Creole to PBM Converter
FileFlip converts Creole to PBM entirely inside your browser, using Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert a Creole file to PBM?#
- Drop your Creole file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to PBM and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick on your own machine.
- Save the PBM file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting Creole to PBM lose quality?#
Yes, in the sense that text stops being text. Each Creole page is rendered to pixels and handed to PBM, so the result looks right and can no longer be selected, searched, or reflowed.
Is it safe to convert Creole files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts Creole files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What Creole to PBM actually does to the file#
Converting Creole to PBM runs on Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick, downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, renders each page to pixels, keeps page layout, and drops selectable text and transparency.
| Engine | Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | 3 steps: Creole → HTML → PNG → PBM |
| Downloaded to your browser | 79.9 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Text becomes pixels |
| You get back | One image per page, zipped when the source has several |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Selectable text | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
| Page layout | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| Transparency | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
Worth knowing before you start:
- the target stores one bit per pixel, so the image is reduced to black and white
- pages render at twice their point size in opaque RGB, roughly 144 DPI, with no transparency
- reflowable input is laid out on a fixed 595x842pt page at 11pt before anything else happens
- the file passes through HTML on the way, so anything HTML cannot express does not survive
What is a Creole file?#
A CREOLE file holds Creole markup, a wiki syntax finalized as version 1.0 in 2007 by representatives of major wiki engines meeting at a WikiSym workshop, meant to give MediaWiki, PmWiki, TWiki and others one common syntax that content could move between.
Use Creole for wiki content meant to move between different wiki engines without a full rewrite.
Convert Creole to Markdown when the content is leaving wiki software altogether, since almost nothing outside a wiki engine reads Creole.
What is a PBM file?#
A PBM file stores a strictly black-and-white, one-bit-per-pixel raster image as plain ASCII characters or packed binary bits, in the Netpbm project's Portable Bitmap format.
Use PBM for a strictly black-and-white bitmap, such as a fax page or a stencil mask, that needs to move between tools without any image library.
Convert PBM to PNG once the image needs compression or has to sit alongside greyscale or colour images in the same pipeline.
Creole to PBM questions people ask#
What is Creole markup?
Creole is a wiki markup language finalized in 2007 by developers from several wiki engines who met at a WikiSym workshop the year before, with the explicit goal of giving different wikis one common syntax so content could move between them instead of being rewritten each time.
Which wikis use Creole?
Bitbucket used Creole 1.0 as its default wiki markup, and Moodle still offers it as an option for writing content. Most other wiki engines, including MediaWiki itself, kept their own native syntax rather than switching to Creole.
Why didn't Creole replace every wiki's own syntax?
Creole was designed as a common subset that intentionally left out features like templates, so any wiki with an established base of content in its native syntax had little reason to migrate. Development also froze after the 2007 1.0 release to let existing engines catch up, which limited how far it could evolve to compete with what wikis already had.
What does PBM stand for?
PBM stands for Portable Bitmap, the black-and-white member of the Netpbm family of image formats that Jef Poskanzer created to move images between Unix tools. It is the strictly one-bit sibling of the colour PPM and greyscale PGM formats.