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Portable Anymap (.pnm)

The PNM which is an acronym for Portable Any-Map is an abstraction of PBM, PGM, and PPM formats, part of Netpbm, an open-source package of graphics programs used in Unix operating systems.

Because of the simple and general design of the Netpbm formats, it's easy to develop programs to convert, manipulate and create the image. The file contents could be either ASCII or binary defined in its simple always ASCII header information.

PNM Specifications

Name Portable Anymap
File Extension(s) .pnm
Category Raster Images
Use For An abstraction of Netpbm PBM, PGM, and PPM formats. Easily exchange binary images between platforms back in the '80s.
Developer Jeffrey A. Poskanzer
MIME Type(s) image/x-portable-anymap
License N/A
File Sample(s) N/A
Compression None
Max Dimensions N/A
Color Modes
Mode Bits Description
Monochrome 1 PBM: In the binary (raw) format, each pixel holds 1-bit of data.
Monochrome 8 PBM: In the ASCII (plain) format, each pixel is described by ASCII characters 1 (for back) and 0 (for white).
Grayscale 8 and 16 PGM: Each pixel is represented by either 1 or 2 bytes defined in the Maximum Gray Value.
True color 8 PPM: Each pixel is described by the red, blue, and green color components, each of which is 8 bits.
Indexed color N/A PNM has no distinct indexed color mode.
Grayscale with alpha N/A PNM does not support an alpha channel.
True color with alpha N/A PNM does not support an alpha channel.
Animation No
Transparency No
Interlacing No
Metadata No
Layers No
Multipage No
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