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

# mdatopbm(1)

convert a Microdesign .mda or .mdp file into a PBM image

## NAME

mdatopbm - convert a Microdesign .mda or .mdp file into a PBM image

## SYNOPSIS

**mdatopbm** \[**-d**\] \[**-i**\] \[**--**\] \[*mdafile*\]

## DESCRIPTION

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

**mdatopbm** reads a MicroDesign file as input and Produces a PBM image as output.

If you don't specify *mdafile*, **mdatopbm** takes its input from Standard Input.

## OPTIONS

In addition to the options common to all programs based on libnetpbm (most notably **-quiet**, see \
  Common Options ⟨index.html#commonoptions⟩ ), **mdatopbm** recognizes the following command line options:

- **-d**

  Double the height of the output file, to compensate for the aspect ratio used in MicroDesign files.

- **-i**

  Invert the colors used.

- **--**

  End of options (use this if the filename starts with "-")

The program also accepts option **-a** for historical reasons, for\
   the same meaning as the Netpbm common option **-plain**.

## SEE ALSO

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

## AUTHOR

Copyright (C) 1999 John Elliott \<*jce@seasip.demon.co.uk*\>.

## 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/mdatopbm.html**