# pbmtoascii

Updated: 02 April 2010
Table Of Contents

## NAME

pbmtoascii - convert a PBM image to ASCII graphics

## SYNOPSIS

pbmtoascii [-1x2|-2x4] [pbmfile]

## DESCRIPTION

This program is part of Netpbm.

pbmtoascii reads a PBM image as input and produces a somewhat crude ASCII graphic image as output.

To convert back, use asciitopgm.

ppmtoterm does a similar thing for color images to be displayed on color text terminals.

## OPTIONS

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

The -1x2 and -2x4 options give you two alternate ways for the pixels to get mapped to characters. With 1x2, the default, each character represents a group of 1 pixel across by 2 pixels down. With -2x4, each character represents 2 pixels across by 4 pixels down. With the 1x2 mode you can see the individual pixels, so it's useful for previewing small images on a non-graphics terminal. The 2x4 mode lets you display larger images on a small display, but it obscures pixel-level details. 2x4 mode is also good for displaying PGM images:

    pamscale -width 158 | pnmnorm | pamditherbw -threshold | pbmtoascii -2x4

should give good results.

## SEE ALSO

asciitopgm, ppmtoascii, ppmtoterm, pbm

## AUTHOR

Copyright (C) 1988, 1992 by Jef Poskanzer.

## Table Of Contents

- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- OPTIONS
- SEE ALSO
- AUTHOR