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

# pamtouil(1)

convert a PNM or PNM/transparency image into a Motif UIL icon file

## NAME

pamtouil - convert a PNM or PNM/transparency image into a Motif UIL icon file

## SYNOPSIS

**pamtouil** \[**-name=***uilname*\] \[*pamfile*\]

You may abbreviate any option to its shortest unique prefix. You may use two hyphens instead of one to delimit an option.  You may separate an option from its value with whitespace instead of **=**.

## DESCRIPTION

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

**pamtouil** reads a PNM or PAM image as input and produces a Motif UIL icon file as output.  If the input is PAM, it may be either a regular grayscale or color image or grayscale+transparency or color+transparency. Where the transparency channel is present, **pamtouil** renders pixels that are more than half transparent as transparent in the output.

In the UIL's colormap, **pamtouil** uses the color names from the RGB database -- the same one [**ppmmake**(1)](/ppmmake/1.md) uses.  Where a color in the input does not exactly match one of the colors named in the RGB database, **pamtouil** uses the closest color named in the RGB database.

## OPTIONS

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

- **-name**

       Allows you to specify the prefix string which is printed in the\
        resulting UIL output.  If not specified, will default to the filename\
        (without extension) of the ppmfile argument.  If **-name** is not\
        specified and no ppmfile is specified (i.e. piped input), the\
        prefix string will default to the string "noname".

## SEE ALSO

[**pamstack**(1)](/pamstack/1.md) **pam**(1) **ppm**(1)

## HISTORY

Before May 2002, **pamtouil** was called **ppmtouil** and had no way to specify transparency.

## AUTHOR

Converted by Bryan Henderson from ppmtouil.c, which was converted by Jef Poskanzer from ppmtoxpm.c, which is Copyright (C) 1990 by Mark W. Snitily

## 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/pamtouil.html**