with R 1.7.0 I get an error when trying to open a PNM file (converted from bmp to PNM by means of the "convert" command in linux (imagemagick, I suppose)> x <-read.pnm(system.file("/home/christoph/work/projects/ffa/EPrime/550_0.PNM", package="pixmap")[1]) Error in pm.readmagicnumber(con) : Not a PNM format file thanks for help chris -- Christoph Lehmann <christoph.lehmann at gmx.ch>