JPEGTOPNM
Updated: 13 October 2002
Table Of Contents
NAME
jpegtopnm - convert JPEG/JFIF file to PPM or PGM image
SYNOPSIS
jpegtopnm [-dct {int|fast|float}] [-nosmooth]
[-maxmemory N]
[{-adobe|-notadobe}] [-comments] [-dumpexif] [-exif=filespec]
[-multiple]
[-verbose] [-tracelevel N] [filename]
Minimum unique abbreviation of option is acceptable. You may
use double
hypens instead of single hyphen to denote options. You may use
white space
in place of the equals sign to separate an option name from
its value.
DESCRIPTION
This program is part of Netpbm.
jpegtopnm converts JFIF images to PPM or PGM images.
By default, jpegtopnm expects the input stream to contain one
JFIF image and
produces one PGM or PPM image as output. It fails if the input
stream is
empty.
But with the -multiple option, jpegtopnm reads JFIF images se-
quentially from
the input stream and writes one PPM or PGM image to the output
stream for
each JFIF input. If the input stream is empty, so is the out-
put.
The input stream is the filename you specify or, if you don't
specify
filename, Standard Input. The output stream is Standard Out-
put.
If a JFIF input image is of the grayscale variety, jpegtopnm
generates a PGM
image. Otherwise, it generates a PPM image.
Before Netpbm 10.11 (October 2002), jpegtopnm did not have the
multiple
image stream capability. From 10.11 through 10.22, Netpbm al-
ways behaved as
if you specified -multiple. Starting with Netpbm 10.23 (July
2004), Netpbm's
default behavior went back to the pre-10.11 behavior and the
new -multiple
option selected the 10.12 behavior. The reason for the rever-
sion was that
there were discovered in the world files that contain JFIF im-
ages followed
by something other than another JFIF image. The producers of
these files
expect them to work with any JFIF interpreter because most
JFIF interpreters
just stop reading the file after the first JFIF image.
jpegtopnm uses the Independent JPEG Group's JPEG library to
interpret the
input file. See http://www.ijg.org for information on the li-
brary.
"JFIF" is the correct name for the image format commonly known
as "JPEG."
Strictly speaking, JPEG is a method of compression. The image
format using
JPEG compression that is by far the most common is JFIF. There
is also a
subformat of TIFF that uses JPEG compression.
EXIF is an image format that is a subformat of JFIF (to wit, a
JFIF file
that contains an EXIF header as an APP1 marker). jpegtopnm
handles EXIF.
JFIF files can have either 8 bits per sample or 12 bits per
sample. The 8
bit variety is by far the most common. There are two versions
of the IJG
JPEG library. One reads only 8 bit files and the other reads
only 12 bit
files. You must link the appropriate one of these libraries
with jpegtopnm.
Ordinarily, this means the library is in your shared library
search path
when you run jpegtopnm.
jpegtopnm generates output with either one byte or two bytes
per sample
depending on whether the JFIF input has either 8 bits or 12
bits per sample.
You can use pnmdepth to reduce a two-byte-per-sample
file to a
one-byte-per-sample file if you need to.
If the JFIF file uses the CMYK or YCCK color space, the input
does not
actually contain enough information to know what color each
pixel is. To
know what color a pixel is, one would have to know the proper-
ties of the
inks to which the color space refers. jpegtopnm interprets the
colors using
the common transformation which assumes all the inks are sim-
ply subtractive
and linear.
OPTIONS
The options are only for advanced users:
-dct int
Use integer DCT method (default).
-dct fast
Use fast integer DCT (less accurate).
-dct float
Use floating-point DCT method. The float method is very
slightly more
accurate than the int method, but is much slower unless
your machine
has very fast floating-point hardware. Also note that
results of the
floating-point method may vary slightly across ma-
chines, while the
integer methods should give the same results every-
where. The fast
integer method is much less accurate than the other
two.
-nosmooth
Use a faster, lower-quality upsampling routine.
-maxmemory N
Set limit on the amount of memory jpegtopnm uses in
processing large
images. Value is in thousands of bytes, or millions of
bytes if "M"
is suffixed to the number. For example, -maxmemory 4m
selects 4000000
bytes. If jpegtopnm needs more space, it uses temporary
files.
-adobe
-notadobe
There are two variations on the CMYK (and likewise YC-
CK) color space
that may be used in the JFIF input. In the normal one,
a zero value
for a color components indicates absence of ink. In the
other, a zero
value means the maximum ink coverage. The latter is
used by Adobe
Photoshop when it creates a bare JFIF output file (but
not when it
creates JFIF output as part of Encapsulated Postscript
output).
These options tell jpegtopnm which version of the CMYK
or YCCK color
space the image uses. If you specify neither, jpegtopnm
tries to
figure it out on its own. In the present version, it
doesn't try very
hard at all: It just assumes the Photoshop version,
since Photoshop
and its emulators seem to be the main source of CMYK
and YCCK images.
