PNM(5)

📦
version 11.13.03 · 3 versions
, in arch rolling, centos-stream 10, centos-stream 9, debian bookworm, debian trixie, fedora 43, fedora 44, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 PNM — the Netpbm superformat, bestie 💖

okay so this is the manual page for pnm from the File Formats Manual section, and honestly? it's giving lore. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

pnm — the Netpbm superformat 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so bestie, the PNM format is literally just an abstraction of the PBM, PGM, and PPM formats. like, the name "PNM" refers collectively to PBM, PGM, and PPM. that's it, that's the whole vibe ✨

the name "PNM" is an acronym derived from "Portable Any Map." and ngl, that derivation makes so much more sense if you consider it in the context of the other Netpbm format names: PBM, PGM, and PPM. iykyk 🧚

the more general term "Netpbm format" refers to the PNM formats plus PAM. so PAM is the plus-one at the party, periodt.

PNM is principally used with Netpbm(1).

🚨 okay here's a thing people get confused about, so listen up: besides being names of formats, PBM, PGM, PPM, and PNM are also names of classes of programs.

a PNM program can take PBM, PGM, or PPM input. and that's nothing special — a PPM program can too, no cap. but a PNM program can often produce multiple output formats as well, and a PNM program can see the difference between PBM, PGM, and PPM input and respond to each differently, whereas a PPM program sees everything as if it were PPM. it's giving main character energy fr fr. this is discussed more in the description of the netpbm programs" (1).

also "pnm" appears in the names of the most general Netpbm library routines(1), and some of those aren't even related to the PNM format at all. iconic honestly 💀

🌈 INTERNET MEDIA TYPE 🌈

no Internet Media Type (aka MIME type, content type) for PNM has been registered with the IANA, but the value image/x-portable-anymap is conventional. so like, that's the vibe we all agreed on, it's just not official 💜

and btw, there are also conventional Internet Media Types for each of the PNM subformats. the recommended practice is to use those in preference to the PNM code when it is convenient to do so. so like, if you can be specific, be specific, bestie 🎀

🦋 FILE NAME 🦋

there are no requirements on the name of a PNM file, but the convention is to use the suffix pbm, pgm, or ppm, depending on the particular subformat, or pnm if it is not convenient to distinguish the subformats. so like — name it whatever you want, but the group chat expects those suffixes, ok? 😌

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

  • ppm(1)
  • pgm(1)
  • pbm(1)
  • pam(1)
  • programs that process PNM(1)
  • libnetpbm(1)

📜 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/pnm.html

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🫶 this came to you straight from the netpbm documentation, dated 27 November 2013, and it's the manual for The PNM Format(5). slay, go read the sourceforge page, mwah 💖✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from