PPM File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
Format Name Portable Pixmap Image File
File Extension(s) .ppm
MIME Type image/x-portable-pixmap
Type Raster Image
Color Depth Up to 24-bit
Color Support RGB
Compression None (Uncompressed)
Binary Format ASCII (P3) or Binary (P6)
Header Starts with "P3" for ASCII or "P6" for Binary
Width and Height Specification Specified in header after the format identifier
Maximum Color Value Specified in header, typical maximum is 255
Pixel Data Layout RGB triplets in either ASCII or binary
Usual File Size Large due to lack of compression
Origin Part of the Netpbm package
Supporting Platforms Multi-platform
Main Usage Simple images, testing, or scientific applications
Advantages Simple format, easy to parse
Disadvantages Very large file sizes due to no compression
Similar Formats PGM (Portable Graymap), PBM (Portable Bitmap)