Still messing with the PPM file format, but I found out that the reason the data is in seemingly random characters instead of the nice neat rows and columns of most examples: it's the wrong type of ppm file. there are actually 3 different kinds: (wow, nested colons?) PPM (full color), PGM (Grayscale), and PBM (Black/white). The file I have is PPM, and the file I need is PPM. The bad thing is the fact that each type of P_M file has two different encodings. PPM has a magic number P3 for ascii encoding (and hence easy-to read characters), and P6 for binary encoding (and hence the random characters). I need to convert from a P6 PPM file to a P3 PPM file. Since tpt's ppm files are also P6, it would be a lot easier to understand that too. If anyone has any good way to convert from a P6 PPM file to a P3 PPM file, I would like to know.

Okay thanks. I think I've got it.