1The PNM Format(5)             File Formats Manual            The PNM Format(5)
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NAME

6       pnm - Netpbm superformat
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DESCRIPTION

10       The PNM format is just an abstraction of the PBM, PGM, and PPM formats.
11       I.e. the name "PNM" refers collectively to PBM, PGM, and PPM.
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13       The name "PNM" is an acronym derived  from  "Portable  Any  Map."  This
14       derivation  makes  more  sense if you consider it in the context of the
15       other Netpbm format names: PBM, PGM, and PPM.
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17       The more general term "Netpbm format" refers to the  PNM  formats  plus
18       PAM.
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20       PNM is principally used with Netpbm(1).
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22       Note  that  besides  being names of formats, PBM, PGM, PPM, and PNM are
23       also classes of programs.  A PNM program can  take  PBM,  PGM,  or  PPM
24       input.   That's  nothing  special  -- a PPM program can too.  But a PNM
25       program can often produce multiple output formats as well,  and  a  PNM
26       program  can  see  the  difference  between PBM, PGM, and PPM input and
27       respond to each differently whereas a PPM program sees everything as if
28       it  were  PPM.  This is discussed more in the description of the netpbm
29       programs" (1).
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31       "pnm" also appears in the names of the most general Netpbm library rou‐
32       tines(1), some of which aren't even related to the PNM format.
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INTERNET MEDIA TYPE

36       No  Internet  Media Type (aka MIME type, content type) for PNM has been
37       registered with the IANA, but the value image/x-portable-anymap is con‐
38       ventional.
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40       Note  that there are also conventional Internet Media Types for each of
41       the PNM subformats.  The recommended practice is to use those in  pref‐
42       erence to the PNM code when it is convenient to do so.
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FILE NAME

46       There are no requirements on the name of a PNM file, but the convention
47       is to use the suffix "pbm", "pgm", or "ppm", depending on the  particu‐
48       lar subformat, or "pnm" if it is not convenient to distinguish the sub‐
49       formats.
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SEE ALSO

54       ppm(1), pgm(1), pbm(1), pam(1),  programs  that  process  PNM(1),  lib‐
55       netpbm(1)
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DOCUMENT SOURCE

58       This  manual  page was generated by the Netpbm tool 'makeman' from HTML
59       source.  The master documentation is at
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61              http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/pnm.html
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63netpbm documentation           27 November 2013              The PNM Format(5)
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