---
name: "escp2topbm"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "netpbm"
version: "10.86.51-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/escp2topbm"
---

# escp2topbm(1)

convert an ESC/P2 printer file to a PBM image

## NAME

escp2topbm - convert an ESC/P2 printer file to a PBM image

## SYNOPSIS

**escp2topbm** \[*printfile*\]

## DESCRIPTION

This program is part of **Netpbm**(1) .

**escp2topbm** reads an ESC/P2 printer control stream as input. It produces a PBM image as output.

**escp2topbm** filters the raster graphic content from an Epson ESC/P2 printer control stream and writes the image it would print as a standard (raw) PBM image.

The input is from the file named by the *printfile* argument, or from Standard Input if you don't specify *printfile*.  The output is to Standard Output.

**escp2topbm** understands compression modes 0 (uncompressed) and 1 (RLE compressed) in the Epson input stream.

## OPTIONS

There are no command line options defined specifically for **escp2topbm**, but it recognizes the options common to all programs based on libnetpbm (See \
  Common Options ⟨index.html#commonoptions⟩ .)

Before Netpbm 10.72 (September 2015), the Netpbm common option **-plain** has no effect on **escp2topbm** .

## HINTS

As **escp2topbm** is a simple program, created mainly to test **pbmtoescp2**, there are some restrictions:

- •

  **escp2topbm** looks only at "ESC." sequences and ignores all data outside these Escape sequences.

- •

  **escp2topbm** assumes that only one raster graphic is in the printer stream.  If this isn't true, the result is garbage.

- •

  **escp2topbm** assumes that all "ESC."  sequences use the same width value.  If this isn't true, the result is garbage.

## SEE ALSO

[**pbmtoescp2**(1)](/pbmtoescp2/1.md) , **pbm**(1)

## AUTHOR

Copyright (C) 2003 by Ulrich Walcher  (*u.walcher@gmx.de*).

## HISTORY

**escp2topbm** was added to Netpbm in Release 10.18 (August 2003); it was created around the same time.

## DOCUMENT SOURCE

This manual page was generated by the Netpbm tool 'makeman' from HTML source.  The master documentation is at

-

  **http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc/escp2topbm.html**