giftopnm

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 20 May 2000
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

giftopnm - convert a GIF file into a portable anymap  

SYNOPSIS

giftopnm [-verbose] [-comments] [-image N] [GIFfile]  

DESCRIPTION

Reads a GIF file for input, and outputs portable anymap.  

OPTIONS

-verbose
Produce verbose output about the GIF file input.
-comments
Only output GIF89 comment fields.
-image
Output the specified gif image from the input GIF archive (where N is '1', '2', '20'...). Normally there is only one image per file, so this option is not needed.

All flags can be abbreviated to their shortest unique prefix.  

BUGS

This does not correctly handle the Plain Text Extension of the GIF89 standard, since I did not have any example input files containing them.  

SEE ALSO

ppmtogif(1), ppm(5).  

AUTHOR

Copyright (c) 1993 by David Koblas (koblas@netcom.com)

 

LICENSE

If you use ppmtogif, you are using a patent on the LZW compression method which is owned by Unisys, and in all probability you do not have a license from Unisys to do so. Unisys typically asks $5000 for a license for trivial use of the patent. Unisys has never enforced the patent against trivial users. The patent expires in 2003.

Rumor has it that IBM also owns a patent covering ppmtogif.

A replacement for the GIF format that does not require any patents to use is the PNG format.

 

LICENSE

If you use giftoppm, you are using a patent on the LZW compression method which is owned by Unisys, and in all probability you do not have a license from Unisys to do so. Unisys typically asks $5000 for a license for trivial use of the patent. Unisys has never enforced the patent against trivial users. The patent expires in 2003.

Rumor has it that IBM also owns a patent covering giftoppm.

A replacement for the GIF format that does not require any patents to use is the PNG format.


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
BUGS
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
LICENSE
LICENSE

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Time: 19:27:19 GMT, January 23, 2025