But with experience of use, future versions might
be more
sophisticated.
If the JFIF image does not indicate that it is CMYK or
YCCK, these
options have no effect.
If you don't use the right one of these options, the
symptom is
output that looks like a negative.
-dumpexif
Print the interpreted contents of any Exif header in
the input file
to the Standard Error file. Similar to the program
jhead (not part of
the Netpbm package).
This option was added in Netpbm 9.19 (September 2001).
-exif=filespec
Extract the contents of the EXIF header from the input
image and
write it to the file filespec. filespec=- means write
it to Standard
Output. When you write the EXIF header to Standard Out-
put, jpegtopnm
does not output the converted image (which is what nor-
mally would go
to Standard Output) at all.
jpegtopnm writes the contents of the EXIF header byte-
for-byte,
starting with the two byte length field (which length
includes those
two bytes).
You can use this file as input to pnmtojpeg to insert
an identical
EXIF header into a new JFIF image.
If there is no EXIF header, jpegtopnm writes two bytes
of binary zero
and nothing else.
An EXIF header takes the form of a JFIF APP1 marker.
Only the first
such marker within the JFIF header counts.
This option was added in Netpbm 9.19 (September 2001).
-multiple
Read multiple JFIF images sequentially from the input
stream. See
Description section for details.
This option was new in Netpbm 10.23 (July 2004).
-comments
Print any comments in the input file to the Standard
Error file.
-verbose
Print details about the conversion to the Standard Er-
ror file.
-tracelevel n
Turn on the JPEG library's trace messages to the Stan-
dard Error file.
A higher value of n gets more trace information. -ver-
bose implies a
trace level of at least 1.
EXAMPLES
This example converts the color JFIF file foo.jpg to a PPM
file named
foo.ppm:
jpegtopnm foo.jpg >foo.ppm
HINTS
You can use pnmquant to color quantize the result, i.e. to re-
duce the number
of distinct colors in the image. In fact, you may have to if
you want to
convert the PPM file to certain other formats. ppmdither
Does a more
sophisticated quantization.
Use pamscale to change the dimensions of the resulting image.
Use ppmtopgm to convert a color JFIF file to a grayscale PGM
file.
You can easily use these converters together. E.g.:
jpegtopnm foo.jpg | ppmtopgm | pamscale .25 >foo.pgm
-dct fast and/or -nosmooth gain speed at a small sacrifice in
quality.
If you are fortunate enough to have very fast floating point
hardware, -dct
float may be even faster than -dct fast. But on most machines
-dct float is
slower than -dct int; in this case it is not worth using, be-
cause its
theoretical accuracy advantage is too small to be significant
in practice.
Another program, djpeg, is similar. djpeg is maintained by the
Independent
JPEG Group and packaged with the JPEG library which jpegtopnm
uses for all
its JPEG work. Because of that, you may expect it to exploit
more current
JPEG features. Also, since you have to have the library to run
jpegtopnm,
but not vice versa, cjpeg may be more commonly available.
On the other hand, djpeg does not use the NetPBM libraries to
generate its
output, as all the NetPBM tools such as jpegtopnm do. This
means it is less
likely to be consistent with all the other programs that deal
with the
NetPBM formats. Also, the command syntax of jpegtopnm is con-
sistent with
that of the other Netpbm tools, unlike djpeg.
ENVIRONMENT
JPEGMEM
If this environment variable is set, its value is the
default memory
limit. The value is specified as described for the
-maxmemory option.
An explicit -maxmemory option overrides any JPEGMEM.
SEE ALSO
ppm, pgm, pnmtojpeg, pnmquant, pamscale, ppmtopgm, ppmdither,
pnmdepth,
djpeg man page, cjpeg man page, jpegtran man page, rdjpgcom
man page,
wrjpgcom man page, jhead man page
Wallace, Gregory K. "The JPEG Still Picture Compression
Standard",
Communications of the ACM, April 1991 (vol. 34, no. 4), pp.
30-44.
LIMITATIONS
Arithmetic coding is not offered for legal reasons. The pro-
gram could be
much faster.
AUTHOR
jpegtopnm and this manual were derived in large part from
djpeg, by the
Independent JPEG Group. The program is otherwise by Bryan Hen-
derson on March
19, 2000.
_________________________________________________________________
Table Of Contents
* NAME
* SYNOPSIS
* DESCRIPTION
* OPTIONS
* EXAMPLES
* HINTS
* ENVIRONMENT
* SEE ALSO
* LIMITATIONS
* AUTHOR
UNIX/Linux commands referenced on this page:
- convert
- file
- as
- link
- pnmdepth
- which
- less
- more
- write
- at
- pnmtojpeg
- pnmquant
- pamscale
- ppmtopgm
- djpeg
- cjpeg
- man
- jpegtran
- wrjpgcom