Reference

PPM

PPM (Portable Pixmap) is the full-color member of the Netpbm family. It stores red, green, and blue values per pixel in a simple, uncompressed layout, making it a handy intermediate format in image-processing pipelines.

Files & formatsGeneral

PPM

Also known as: Portable Pixmap, .ppm file, Netpbm color

Netpbm full-color (RGB) image format
Uncompressed, so files are large
Pairs with PBM (mono) and PGM (gray)

How PPM works

PPM records RGB color for every pixel with no compression, so it is easy for any program to read and write. It comes in an ASCII variant and a compact binary variant.

It is the color tier of Netpbm, alongside PBM (black and white) and PGM (grayscale). The trio is often used to hand images between command-line tools.

Using PPM files

Because PPM is uncompressed, files are large for their resolution. It is great as a working format but inefficient to store or share — convert to PNG or JPEG for the final image.

Related terms

Keep reading the reference.

Files & formatsPBMPBM (Portable Bitmap) is the black-and-white member of the Netpbm family. It stores a 1-bit image — each pixel is simply on or off — in a deliberately simple format that is easy for programs to read and write.General Files & formatsPGMPGM (Portable Graymap) is the grayscale member of the Netpbm family. It stores an image as gray levels per pixel in a simple, easy-to-parse layout, making it a common intermediate format in image processing.General Files & formatsPNGPNG (.png) is a lossless image format that keeps every pixel exact and supports transparency. That makes it ideal for screenshots, logos, and graphics, but files are much larger than JPEG or WebP — so a folder full of PNG screenshots can quietly fill storage.General