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

# pnmtofiasco(1)

Convert PNM file to FIASCO compressed file

## NAME

pnmtofiasco - Convert PNM file to FIASCO compressed file

## SYNOPSIS

**pnmtofiasco** \[*option*\]... \[*filename*\]...

## DESCRIPTION

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

**pnmtofiasco** compresses the named pbm, pgm, or ppm image files, or Standard Input if no file is named, and produces a FIASCO file 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⟩ ), **pnmtofiasco** recognizes the following command line options:

All option names may be abbreviated; for example, --optimize may be written --optim or --opt. For most options a one letter short option is provided.  Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are mandatory or optional for short options, too.  Both short and long options are case sensitive.

### Basic Options

- **--image-name=***name*, **-i** *name*

  Compress the named images, not Standard Input.  If *name* is **-**, read Standard Input.  *name* has to be either an image filename or a template of the form:

  ```
  prefix[start-end{+,-}step]suffix
  ```

  Templates are useful when compressing video streams: e.g., if you specify the template **img0\[12-01-2\].pgm**, then **pnmtofiasco** compresses the images img012.pgm, img010.pgm, ..., img002.pgm.

  If *name* is a relative path, **pnmtofiasco**  searches for the image files in the current directory and in the (colon-separated) list of directories given by the environment variable **FIASCO\_IMAGES**.

- **--output-name=***name*, **-o** *output-file*

  Write FIASCO output to the named file, not to Standard Output.

  If *name* is a relative path and the environment variable **FIASCO\_DATA** is a (colon-separated) list of directories, then **pnmtofiasco** writes the output file to the first (writable) directory of this list. Otherwise, **pnmtofiasco** write it to the current directory.

- **--quality=***N*, **-q** *N*

  Set quality of compression to *N*.  Quality is 1 (worst) to 100 (best); default is 20.

- **--version**, **-v**

  Print **pnmtofiasco** version number, then exit.

- **--verbose** *N*, **-V** *N*

  Set level of verbosity to *N*.  Level is 0 (no output at all), 1 (show progress meter), or 2 (show detailed compression statistics); default is 1.

- **--progress-meter** *N*, **-B** *N*

  Set type of progress-meter to *N*.  The following types are available; default is 1:

- **0**

  no progress meter

- **1**

  RPM style progress bar using 50 hash marks

- **2**

  percentage meter

- **--config=***name*, **-f** *name*

  Load parameter file *name*  to initialize the options of **pnmtofiasco**.  See file **system.fiascorc** for an example of the syntax. Options of **pnmtofiasco** are set by any of the following methods (in the specified order):

- •

  Global resource file **/etc/system.fiascorc**

- •

  $HOME/.fiascorc

- •

  command line

- •

  \--config=*name*

- **--info**, **-h**

  Print brief help, then exit.

- **--help**, **-H**

  Print detailed help, then exit.

### Options for Advanced Users

- **--basis-name=***name*, **-b** *name*

  Preload compression basis *name* into FIASCO.  The basis *name* provides the initial compression dictionary.  Either use one of the files "small.fco", "medium.fco", or "large.fco" that come with **pnmtofiasco**  or create a new ASCII basis file.

- **--optimize=***N*, **-z** *N*

  Set optimization level to *N*.  Level is 0 (fastest) to 3 (slowest).

  Be warned: The encoding time dramatically increases when *N*=**2** or *N*=**3** while the compression performance improves only slightly.

  The default is 0.

- **--prediction**, **-P**

  Use additional predictive coding.  If this optimization is enabled then the image is compressed in two steps.  In the first step, a coarse approximation of the image is computed using large unichrome blocks.  Finally, the delta image is computed and the prediction error is approximated using the standard FIASCO algorithm.

- **--dictionary-size=***N*, **-D** *N*

  Set size of dictionary that is used when coding the luminance band to *N*; default is 10000, i.e., the dictionary is not restricted.

- **--chroma-dictionary=***N*, **-C** *N*

  Set size of dictionary that is used when coding chroma bands to *N*; default is 40.

- **--chroma-qfactor=***N*, **-Q** *N*

  Reduce the quality of chroma band compression *N*-times with respect to the user defined quality *q* of the luminance band compression (**--quality**=*q*); default is 2.

- **--tiling-exponent=***N*, **-t** *N*

  Subdivide the image into 2^*N* tiles prior coding; default is 4, i.e. the image is subdivided into 16 tiles. The processing order of the individual tiles is defined by the option

- **--tiling-method=***name*, **-T** *name*

  Order the individual image tiles (the image is subdivided into; see option **--tiling-exponent=***N*) by method *name*; default is **desc-variance**.

- **desc-variance**

  Tiles with small variances are processed first.

