NAME

       pnmmontage - create a montage of PNM images

SYNOPSIS

       pnmmontage

       [-header=headerfile]

       [-quality=n]

       [-prefix=prefix]

       [-0|-1|-2|...|-9]

       [-data=filename]

       pnmfile...

DESCRIPTION

       This program is part of Netpbm(1).

       pnmmontage packs images of differing sizes into a minimum-area composite image.

       Areas of the output that cannot be occupied by an image are black.

OPTIONS

       In addition to the options common to all programs based on libnetpbm (most notably -quiet,
       see
        Common Options ⟨index.html#commonoptions⟩ ), pnmmontage recognizes the following  command
       line options:

       -data=filename
              This  option  causes  pnmmontage to write a file that describes in machine-readable
              form the positions of the original images within the  packed  image.   Here  is  an
              example:

                          :0:0:227:298
                          ../image1.ppm:0:0:227:149
                          ../image2.ppm:0:149:227:149

              There is a line for each component image and one for the composite.

              The 5 fields on each line are:

       •      source image name (or null string indicating the line for the composite image)

       •      Column number of upper left corner of the image

       •      Row number of upper left corner of the image

       •      width of the image (columns)

       •      height of the image (rows)

              This option was new in Netpbm 10.6 (July 2002).

       -header=filename
              Tells  pnmmontage  to write a C header file of the locations of the original images
              within the packed image.  Each original image generates four  #defines  within  the
              packed  file:  xxxX,  xxxY,  xxxSZX, and xxxSZY, where xxx is the name of the file,
              converted to all  uppercase.   The  output  also  includes  #defines  OVERALLX  and
              OVERALLY, which specifies the total size of the montage image.

              Here is an example:

                          #define OVERALLX 227
                          #define OVERALLY 298

                          #define X 0
                          #define Y 0
                          #define SZX 227
                          #define SZY 149

                          #define X 0
                          #define Y 149
                          #define SZX 227
                          #define SZY 149

       -prefix
              Tells pnmmontage to use the specified prefix on all of the #defines it generates.

       -quality
              Before  attempting  to  place  the  subimages,  pnmmontage will calculate a minimum
              possible area for the montage; this is either the total of the  areas  of  all  the
              subimages,  or  the  width  of  the widest subimage times the height of the tallest
              subimage, whichever is greater.  pnmmontage then initiates a  problem-space  search
              to  find the best packing; if it finds a solution that is (at least) as good as the
              minimum area times the quality as a percent, it  will  break  out  of  the  search.
              Thus,  -quality=100  will  find  the best possible solution; however, it may take a
              very long time to do so.  The default is -quality=200.

       -0, -1, ... -9
              These options control the quality at a higher level than -quality; -0 is the  worst
              quality  (pick  the first solution found), while -9 is the best quality (perform an
              exhaustive search of problem space for the absolute best packing).  The higher  the
              number, the slower the computation.  The default is -5.

NOTES

       Using -9 is very slow on all but the smallest image sets.

       The  minimum area arrangement is often not a convenient shape.  For example, it might be a
       tall, thin column of images, when you'd rather have something more  square.   To  force  a
       minimum  width  or height, you can include a strut image - a black image that wide and one
       pixel high.  Similarly, you can use a vertical strut to force a minimum height.

SEE ALSO

       pnmcat(1), pnmindex(1), pnm(1), pam(1), pbm(1), pgm(1), ppm(1)

HISTORY

       pnmmontage was new in Netpbm 9.10 (January 2001).

AUTHOR

       Copyright (C) 2000 by Ben Olmstead.

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/pnmmontage.html