What is PPM?
PPM is a Netpbm image: a tiny text header giving the dimensions, then raw pixel values with no compression whatsoever. Almost nothing displays it, which is rather the point - it is what image-processing code and academic tools emit when they want to be trivially readable.
What is ICO?
ICO is the Windows icon container, and still what a browser fetches when it asks a site for /favicon.ico. One file can hold several sizes at once so the system can pick the right one; each dimension is stored in a single byte, which caps an icon at 256 pixels.