pillow-netpbm
A Pillow plugin that bridges netpbm converter binaries, adding read support for dozens of legacy/obscure image formats.
Supported formats
Each format is registered as a Pillow image plugin when its converter binary is installed. Formats with magic bytes or match functions are detected by content; the rest fall back to file extension matching.
| Format | Converter | Extensions | Detection | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amiga IFF ILBM | ilbmtoppm |
.iff .ilbm .lbm | match | yes |
| Amiga Info Icon | infotopam |
.info | magic | yes |
| ATK Raster | atktopbm |
.raster | magic | yes |
| Atari Compressed Spectrum | spctoppm |
.spc | ext | no |
| Atari Degas | pi1toppm |
.pi1 | ext | yes |
| Atari Degas Elite | pc1toppm |
.pc1 | magic | yes |
| Atari Degas Low-Res | pi3topbm |
.pi3 | ext | yes |
| Atari Neochrome | neotoppm |
.neo | ext | yes |
| Atari Uncompressed Spectrum | sputoppm |
.spu | ext | yes |
| AutoCAD Slide | sldtoppm |
.sld | magic | yes |
| AVS X Image | avstopam |
.avs | ext | yes |
| CMU Window Manager Bitmap | cmuwmtopbm |
magic | yes | |
| CompuServe RLE | cistopbm |
.cis | ext | yes |
| Fiasco Wavelet | fiascotopnm |
.wfa | magic | yes |
| FITS | fitstopnm |
.fits .fit .fts | magic | yes |
| Garmin SRF | srftopam |
.srf | magic | yes |
| GEM Raster | gemtopnm |
.gem | ext | yes |
| Gould Scanner | gouldtoppm |
.gould | ext | no |
| Group 3 Fax | g3topbm |
.g3 | ext | yes |
| HIPS | hipstopgm |
.hips | ext | no |
| HP PaintJet | pjtoppm |
.pj | ext | yes |
| Img-whatnot | imgtoppm |
.img | ext | no |
| Interleaf | leaftoppm |
.leaf | magic | yes |
| JBIG | jbigtopnm |
.jbig .jbg .bie | ext | yes |
| Kodak Photo CD | hpcdtoppm |
.pcd | ext | no |
| Lisp Machine Bitmap | lispmtopgm |
magic | yes | |
| MacPaint | macptopbm |
.macp | ext | yes |
| MGR Bitmap | mgrtopbm |
.mgr | match | yes |
| Microdesign | mdatopbm |
.mda | match | yes |
| MRF | mrftopbm |
.mrf | magic | yes |
| MTV Ray Tracer | mtvtoppm |
.mtv | ext | no |
| Palm DB Image | pdbimgtopam |
.pdb | ext | yes |
| PostScript Image Data | psidtopgm |
.psid | ext | no |
| QRT Ray Tracer | qrttoppm |
.qrt | ext | no |
| SBIG CCD Camera | sbigtopgm |
.sbig | ext | yes |
| SBIG ST-4 CCD Camera | st4topgm |
.st4 | ext | yes |
| Solitaire | sirtopnm |
.sir | magic | yes |
| Sony Mavica 411 | 411toppm |
.411 | ext | no |
| SPOT Satellite | spottopgm |
.spot | ext | no |
| Sun Icon | sunicontopnm |
.icon | ext | yes |
| SVG | svgtopam |
.svg | ext | yes |
| TeX PK Font Bitmap | pktopbm |
.pk | magic | no |
| Usenix FaceSaver | fstopgm |
.fs | ext | yes |
| Utah RLE | rletopnm |
.rle | magic | yes |
| Wavefront RLA | rlatopam |
.rla | ext | no |
| Wireless Bitmap | wbmptopbm |
.wbmp | ext | yes |
| X IMage | ximtoppm |
.xim | ext | no |
| X Window Dump | xwdtopnm |
.xwd | match | yes |
| XV Thumbnail | xvminitoppm |
magic | yes | |
| Xerox Doodle Brush | brushtopbm |
.brush | ext | no |
| YBM Face File | ybmtopbm |
.ybm | magic | yes |
| Zeiss Confocal | zeisstopnm |
.lsm | ext | no |
Excluded formats
The following netpbm converters are not supported by this plugin:
| Converter | Format | Reason |
|---|---|---|
cameratopam |
Camera RAW (NEF, CR2) | Segfaults on NEF files, “File seek failed” on CR2 |
ddbugtopbm |
Diddle/DiddleBug sketch DB | Reads stdin only, writes multiple .pbm files to CWD |
pcdovtoppm |
Kodak Photo CD Overview | Shell script pipeline, not a single-binary converter |
bioradtopgm |
Bio-Rad Confocal | Magic at byte offset 54, beyond Pillow’s 16-byte prefix limit; no known extension |
escp2topbm |
Epson ESC/P2 raster | No fixed header magic, no known file extension |
thinkjettopbm |
HP ThinkJet | No fixed header magic, no known file extension |
eyuvtoppm |
Encoder YUV | Headerless format, dimensions not in file |
yuvtoppm |
YUV 4:1:1 | Headerless format, dimensions not in file |
yuy2topam |
YUY2 Video Frame | Headerless format, dimensions not in file |