brushtopbm

Generate a PBM file as output for a Xerox doodle brush file as input

$ brushtopbm [path/to/file.brush]

$ brushtopbm [[-v|-version]]

brushtopbm [brush_file]

brush_file
    Specifies the path to the Brother graphics file to be converted. If this argument is omitted, brushtopbm reads the input from standard input (stdin).

brushtopbm is a specialized command-line utility from the Netpbm image manipulation toolkit. Its primary function is to convert a "brush" graphics file, typically generated by Brother P-Touch label printers, into a portable bitmap (PBM) image. The PBM format is a simple, plain-text or raw-binary format representing a monochrome (black and white) image.

This command is useful for users who need to extract or manipulate images from Brother P-Touch files outside of the printer's proprietary software environment. It reads the input brush file and outputs the corresponding PBM image to standard output, allowing for piping with other Netpbm tools or redirection to a file. The PBM output can then be further processed by other Netpbm utilities (e.g., pbmtopng, pbmtext) to convert it to different formats, add text, or perform other manipulations.

Input file must be in the specific proprietary Brother "brush" graphics format. Incorrect input formats will result in errors or garbled output.
The output is always a monochrome Portable Bitmap (PBM). There is no support for color or grayscale conversion.
Primarily used within the Netpbm suite; its standalone utility is limited unless integrated into a larger script or workflow.

By default, brushtopbm reads the Brother brush file from standard input if no brush_file is specified on the command line. It always writes the resulting PBM image to standard output. This behavior allows for seamless integration into shell pipelines, enabling complex image processing workflows by chaining brushtopbm with other Netpbm utilities or general Unix tools. For example, cat mylabel.brush | brushtopbm > mylabel.pbm or brushtopbm mylabel.brush | pbmtopng > mylabel.png.

brushtopbm is part of the long-standing Netpbm project, which began as PBMplus in the late 1980s. PBMplus was created by Jef Poskanzer, and Netpbm continued its development, becoming a comprehensive toolkit for manipulating graphic images. brushtopbm was added to the suite to support the conversion of proprietary Brother P-Touch label printer graphics files, reflecting Netpbm's goal of providing tools for a wide array of image formats, including niche ones. Its development is tied to the evolution of Netpbm, which maintains backwards compatibility and a consistent command-line interface.

pbm(5), netpbm(1), anytopnm(1), pbmtopng(1)