Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!news.uu.net!mcsun!hp4nl!dnlunx!stan
From: stan@dnlunx.pttrnl.nl (Stan van de Burgt)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: bitmaps (converting one format into the other)
Message-ID: <9751@dnlunx.pttrnl.nl>
Date: 22 May 91 14:27:31 GMT
References: <1509@irit.irit.fr>
Organization: PTT Research Neher Laboratorium
Lines: 87

pfeiffer@deva.irit.fr (Daniel Pfeiffer) writes:

>All those different bitmap formats!!!
>xwd creates one format, bitmap another, then there are TIFF files,
>Macpaint files and who knows what else...

>Are there any utilities to convert one format to another, especially
>xwd and Macpaint to TIFF?  Please don't send any pointers to ftp
>sites, I can't access them.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked a similar question. From the replies I
got, I think the "xbitmap" utility seems to convert from X bitmaps (not xwd!)
to PICT. A far better solution is the Extended Portable Bitmap Toolkit
package which converts to and from various bitmap formats. Below I included 
some pieces of the documentation.

I'd like to thank the following people for their replies:

Eric Nieuwland  nieuwlan@serc.nl
Tasuki Hirata   sukes@eng.umd.edu
                davide@dcs.qmw.ac.UK
Wayne           folta@cs.umd.edu

---------------------------------------------------------------

                  Extended Portable Bitmap Toolkit
                      Distribution of 22nov89
                   Previous distribution 13sep89


(The Package consists of a) number of programs for converting various
image formats to and from portable formats; plus some tools for
manipulating the portable formats.  The package is broken up into four
parts (five parts if you count this one, the zeroth part).  First is PBM,
for bitmaps (1 bit per pixel).  Then there is PGM, for grayscale images. 
Next is PPM, for full-color images.  Last, there is PNM, which does
content-independent manipulations on any of the three formats.

PBM handles the following formats:

    Sun icon file				reading	writing
    Sun raster file				reading	writing
    X10 and X11 bitmap file			reading	writing
    MacPaint					reading	writing
    CMU window manager format			reading	writing
    MGR format					reading	writing
    Group 3 FAX					reading	writing
    X11 window dump file			reading	writing
    X10 window dump file			reading
    Xerox doodle brushes			reading
    GEM .img format				reading
    PC paintbrush (.pcx) format			reading
    PICT					reading
    ASCII graphics					writing
    HP LaserJet format					writing
    GraphOn graphics					writing
    BBN BitGraph graphics				writing
    Printronix format					writing

PGM handles the following formats:

    TIFF					reading
    Usenix FaceSaver file			reading
    HIPS					reading
    FITS					reading	writing
    PostScript "image" data			reading
    raw grayscale bytes				reading
    Encapsulated PostScript				writing

PPM handles the following formats:

    color Sun raster file			reading	writing
    GIF						reading	writing
    Amiga IFF ILBM				reading	writing
    color X11 window dump file			reading	writing
    color X10 window dump file			reading
    MTV ray-tracer output			reading
    QRT ray-tracer output			reading
    TrueVision Targa file			reading
    Img-whatnot file				reading
    color Encapsulated PostScript			writing


-- 
   S.P. van de Burgt                       PTT Research, Neher Labs
                                           PO Box 421, Leidschendam
   E-mail: SP_vdBurgt@pttrnl.nl            the Netherlands