NAME

       pamtotga - convert a Netpbm image to a TrueVision Targa file

SYNOPSIS

       pamtotga [-mono|-cmap|-cmap16|-rgb] [-norle] [-name=name [-verhose] [pamfile]

       All  options  can be abbreviated to their shortest unique prefix.  You may use two hyphens instead of one
       to designate an option.  You may use either white space or equals signs between an option  name  and  its
       value.

DESCRIPTION

       This program is part of Netpbm(1).

       pamtotga  reads  a  PBM,  PGM, PPM, or PAM image as input and produces a TrueVision Targa file as output.
       The PAM image may be either a BLACKANDWHITE, GRAYSCALE, RGB, or RGB_ALPHA image.

       To create a TGA image with transparency (i.e. with a transparency mask), use RGB_ALPHA PAM  input.   Some
       Netpbm  programs  that generate images with transparency masks generate them in that format.  For another
       way to create the proper input stream, see pamstack(1).

       It is unclear that anything except pamtotga knows about TGAs with transparency.  The history behind  this
       feature of pamtotga is not clear.  The format pamtotga produces is simply the same as an ordinary RGB TGA
       image except with a 4th plane added for transparency.  The PixelSize field of the TGA header specifies 32
       bits  instead  of 24 and the raster has an extra byte added to each pixel, at the tail end.  The value of
       that byte has the same meaning as in a PAM image with maxval 255.

OPTIONS

       In addition to the options common to all programs based on libnetpbm (most notably  -quiet,  see   Common
       Options ), pamtotga recognizes the following command line options:

       -cmap  Make output Targa file use a color map (palette) to make the output smaller.

              Each  color  in the color map is 3 bytes, 8 bits each of red, green, and blue, unless the input is
              black and white or grayscale, in which case each color in the palette is represented by one byte.

              Input must contain no more than 256 distinct colors and must not contain transparency information.

              (The transparency limitation is not a limitation of the format, but of pamtotga.   Implementing  a
              color map that contains transparency information is harder to implement).

       -cmap16
              Same  as  -cmap,  except  a color map entry for full color input is 5 bits each of red, green, and
              blue, stored as two bytes (16 bits).

              Restrictions are the same as for -cmap.

              This option was new in Netpbm 10.85 (December 2018).

       -mono  Make output Targa file of type 8 bit monochrome.   Input  must  be  PBM  or  PGM  or  a  PAM  with
              BLACKANDWHITE or GRAYSCALE tuple type.  See -cmap.

              You  may specify at most one of -mono, -cmap, and -rgb.  If you specify neither, the default image
              type is the most highly constrained compatible type is used, where monochrome is more  constrained
              than colormapped which is in turn more constrained than unmapped.

       -rgb   Make output Targa file of type 24 bit unmapped color.  See -cmap.

       -norle Do  not  use  run-length encoding in the output Targa file.  Run-length encoded files are smaller,
              but Some Targa readers can't read run-length encoded files.

       -name=name
              This is the value for the image ID stated  in  the  header  of  the  TGA  output  file.   pamtotga
              truncates it as necessary to meet TGA standards.

              By default, pamtotga uses the input file name argument, up to the first period (or the whole thing
              if  there  is no period).  It truncates it as necessary to meet TGA standards.  If you specify (or
              default to) Standard Input, pamtotga omits the image ID from the TGA header.

       -verbose
              This causes pamtotga to issues messages about the conversion process.

SEE ALSO

       tgatoppm(1), pnmquant(1), pamstack(1), pam(1) pnm(1)

HISTORY

       This program was called ppmtotga until Netpbm 10.6 (July 2002).  That  was  always  a  misnomer,  though,
       because  a PPM class program would not be able to tell the difference between PGM and PPM input (it would
       all look like PPM), and thus could not choose the output Targa image type based on the type of the input.
       Netpbm 10.6 also added the ability to handle a transparency channel, so it became a PAM class program.

       In Netpbm 10.15 (April 2003), the program  became  the  first  in  the  Netpbm  package  to  recognize  a
       transparency  channel  in  a  PAM.  It recognized tuple type "RGBA".  But when this kind of PAM image was
       later added to the PAM specification, it was specified with tuple type "RGB_ALPHA".  So in  Netpbm  10.26
       (January 2005), pamtotga changed to recognize "RGB_ALPHA" instead of "RGBA".

AUTHOR

       Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 by Mark Shand and Jef Poskanzer.

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/pamtotga.html

netpbm documentation                            06 November 2018                         Pamtotga User Manual(1)