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

# ppmflash(1)

brighten a picture to approach white

## NAME

ppmflash - brighten a picture to approach white

## SYNOPSIS

ppmflash  *flashfactor* \[*ppmfile*\]

## DESCRIPTION

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

**ppmflash** reads a PPM image as input.  It changes the color of each pixel to bring it a specified amount closer to white.  It generates a PPM image of the result.

*flashfactor* is a real number between 0 and 1, inclusive. **ppmflash** increases the intensity of each RGB component by the fraction *flashfactor* of the difference between the current value and full intensity.  So if a pixel contains 60% full red, 10% full green, and no blue and you specify 0.5 (half), **ppmflash** increases the red to 80% (because it was 40% from full intensity, so it adds half of 40% to the original 60%), the green to 55%, and the blue to 50%.

If *flashfactor* is zero, the output is identical to the input. If *flashfactor* is one, the output is all white.

**pambrighten** does a more normal kind of brightening. **pamfunc** does a very simple brightening.  Both **pambrighten** and **pamfunc** can reduce brightness as well.

**pnmgamma** is another way people do a similar brightening, though it isn't really intended for that.

## OPTIONS

There are no command line options defined specifically for **ppmflash**, but it recognizes the options common to all programs based on libnetpbm (See \
  Common Options ⟨index.html#commonoptions⟩ .)

## SEE ALSO

[**pambrighten**(1)](/pambrighten/1.md) [**pamfunc**(1)](/pamfunc/1.md) , [**pnmgamma**(1)](/pnmgamma/1.md) , **ppm**(1) ,

## AUTHOR

Copyright (C) 1993 by Frank Neumann

## 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/ppmflash.html**