PPM Image Format

taken from "man ppm"

Name

ppm - portable pixmap file format

Description

The portable pixmap format is a lowest common denominator color image file format. The definition is as follows: Here is an example of a small pixmap in this format:
P3
# feep.ppm
4 4
15
 0  0	 0    0	 0  0	 0  0  0   15  0 15
 0  0	 0    0	15  7	 0  0  0    0  0  0
 0  0	 0    0	 0  0	 0 15  7    0  0  0
15  0	15    0	 0  0	 0  0  0    0  0  0
Programs that read this format should be as lenient as possible, accepting anything that looks remotely like a pixmap.

There is also a variant on the format, available by setting the RAWBITS option at compile time. This variant is different in the following ways:

Note that this raw format can only be used for maxvals less than or equal to 255. If you use the ppm library and try to write a file with a larger maxval, it will automatically fall back on the slower but more general plain format.

See Also

giftoppm(1), gouldtoppm(1), ilbmtoppm(1), imgtoppm(1), mtvtoppm(1), pcxtoppm(1), pgmtoppm(1), pi1toppm(1), picttoppm(1), pjtoppm(1), qrttoppm(1), rawtoppm(1), rgb3toppm(1), sldtoppm(1), spctoppm(1), sputoppm(1), tgatoppm(1), ximtoppm(1), xpmtoppm(1), yuvtoppm(1), ppmtoacad(1), ppmtogif(1), ppmtoicr(1), ppmtoilbm(1), ppmtopcx(1), ppmtopgm(1), ppmtopi1(1), ppmtopict(1), ppmtopj(1), ppmtopuzz(1), ppmtorgb3(1), ppmtosixel(1), ppmtotga(1), ppmtouil(1), ppmtoxpm(1), ppmtoyuv(1), ppmdither(1), ppmforge(1), ppmhist(1), ppmmake(1), ppmpat(1), ppmquant(1), ppmquantall(1), ppmrelief(1), pnm(5), pgm(5), pbm(5)

Author

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 by Jef Poskanzer.
Dan Wallach, CS Department, Princeton University
Last modified: Tue Nov 28 16:06:21 EST 1995