asciitopgm(1) - phpMan

asciitopgm(1) General Commands Manual asciitopgm(1)

NAME
asciitopgm - convert ASCII graphics into a portable graymap

SYNOPSIS
asciitopgm [-d divisor] height width [asciifile]

DESCRIPTION
Reads ASCII data as input. Produces a portable graymap with pixel values which are an ap-
proximation of the "brightness" of the ASCII characters, assuming black-on-white printing.
In other words, a capital M is very dark, a period is ver light, and a space is white.
Input lines which are fewer than width characters are automatically padded with spaces.

The divisor argument is a floating-point number by which the output pixels are divided;
the default value is 1.0. This can be used to adjust the brightness of the graymap: for
example, if the image is too dim, reduce the divisor.

In keeping with (I believe) Fortran line-printer conventions, input lines beginning with a
+ (plus) character are assumed to "overstrike" the previous line, allowing a larger range
of gray values.

This tool contradicts the message in the pbmtoascii manual: "Note that there is no asci-
itopbm tool - this transformation is one-way."

BUGS
The table of ASCII-to-grey values is subject to interpretation, and, of course, depends on
the typeface intended for the input.