BMPTOPNM(1)

💖 bmptopnm — the Bmptopnm User Manual, bestie edition 💖

okay so real quick, this page lives in the Bmptopnm User Manual, section 1. it's giving "tiny tool, big personality". let's get into it 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

bmptopnm — convert a BMP file into a PBM, PGM, or PNM image

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

bmptopnm

[-verbose]

[bmpfile]

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So like, first thing's first: this program is part of Netpbm(1). it's in the family, it belongs, periodt.

bmptopnm reads a Microsoft Windows or OS/2 BMP file as input and produces a PBM, PGM, or PNM image as output. and the way it picks which one?? so smart actually:

• If the input is colormapped and contains only black and white, the output is PBM.
• If the input is colormapped and contains only black white and gray, the output is PGM.
• Otherwise, the output is PPM.

no cap, that's the whole vibe check right there. 🎀

bmptopnm understands BMP files compressed with run length encoding (RLE4/RLE8), but not if that encoding includes a "delta" (which is rare, thank god). bmptopnm recognizes the delta and issues an error message. so like, it won't just sit there and fail silently — she'll tell you. 💀

Before Netpbm 10.75 (June 2016), bmptopnm could not convert Version 4 or Version 5 Windows BMP images. stream that era, but we're past it bestie ✨

bmptopnm cannot convert BMP files compressed with JPEG or PNG encoding. It recognizes the compression and issues an error message. so no guessing games, no mystery garbage — just a clean error. 🙈

and while we're being honest about the glow-up timeline:

• Before Netpbm 10.32 (February 2006), bmptopnm couldn't convert RLE8 BMP files either.
• Before Netpbm 10.85 (December 2018), it couldn't convert RLE4. and between 10.32 and 10.85, it would act like it recognized the format, but produce garbage output. the audacity 😭 that's the era of fake confidence, we don't miss her.

Before Netpbm 10.18 (September 2003), this program could not convert BMP images with the BI_BITFIELDS format (that's the "compression type"). It would recognize the format and issue an error message. again: honest about it, at least. 🫶

bmptopnm cannot convert OS/2 BMP files with 16 bits per pixel — and the only reason is that the author did not have a complete specification for them. not a skill issue, a documentation issue, no cap. It recognizes the format and issues an error message. and if you're like "bestie why so specific about OS/2"— Before Netpbm 10.16 (June 2003), it also could not convert Windows BMP files with 16 bits per pixel either. so 16bpp was just a whole journey for everyone involved. 🌈

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

In addition to the options common to all programs based on libnetpbm (most notably -quiet, see Common Options), bmptopnm recognizes the following command line option:

• -verbose — Report contents of the BMP header to the standard error. 👑

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

ppmtobmp(1), ppmtowinicon(1), ppm(1)

like, the whole little friend group. go say hi. 🦋

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🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Copyright (C) 1992 by David W. Sanderson.

iconic of him fr fr 💖

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⭐ DOCUMENT SOURCE ⭐

This manual page was generated by the Netpbm tool makeman from HTML source. The master documentation is at

http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/bmptopnm.html

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okay that's the whole thing!! you ate it, bestie 💅✨ this was netpbm documentation, 05 December 2018, straight from the Bmptopnm User Manual(1). now go convert something cute 🎀🫶