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

# pcxtoppm(1)

convert a PCX file into a PPM image

## NAME

pcxtoppm - convert a PCX file into a PPM image

## SYNOPSIS

**pcxtoppm** \[**-stdpalette**\] \[**-verbose**\] \[*pcxfile*\]

## DESCRIPTION

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

**pcxtoppm** reads a PCX file as input and produces a PPM image as output.

**pcxtoppm** recognizes the following PCX types:

- •

  Colormapped files with 2-16 colors.

  "Packed pixel" format (1, 2 or 4 bits/pixel, 1 plane) or bitplane format (1 bit/pixel, 1-4 planes).  The program uses a predefined standard palette if the image does not provide one. "Does not provide one" means the palette in the PCX header is completely black.

- •

  Colormapped files with 256 colors.

  8 bits/pixel, 1 plane, colormap at the end of the file.

- •

  24bit truecolor files.

  24bit RGB: 8 bits/pixel, 3 planes.

- •

  32bit truecolor files.

  24bit RGB + 8bit intensity: 8 bits/pixel, 4 planes.

## OPTIONS

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

- **-stdpalette**

  This option causes **pcxtoppm** to use its predefined standard  palette even if the PCX image provides its own.  This is meaningful only for an image in the 16 color paletted PCX format.

  The image may appear to provide its own palette but in fact be created by a program too primitive to understand palettes that created a random palette by accident.

- **-verbose**

  Report details of the PCX header.

## SEE ALSO

[**ppmtopcx**(1)](/ppmtopcx/1.md) , **ppm**(1)

## AUTHORS

Copyright 1990 by Michael Davidson.

Modified 1994 by Ingo Wilken (*Ingo.Wilken@informatik.uni-oldenburg.de*)

## 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/pcxtoppm.html**