Image::PBMlib Perl module contains helper functions for PBM/PGM/PPM image file formats.

SYNOPSIS

use Image::PBMlib;

... open(PPM, "< image.ppm")...

my $ref = readppmheader(*PPM);

my @pixels = readpixels_raw(*PPM, $$ref{type},
($$ref{width} * $$ref{height}) );

my @pixels = readpixels_dec(*PPM, $$ref{type},
($$ref{width} * $$ref{height}) );

my @rgb = hextriplettoraw("F00BA4");

my @rgb = dectriplettoraw("17:34:51");

my $header = makeppmheader($ref);

This is primarily a library for reading portable bitmap (PBM), portable graymap (PGM), and portable pixmap (PPM) files. These image formats are only the barest step up from raw data, and have a very simple format which is the key to be "portable". Writing out images in these formats is very easy.

Reading images in these formats is also easy, but not quite "very easy". Proper reading of the file needs to happen one byte at a time, since there is no fixed header length. Headers can also contain comments, which must be ignored. Then, once past the header, there are a total of six different ways that the data might need to be read: a raw and an ascii encoding of each image color level.