FIG to PGM Converter

Online FIG to PGM conversion — fast and simple

Choose Files

Drop files here. 1 GB maximum file size or Sign Up

Smart Processing

Convertio reads FIG format details and generates accurate PGM output — your diagram structure stays intact.

Visual Fidelity

Diagrams, plots, and technical drawings retain their visual structure throughout the conversion process.

Any Modern Browser

Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge — the converter works in all of them. No browser-specific dependencies.

How to convert FIG to PGM

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

Choose pgm or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

Let the file convert and you can download your pgm file right afterwards

About formats

FIG is the native file format of Xfig, a free vector graphics editor for the X Window System, originally written by Supoj Sutanthavibul at the University of Texas at Austin in 1985. The format uses a plain-text structure where each graphic object is described on one or more lines with numeric parameters specifying object type, coordinates, line properties, fill attributes, and depth ordering. FIG supports compound objects (groups), polylines, polygons, splines, arcs, ellipses, text strings, and imported bitmaps, each with configurable colors, line styles, arrow heads, and area fills. Files begin with a header line declaring the format version (currently 3.2), followed by a resolution specification and the object definitions. One advantage is exceptional simplicity — the entirely text-based format is trivially parsed, generated, and manipulated by scripts, making FIG popular as an intermediate format in automated diagram generation pipelines. The rich ecosystem of conversion tools is another strength: fig2dev exports FIG files to dozens of output formats including EPS, PDF, SVG, LaTeX picture environments, PSTricks, and TikZ. This made Xfig and FIG especially popular in academic and scientific communities, where authors generate publication-quality figures that integrate seamlessly with LaTeX documents. While graphical tools have evolved since the 1980s, FIG remains in use among researchers who value its scriptability, LaTeX integration, and well-documented format stability.

Developer: Supoj Sutanthavibul

Initial release: 1985

PGM (Portable Graymap) is the grayscale member of the Netpbm image format family, created by Jef Poskanzer in 1988 as part of the Pbmplus toolkit for Unix systems. PGM stores single-channel intensity images where each pixel holds a gray value from 0 (black) to a user-specified maximum (typically 255 for 8-bit or 65535 for 16-bit). The format exists in ASCII (magic number P2), where pixel values are written as decimal text numbers separated by whitespace, and binary (magic number P5), where values are stored as raw bytes. Both variants begin with a header specifying the magic number, width, height, and maximum gray value. PGM was designed as the grayscale intermediate in Netpbm's convert-process-convert pipeline philosophy: source images from any format are converted to PGM, processed using Netpbm's extensive command-line tool library, then converted to the target format. One advantage is format transparency — the ASCII variant makes image data directly readable by humans and trivially processable by text tools like awk and grep, invaluable for debugging and education. The scientific and computer vision community's adoption is another strength: PGM's straightforward single-channel representation makes it a natural format for image analysis algorithms, and many academic papers and course materials use PGM examples. The format is supported by ImageMagick, GIMP, and countless image processing libraries, and remains standard input for many research tools and benchmarks.

Developer: Jef Poskanzer

Initial release: 1988

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert FIG to PGM?

Xfig's FIG format is not web-friendly. PGM images display everywhere — in browsers, word processors, and presentation tools.

Which applications support PGM?

You can open PGM files with GIMP, IrfanView, Netpbm utilities, and scientific imaging tools.

Does converting FIG to PGM preserve quality?

Convertio optimizes the conversion to retain as much quality as possible. The output closely matches your original FIG diagram.

Does FIG to PGM conversion work on mobile?

Yes — Convertio works in mobile browsers on iOS and Android. Upload your FIG file and get PGM output on any device.

What happens to my file after conversion?

Your uploaded FIG file and the resulting PGM output are automatically deleted from the server within 24 hours to protect your data.

Can I batch convert multiple FIG files to PGM?

Absolutely. Add several FIG files at once and convert them all to PGM in a single batch — saves time on bulk tasks.

Related Conversions

FIG to JPG

FIG to PDF

FIG to PNG

FIG to EPS

FIG to SVG

FIG to JPEG

FIG to BMP

FIG to PSD

FIG to DOC

FIG to GIF

FIG to DXF

FIG to DOCX

FIG to TIFF

FIG to AI

FIG to EMF

FIG to HTML

FIG to ODT

FIG to WMF

FIG to PCX

FIG to SGI

FIG to SK

FIG to OTB

FIG to DOT

FIG to RGB

FIG to PS

FIG to CGM

FIG to SK1

FIG to PLT

FIG to JP2

FIG to WBMP

FIG to TGA

FIG to ICO

FIG to CUR

FIG to PBM

FIG to PGM

FIG to PPM

FIG to WEBP

FIG to EXR

FIG to FAX

FIG to FTS

FIG to G3

FIG to HDR

FIG to HRZ

FIG to IPL

FIG to MAP

FIG to MNG

FIG to MTV

FIG to PAL

FIG to PALM

FIG to PAM

FIG to PCD

FIG to PCT

FIG to PDB

FIG to PFM

FIG to PICON

FIG to PICT

FIG to PNM

FIG to RAS

FIG to RGBA

FIG to RGBO

Specific converters

BMP to PGM

JPG to PGM

PNG to PGM

PDF to PGM

JPEG to PGM

DXF to PGM

DOCX to PGM

PPM to PGM

TXT to PGM

GIF to PGM

XCF to PGM

PBM to PGM

TIFF to PGM

JFIF to PGM

SVG to PGM

WEBP to PGM

HTML to PGM

DDS to PGM

PSD to PGM

EPS to PGM

DOC to PGM

XLSX to PGM

XLS to PGM

PPTX to PGM

DCM to PGM

CR2 to PGM

NEF to PGM

CDR to PGM

HEIC to PGM

ICO to PGM