(sometimes AI explains it better)

What

Created	Updated	Code size	License
2026-01	2026-08	< 50 K	LGPL3

Converts any binary file to grayscale PNG image.

No data is lost, that's byte-to-pixel conversion.

Lua executable as image:

Combined tool code as image:

Usage

$ bin_to_png.sh <input_file>

Reads given file and writes PNG image to current directory. Creates file with name of original name and .png extension.

This Bash wrapper calls Lua file to create image in .ppm format and then converts it to .png using pnmtopng tool.

Requirements

• Bash (use Linux)
• Lua 5.3 (5.4, 5.5) ($ sudo apt install lua)
• pnmtopng tool to convert image to PNG ($ sudo apt install netpbm)

Install/remove

• Copy files from deploy/

Notes

• Practical data file size is several megabytes

  I've tested it on 32 MB file.

• This is data exploration tool

  You can grasp data structure from image. You can feel size relationships from two images.

  Tool value diminishes with data size. It is not designed to be fast or efficient for large files.

Details

• Implementation uses spiral filling

  For spiral filling I wrote "ant" class and coded spiral movement for that ant.

• Feel free to experiment with another filling algorithms

• build.sh creates combined and compiled Lua file in deploy/. It uses my meld tool for that

  You can use it to recompile to another Lua version. But you'll need full workshop repo near current date (2026-06-01) to recompile.

See also

• Netpbm codec -- codec's repo
• meld -- my tool to combine Lua files
• workshop -- my personal Lua framework
• My other projects