- **asc-variance**

  Tiles with large variances are processed first.

- **desc-spiral**

  Tiles are process in spiral order starting in the middle.

- **asc-spiral**

  Tiles are process in spiral order starting at the border.

- **--rpf-mantissa=***N*

  Use *N* mantissa bits for quantized coefficients.

- **--dc-rpf-mantissa=***N*

  Use *N* mantissa bits for quantized DC coefficients.

- **--rpf-range=***N*

  Coefficients outside the quantization interval \[-*N*,+*N*\] are set to zero.

- **--dc-rpf-range=***N*

  DC coefficients outside the quantization interval \[-*N*,+*N*\] are set to zero.

### Additional Options for Video Compression

- **--smooth=***N*, **-s** *N*

  Smooth decompressed reference frames along the partitioning borders by the given amount *N*.  *N* is 0 (no smoothing) to 100; default is 70.  This factor is stored in the FIASCO file.

- **--min-level=***N*, **-m** *N*

  Start prediction (motion compensated prediction or additional prediction) on block level *N*; default is level 6.  I.e., motion compensation is applied to all image blocks of at least 8x8 pixels (binary tree level *N*=6), 16x8 (*N*=7), 16x16 (*N*=8), etc.

- **--max-level=***N*, **-M** *N*

  Stop prediction (motion compensated prediction or additional prediction) on block level *N*; default is level 10.  I.e., motion compensation is applied to all image blocks of at most 16x16 pixels (*N*=8), 32x16 (*N*=9), 32x32 (*N*=10), etc.

- **--half-pixel**, **-2**

  Use half pixel precise motion compensation.

- **--fps=***N*, **-F** *N*

  Set number of frames per second to *N*.  This value is stored in the FIASCO output file and is used in the decoder [**fiascotopnm**(1)](/fiascotopnm/1.md)  to control the framerate.

- **--pattern=***type*, **-p** *type*

  Defines the type of inter frame compression which should be applied to individual frames of a video stream.  *type* is a sequence of characters; default is "IPPPPPPPPP".  Element **N** defines the type of predicting which should be used for frame **N**; the frame type pattern is periodically extended.  Valid characters are:

- **I**

  intra frame, i.e., no motion compensated prediction is used at all.

- **P**

  predicted frame, i.e., a previously encoded frame is used for prediction (forward prediction).

- **B**

  bidirectional predicted frame, i.e., not only a previously shown frame but also a frame of the future is used for prediction (forward, backward or interpolated prediction).

- **--cross-B-search**

  Instead of using exhaustive search the "Cross-B-Search" algorithm is used to find the best interpolated prediction of B-frames.

- **--B-as-past-ref**

  Also use previously encoded B-frames when prediction the current frame. If this option is not set, only I- and P-frames are used to predict the current frame.

## EXAMPLES

Compress the still image "foo.ppm" to the FIASCO file "foo.wfa" using the default options:

```
        pnmtofiasco < foo.ppm >foo.wfa
```

Compress the video frames "foo0\*.ppm" to the FIASCO file "video.wfa" using half pixel precise motion compensation at a frame rate of 15 frames per second.  Intra frame 1 is used to predict P-frame 4, frames 1 and 4 are used to predict B-frames 2 and 3, and so on.  Frame 10 is again an intra-frame.

```
        pnmtofiasco -2 -p "IBBPBBPBB" -fps 15 -o video.wfa foo0*.ppm
```

## FILES

- **/etc/system.fiascorc**

  The systemwide initialization file.

- $HOME**/.fiascorc**

  The personal initialization file.

## ENVIRONMENT

- **FIASCO\_IMAGES**

  Search path for image files.  Default is "./".

- **FIASCO\_DATA**

  Search and save path for FIASCO files.  Default is "./".

## SEE ALSO

[**fiascotopnm**(1)](/fiascotopnm/1.md) , [**pnmtojpeg**(1)](/pnmtojpeg/1.md) , [**pnmtojbig**(1)](/pnmtojbig/1.md) , [**pamtogif**(1)](/pamtogif/1.md) , **pnm**(1)

Ullrich Hafner, Juergen Albert, Stefan Frank, and Michael Unger. **Weighted Finite Automata for Video Compression**, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas In Communications, January 1998

Ullrich Hafner. **Low Bit-Rate Image and Video Coding with** **Weighted Finite Automata**, Ph.D. thesis, Mensch & Buch Verlag, ISBN 3-89820-002-7, October 1999.

FIASCO: An Open-Source Fractal Image and Sequence Codec, Linux Journal, January 2001.

## AUTHOR

Ullrich Hafner \<*hafner@bigfoot.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/pnmtofiasco.html**