Netpbm formats

File Format
Name	Netpbm formats
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics Netpbm formats ; ; ;
Extension(s)	.pbm, .pgm, .ppm, .pnm
MIME Type(s)	image/x-portable-anymap, others
PRONOM	fmt/408, others
Released	1988

Revision as of 01:23, 26 November 2014

The Netpbm formats are a family of simple raster image file formats, associated with the Netpbm library and suite of image processing utilities.

PBM (portable bitmap) is a bi-level image format.
PGM (portable graymap) is a grayscale image format.
PPM (portable pixmap) is a color image format.
PNM (portable anymap) is a collective name for PBM, PGM, and PPM. A .pnm file may use any of those formats.
PAM: Refer to PAM (Portable Arbitrary Map). Although PAM is one of the Netpbm formats, it's different enough that it's best documented in a separate article.

Each file begins with two ASCII characters, which serve as a signature.

The PBM, PGM, and PPM formats come in two varieties: a text (or "plain" or "ASCII") format, and a binary (or "raw") format.

Format	Signature	PRONOM	MIME type
PBM, text	`P1`	x-fmt/164	image/x-portable-bitmap, image/x-portable-anymap
PBM, binary	`P4`	fmt/409	image/x-portable-bitmap, image/x-portable-anymap
PGM, text	`P2`	fmt/407	image/x-portable-graymap, image/x-portable-anymap
PGM, binary	`P5`	fmt/406	image/x-portable-graymap, image/x-portable-anymap
PPM, text	`P3`	x-fmt/178	image/x-portable-pixmap, image/x-portable-anymap
PPM, binary	`P6`	fmt/408	image/x-portable-pixmap, image/x-portable-anymap

The PBM/PGM/PPM/PNM formats are widely supported. Software listed here has been arbitrarily selected.

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 == See also ==
+* [[ImgStar]]
+* [[Netpbm]]
 * [[PAM (Portable Arbitrary Map)]]
 * [[PFM (Portable Float Map)]]
+* [[PFS (Portable Floatmap Stream)]]
+* [[XV thumbnail]]
 == Specifications ==