Ppmpat User Manual(1) General Commands Manual Ppmpat User Manual(1)
NAME
ppmpat - make a pretty PPM image
SYNOPSIS
ppmpat [{-gingham2|-g2} | {-gingham3|-g3} | -madras | -tartan | -poles |
-squig | -camo | -anticamo | -argyle1 | -argyle2] [-color colorlist]
[-mesh] [-randomseed integer]
width height
You can abbreviate any option to its shortest unique prefix.
DESCRIPTION
This program is part of Netpbm(1).
ppmpat produces a PPM of the specified width and height, with a pattern
in it.
You could, for example, use it to create wallpaper for a computer
screen.
One use of this program is as an example of the Netpbm library draw-
ing(1) functions, which it uses.
Some of the patterns have large numbers of colors, so if you want a sim-
pler pattern, use pnmquant on the output.
OPTIONS
In addition to the options common to all programs based on libnetpbm
(most notably -quiet, see ]8;;index.html#commonoptions\ Common Options]8;;\ ), ppmpat recognizes the fol-
lowing command line options:
Pattern Specification
Specify the pattern type with these options. One pattern type must be
specified.
-gingham2 -g2
A gingham check pattern. Can be tiled.
If you specify -color, give two colors: background and fore-
ground, in that order.
-gingham3 -g3
A slightly more complicated gingham. Can be tiled.
If you specify -color, give three colors: background and two
foregrounds, in that order.
-madras
A madras plaid. Can be tiled.
If you specify -color, give three colors: background and two
foregrounds, in that order.
-tartan
A tartan plaid. Can be tiled.
If you specify -color, give three colors: background and two
foregrounds, in that order.
-poles Color gradients centered on randomly-placed poles: a Voronoi dia-
gram.
(There are many examples of this pattern in nature. One is the
hide of a giraffe).
If you specify -color, give two or more colors.
-squig Squiggley tubular pattern. Can be tiled.
If you specify -color, give three or more colors. The first is
the background color.
-camo Camouflage pattern.
If you specify -color, give three or more colors. The first is
the background color; the others are colors for the leafy fore-
ground shapes. The foreground shapes will probably occupy nearly
the entire image, so that the background color is barely visible.
-anticamo
Anti-camouflage pattern - like -camo, but ultra-bright colors.
If you specify -color, this is the same as -camo.
-argyle1
A diamond argyle pattern, without a cross through the diamond,
with one diamond. Can be tiled.
If you specify -color, give two colors: background and fore-
ground, in that order.
This option was new in Netpbm 10.78 (March 2017).
-argyle2
A diamond argyle pattern, with a cross through the diamond, with
one diamond. Can be tiled.
If you specify -color, give three colors: background, foreground,
and stripe, in that order.
This option was new in Netpbm 10.78 (March 2017).
Other Options
-color colorlist
This specifies the colors to appear in the pattern.
If you do not specify this option, ppmpat chooses colors at ran-
dom.
Different patterns take different numbers of colors. Some can
involve variable numbers of colors. If you specify a number of
colors incompatible with the pattern you specify, ppmpat fails,
telling you how many colors to specify.
colorlist is a comma-separated list of colors.
Specify each color as described for the ]8;;libnetpbm_image.html#colorname\argument of the pnm_par-
secolor() library routine]8;;\ .
Example: -color red, green, rgbi:1.0/0.5/.25 .
This option was new in Netpbm 10.78 (March 2017).
-mesh This option affects the patterns generated by the -gingham2,
-gingham3, -madras, and -tartan. When this option is not speci-
fied, when two colors intersect, the program mixes them and puts
the average in the rectangular intersection region. with -mesh,
the program fills that region with a checkerboard pattern con-
sisting of the two colors. The resulting image looks like a true
woven fabric, with separate threads for the separate colors.
This option was new in Netpbm 10.97 (December 2021).
-randomseed integer
This is the seed for the random number generator that generates
the pixels.
Use this to ensure you get the same image on separate invoca-
tions.
By default, ppmpat uses a seed derived from the time of day and
process ID, which gives you fairly uncorrelated results in multi-
ple invocations.
This option was new in Netpbm 10.61 (December 2012).
REFERENCES
Some of the patterns are from "Designer's Guide to Color 3" by Jeanne
Allen.
SEE ALSO
pnmtile(1), pnmquant(1), ppmmake(1), ppmrainbow(1), pamgradient(1),
ppm(1)
AUTHOR
Copyright (C) 1989 by 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/ppmpat.html
netpbm documentation 12 November 2023 Ppmpat User Manual(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 04:19:36 CET 2025.