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

# pamshadedrelief(1)

generate shaded relief image from an elevation map

## NAME

pamshadedrelief - generate shaded relief image from an elevation map

## SYNOPSIS

**pamshadedrelief**

\[**-gamma** *g*\]

## DESCRIPTION

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

**pamshadedrelief** creates a shaded relief image from an elevation map. A shaded relief image is a visual image of terrain, showing the terrain as if illuminated by oblique light and viewed from above, so that the brightess of each spot depends upon its slope.  A common example of a shaded relief image is a relief map of the Earth, which shows mountains and valleys.

The image **pamshadedrelief** creates is as if illumated by a light source from the left.

The output image is a PAM with tuple type **GRAYSCALE**.

The program **pamcrater** is a good thing to use to demonstrate the function of **pamshadedrelief**.  It generates a terrain map of a cratered landscape.

```
    $ pamcrater | pamshadedrelief | pamx

```

## OPTIONS

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

- **-gamma** *factor*

  - **-g** *factor*

  The specified *factor* is used to gamma adjust the image in the same manner as performed by **pnmgamma**.  The default value is 1.0, which results in a medium contrast image.  Values larger than 1 lighten the image and reduce contrast, while values less than 1 darken the image, increasing contrast.

  Note that this is separate from the gamma correction that is part of the definition of the PAM GRAYSCALE format.  The image **pamshadedrelief** generates is a genuine, gamma-corrected PAM GRAYSCALE image in any case.  This option simply changes the contrast and may compensate for a display device that does not correctly render PAM GRAYSCALE images.

## DESIGN NOTES

The**-gamma** option isn't really necessary since you can achieve the same effect by piping the output from **pamshadedrelief** through **pnmgamma**.  However, **pamshadedrelief** performs an internal gamma map anyway in the process of rendering the elevation array into the PAM GRAYSCALE format, so there's no additional overhead in allowing an additional gamma adjustment.

## SEE ALSO

[**ppmrelief**(1)](/ppmrelief/1.md) [**pnmgamma**(1)](/pnmgamma/1.md) , [**pnmsmooth**(1)](/pnmsmooth/1.md) [**pamcrater**(1)](/pamcrater/1.md) **pam**(1) ,

## AUTHOR

**pgmcrater**, from which this is derived, was written by John Walker:

```
John Walker
Autodesk SA
Avenue des Champs-Montants 14b
CH-2074 MARIN
Suisse/Schweiz/Svizzera/Svizra/Switzerland
    Usenet:kelvin@Autodesk.com
    Fax:038/33 88 15
    Voice:038/33 76 33
```

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, without any conditions or restrictions.  This software is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

## HISTORY

**pgmcrater** was split into **pamshadedrelief** and **pamcrater** in Netpbm 10.68 (September 2014).  See the history section of the **pamcrater** manual for details.

## 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/pamshadedrelief.html**