PPM File

What are PPM files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a PPM file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your PPM files.

What is a PPM file?

PPM files have multiple uses, and Portable PixMap Image is one of them. Read more about the other uses further down the page.

Portable PixMap Image

PPM is short for Portable PixMap and is a file format referred to as the lowest common denominator color image file format.

The Portable Pixmap (.ppm) format is easy to process, write and analyze. These files are considered efficient as an intermediary format when moving image data between incompatible systems.

The format is text-based, which is very uncommon for an image file format and also very inefficient concerning image size. Therefore, this is not an image format you will typically come across.

How to open PPM files

We have identified three PPM openers that are compatible with this specific type of PPM file.

Programs that open Portable PixMap Image files

Last updated: January 22, 2025

All known file formats using extension .PPM

While Portable PixMap Image is a popular type of PPM-file, we know of 2 different uses of the .PPM file extension. Different software may use files with the same extension for different types of data.

Nintendo DSi Flipnote Studio Animation

We know that one PPM format is Nintendo DSi Flipnote Studio Animation. We have not yet analyzed in detail what these files contain and what they are used for. We're working on it.

While we have not verified the apps ourselves yet, our users have suggested ten different PPM openers which you will find listed below.

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of PPM files. Remember, different programs may use PPM files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

Help us help others

File.org helps thousands of users every day, and we would love to hear from you if you have additional information about PPM file formats, example files, or compatible programs. Please use the links below or email us at submit@file.org to discuss further.