INLINE to PBM Converter
FileFlip converts INLINE to PBM entirely inside your browser, using 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 an INLINE file to PBM?#
- Drop your INLINE 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 14.1 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs 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 INLINE to PBM lose quality?#
It depends on what is inside the file. INLINE is a container rather than a codec, so whether the PBM conversion copies the streams across untouched or re-encodes them is decided by the codecs that particular file happens to use.
Is it safe to convert INLINE files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts INLINE 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 INLINE to PBM actually does to the file#
Converting INLINE to PBM runs on ImageMagick, downloads 14.1 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, re-encodes or copies through depending on the codecs in the file.
| Engine | ImageMagick |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | One step: INLINE → PBM |
| Downloaded to your browser | 14.1 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Decided by the codecs inside the file |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
Worth knowing before you start:
- the target stores one bit per pixel, so the image is reduced to black and white
What is an INLINE file?#
An INLINE reference is not a file at all but ImageMagick's own syntax, inline:, for handing it an image that already exists as base64 text, such as a data: URI copied out of an HTML page or an API response.
Use the inline: syntax when an image already exists as base64 text, such as a data: URI pulled from HTML or JSON, and it needs to be read without writing a temporary file first.
There is nothing to convert away from: inline: is a way of pointing ImageMagick at an image, not a format a finished file is ever saved in.
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.
INLINE to PBM questions people ask#
What is an INLINE file?
INLINE isn't a file format, it's ImageMagick's inline: syntax for reading an image supplied as base64 text, most often a data: URI. The base64 data can come from a text file or be typed directly after inline: on the command line.
Can I save or write a file as INLINE?
No. The inline: mechanism in ImageMagick only reads base64-encoded images; there is no corresponding way to write one back out, so a converter that reads INLINE decodes the base64 into whichever image format was actually encoded inside it.
Why does my base64 image fail when pasted as inline:?
Typing a base64 string directly after inline: on a command line is limited to 5000 characters in ImageMagick, so a photo-sized data URI will fail there even though it works from a text file. The comma after the MIME type is also required to mark where the base64 data starts, even though ImageMagick otherwise ignores the MIME type itself.
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.