text, image, and graphics data objects, therefore the data is a mixture of binary data and character data. The recommended content-transfer-encoding is base64.
Security
MO:DCA-P is a specification of final-form presentation data of an Image. It is not a programming language, does not contain any file operators, and therefore cannot corrupt a receiver's file system or programming environment. MO:DCA and Mixed Object Document Content Architecture are trademarks of the IBM Corporation.
Interoperability
MO:DCA-P defines interchange sets to support interoperability. Currently defined sets are Interchange Set 1 (IS/1) and Interchange Set 2 (IS/2).
Notes
References
References
- (May 26, 2006). "Mixed Object Document Content Architecture Reference (SC31-6802-07)". ibm.com.
- "MO:DCA".
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