Netpbm formats
From Just Solve the File Format Problem
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Overview
The Netpbm formats are a set of uncompressed 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 not really a format, but is a collective name for PBM, PGM, and PPM.
PAM (portable arbitrary map) is a more sophisticated format which supports everything the PBM, PGM, and PPM formats do, and then some.
The PBM, PGM, and PPM formats come in two varieties: a text ("plain") format, and a binary ("raw") format. PAM is binary-only.
Identification
Each file begins with two ASCII characters, which serve as a signature.
- PBM, text:
P1 - PGM, text:
P2 - PPM, text:
P3 - PGM, binary:
P4 - PPM, binary:
P5 - PPM, binary:
P6 - PAM:
P7
