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

# pbmmake(1)

create a blank bitmap of a specified size

## NAME

pbmmake - create a blank bitmap of a specified size

## SYNOPSIS

**pbmmake** \[**-white**\|**-black**\|**-gray**\] *width* *height*

You can abbreviate any option to its shortest unique prefix.

## DESCRIPTION

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

**pbmmake** produces a PBM image of the specified width and height, either all black, all white, or a dithered gray.  The default is white.

## OPTIONS

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

- **-white**

  - **-black**

  - **-gray**

  These options specify the color of the output.  **-white** means all pixels are white.  **-black** means all pixels are black. **-gray** means black and white pixels alternate.

  You may specify only one of these.  The default is all white.

## SEE ALSO

[**pgmmake**(1)](/pgmmake/1.md) , [**ppmmake**(1)](/ppmmake/1.md) , **pbm**(1)

## AUTHOR

Copyright (C) 1989 by Jef Poskanzer.

## 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/pbmmake.html**