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

# pamtosrf(1)

convert a sequence of Netpbm images to a SRF image file

## NAME

pamtosrf - convert a sequence of Netpbm images to a SRF image file

## SYNOPSIS

**pamtosrf** \[**-verbose**\] \[*netpbmfile*\]

## DESCRIPTION

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

**pamtosrf** reads a Netpbm image stream as input and produces a an SRF image file as output.  I don't know exactly what SRF is, but on popular use of it is in Garmin vehicle information files, which tell a GPS receiver how to depict a vehicle on its display.

An SRF file can contain multiple images; each image in a multi-image Netpbm input stream becomes one image in the SRF.

**pamtosrf** does not care how many images there are or what their dimensions or content are.  However, a Garmin vehicle information file has specific requirements, so if you don't make your Netpbm input conform, neither will your SRF output.  For such a file, you should have two image: the first for 3D oblique views of the vehicle and the second for overhead views.  Each image is a horizontal concatenation of 36 square images, each rotated 10 degrees from the previous, thereby covering the full 360 degree circle. You could create this concatenation with **pamcat -lr** and you could create the individual views with **pnmrotate**.

One way to use **pamtosrf** is to get an SRF file, convert it to PAM with **srftopam**, manipulate it, then convert it back with **pamtosrf**.

*netpbmfile* is the input stream, which defaults to Standard Input. Output is always on Standard Output.

## OPTIONS

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

- **-verbose**

  Issue informational messages about the input and the conversion process.

## SEE ALSO

- •

  [**srftopam**(1)](/srftopam/1.md)

- •

  [**pamcat**(1)](/pamcat/1.md)

- •

  **pam**(1)

## HISTORY

**srftopam** was new in Netpbm 10.55 (June 2011).

It was contributed by Mike Frysinger.

## 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/pamtosrf.html**