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

# pbmtocis(1)

convert a PBM image to a CompuServe RLE image

## NAME

pbmtocis - convert a PBM image to a CompuServe RLE image

## SYNOPSIS

**pbmtocis** \[**-i**\] \[**-w**\] \[*cisfile*\]

## DESCRIPTION

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

**pbmtocis** reads a PBM image as input and produces a CompuServe RLE image as output.

A CompuServe RLE image can be either 128 x 96 pixels or 256 x 192 pixels. Anything in excess on the right or bottom is cropped.  If width or height is insufficient, padding is added on the right or bottom.  For better control of the size adjustment use **pamcut** or **pnmpad**.

## OPTIONS

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

- **-i**

  Inverse: Reverse the mapping of foreground/background to black/white.

- **-w**

  If the input image is smaller than the fixed size of the output image, pad with white pixels rather than black.

## SEE ALSO

[**cistopbm**(1)](/cistopbm/1.md) , [**pamcut**(1)](/pamcut/1.md) , [**pnmpad**(1)](/pnmpad/1.md) , **pbm**(1) CompuServe RLE file format ⟨https://web.archive.org/web/20140721001738/staticweb.rasip.fer.hr/research/compress/algorithms\_run-length\_coding.htm⟩

## HISTORY

**pbmtocis** was new in Netpbm 10.48 (September 2009).

## AUTHOR

Copyright (C) 2009 John Elliot \<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/pbmtocis.html**