Palm Database ImageViewer

File Format
Name	Palm Database ImageViewer
Ontology	Electronic File Formats Graphics Palm Database ImageViewer
Extension(s)	.pdb

Palm Database ImageViewer format is a type of PalmOS Database file. It contains a bitmap image, and is associated with the Image Viewer III application.

It is apparently also known as FireViewer or TinyViewer format. We have not been able to determine the differences, if any, between the formats supported by these applications.

It appears to be a paletted format supporting up to 16 colors. Images may be uncompressed, or use RLE compression.

Discussion

The ImageViewer format has been decoded fairly completely, but as far as we can tell, no one has ever bothered to write any documentation about it – only source code.

The imgvtopnm software (also called imgvtopgm, apparently) by Eric Howe, released around 1997, is significant. See the README file in that software for information about its origins.

Netpbm's code was derived from Howe's software. ImageMagick also has source code for reading and writing this format.

Identification

ASCII characters vIMGView appear at file offset 60.

Software

• ImageMagick (format named "PDB")
• Netpbm (v10.52+): pdbimgtopam, pamtopdbimg
• imgvtopgm/imgvtopnm

Sample files

• http://cd.textfiles.com/pdasoftware/PILOT/ ...
  • E.g. TRAVEL/, ELECTRON/
• imgvtopgm-2.0.tar.gz → samples/*.pdb
• MemoWare → Advanced search → Search for "FireViewer" or "TinyViewer" format