PFM to TAR.XZ Converter
Processing entirely on your device — large files may take a moment.
Portable Float Map and XZ-compressed Tar exist for different jobs: PFM (Portable Float Map) stores pixels as raw 32-bit floats — the lossless hand-off format for HDR pipelines, radiance research and render passes, riding the same family spirit as PBM/PGM/PPM. Produce a TAR.XZ for the smallest possible release artifact, or to match the format a build system expects.
Because the whole conversion happens on your device, it is instant, unlimited and genuinely private — no accounts, no watermarks, no files on anyone's server. Multiple files are converted in one go.
How PFM compares to TAR.XZ
| PFM | TAR.XZ | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | None (raw floats) | XZ / LZMA2 |
| Best for | HDR interchange, render passes | Source releases, Linux packages |
How to convert PFM to TAR.XZ
- 1
Select your files
Select your PFM file — it never leaves your device.
- 2
Convert instantly
The engine packs the file, byte for byte, into a TAR.XZ container — no re-encoding, no quality change.
- 3
Download results
Download the finished TAR.XZ archive.
About the PFM format
PFM (Portable Float Map) stores pixels as raw 32-bit floating-point values — no palette, no compression tricks, just the numbers. It belongs to the Netpbm family (PBM/PGM/PPM) and is the lingua franca for handing high-dynamic-range data between renderers, tone-mapping experiments and radiance research scripts.
Because the values are floats, a PFM can hold sunlight and candlelight in the same image without clipping. Viewers rarely open it directly: convert to PNG or JPG to get a tone-mapped preview of the same data.
+Strengths
- ✓Full floating-point precision
- ✓Dead-simple text/binary layout
- ✓Widely read by research tooling
!Limitations
- −Enormous files (16 bytes per pixel)
- −Almost no viewer support
About the TAR.XZ format
TAR.XZ pairs the tar container with XZ (LZMA2) compression — the highest-ratio member of the tar family and the de-facto release format of modern Linux distributions. The same source tree that lands 5% smaller than TAR.BZ2 and 20% smaller than TAR.GZ is why kernel.org and GNU mirrors standardised on it.
The trade is CPU time: XZ compresses slow (dictionary sizes up to 64 MB) but decompresses fast, which makes it ideal for one-time releases that get downloaded millions of times. When you need speed instead, TAR.GZ or TAR.ZSTD are the neighbouring picks.
+Strengths
- ✓Best compression ratio of the tar family
- ✓Standard release artifact of Linux distros
- ✓Fast decompression despite slow compression
!Limitations
- −Compression is CPU-heavy and single-threaded by default
- −Larger toolchain footprint than gzip on tiny systems
Why convert PFM to TAR.XZ?
Think of it as moving your file to the container that fits the job. Enormous files (16 bytes per pixel) TAR.XZ works differently: Best compression ratio of the tar family If any of that sounds like your task, run the conversion — it takes seconds and nothing leaves your device.
Frequently asked questions
Is this PFM to TAR.XZ converter really free?
Yes — completely free, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily conversion limits. The site is supported by advertising.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly, so your files never leave your device — that is what makes it instant and private.
Does it work on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android?
Yes. Anything with a modern browser works: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. No software installation is required.
Will I lose quality converting PFM to TAR.XZ?
No — TAR.XZ is a lossless format, so every pixel of the converted image matches your original PFM file. You can also adjust the quality/size balance before converting when the target format supports compression.
What happens to EXIF data and other metadata?
Conversions here re-encode the image, and re-encoding generally does not carry the original metadata over. If the EXIF data of your PFM files matters (camera model, GPS, timestamps), keep the original file as the master and treat the converted copy as the shareable version.
Can I convert several PFM files at once?
Yes — drop as many files as you like into the tool and they are converted in one batch. When more than one file comes out, everything is bundled into a ZIP for a single download.