1 Answer

The PPM format is a lowest common denominator color image file format.

It should be noted that this format is egregiously inefficient. It is highly redundant, while containing a lot of information that the human eye can't even discern. Furthermore, the format allows very little information about the image besides basic color, which means you may have to couple a file in this format with other independent information to get any decent use out of it. However, it is very easy to write and analyze programs to process this format, and that is the point.

It should also be noted that files often conform to this format in every respect except the precise semantics of the sample values. These files are useful because of the way PPM is used as an intermediary format. They are informally called PPM files, but to be absolutely precise, you should indicate the variation from true PPM. For example, "PPM using the red, green, and blue colors that the scanner in question uses."

The name "PPM" is an acronym derived from "Portable Pixel Map." Images in this format (or a precursor of it) were once also called "portable pixmaps."

The format definition is as follows. You can use the libnetpbm C subroutine library to read and interpret the format conveniently and accurately.

A PPM file consists of a sequence of one or more PPM images. There are no data, delimiters, or padding before, after, or between images.

Read more  >http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/ppm.html