Command line tools

Command-line tools

Encode and decode

wimf encode source.png output.wimf --quality 7 --preset Balanced --codec auto
wimf encode source.png exact.wimf --lossless
wimf decode output.wimf decoded.png

ROI and inspection

wimf decode large.wimf region.png --roi 256 128 512 512
wimf info output.wimf --json
wimf runtime --json

Text transports

wimf base16 encode output.wimf output.hex
wimf base16 decode output.hex restored.wimf
wimf base32 encode output.wimf output.b32
wimf base32 decode output.b32 restored.wimf
wimf base64 encode output.wimf output.txt
wimf base64 encode output.wimf data-url.txt --data-url
wimf base64 decode output.txt restored.wimf

All three use strict RFC 4648 alphabets, tolerate whitespace, and enforce safety bounds. Base16, Base32, and Base64 expand the payload; they are transport encodings, not compression. Data URLs are Base64-only.

Native process bridge

CMake installations include wimf-native, which converts 8-bit binary PGM/PPM files without Python:

wimf-native encode source.ppm output.wimf
wimf-native encode source.pgm output.wimf --lossy 7
wimf-native decode output.wimf restored.ppm

This deliberately small bridge is useful from shells and languages that can launch a process. Use the C ABI for direct memory integration and the Python CLI for PNG, JPEG, and other Pillow-supported files.

Corruption diagnostics

wimf corrupt output.wimf damaged.wimf --seed 10 --count 4 --area payload
wimf diagnose damaged.wimf --json
wimf diagnose damaged.wimf --unsafe-preview preview.png

Unsafe previews are diagnostic images and cannot be saved as verified WIMF output.

wimf-convert and wimf-meta are deprecated in 2.2. Use the unified wimf command or WIMF Studio.