mdatopbm
converts MicroDesign Area format to PBM
TLDR
Convert a MicroDesign area to PBM on stdout
$ mdatopbm [input.mda] > [output.pbm]
Read from stdin and write PBM on stdout$ cat [input.mda] | mdatopbm > [output.pbm]
Double-height output (for non-square PCW pixels)$ mdatopbm -d [input.mda] > [output.pbm]
Invert black/white in the output$ mdatopbm -i [input.mda] > [output.pbm]
SYNOPSIS
mdatopbm [-d] [-i] [mdafile]
DESCRIPTION
mdatopbm converts MicroDesign Area files to PBM. MicroDesign was a desktop publishing program for the Amstrad PCW range of computers, and its .mda files store bitmap clip art at the PCW's non-square pixel ratio. The -d option doubles the vertical resolution so the image appears at correct proportions on a square-pixel display.Output is written to standard output. The tool is part of the Netpbm toolkit.
PARAMETERS
-d, -double
Double the height of the image to compensate for the rectangular pixel aspect ratio of the Amstrad PCW screen.-i, -invert
Swap foreground and background, producing white-on-black output.mdafile
Input MicroDesign Area (.mda) file. Reads from standard input if omitted.
INSTALL
sudo apt install netpbm
sudo dnf install netpbm
sudo pacman -S netpbm
sudo apk add netpbm
sudo zypper install netpbm
brew install netpbm
nix profile install nixpkgs#netpbm
CAVEATS
Only the MicroDesign Area (.mda) variant is supported; documents from MicroDesign Plus may need to be exported to .mda first. The format is monochrome (1 bpp).