What is a BMP File? How to Open, Convert and Manage Photo Format
Last Updated on June 4, 2023 by Peter Wood
BMP is one of the most widely used image and graphic formats. When you want to open, convert, and manage BMP files, you should understand what it stands for, when to save images in BMP format, and more. If you saved the photos in the wrong file format, it may destroy your artwork and make it unrecoverable anymore. When you want to learn more about the BMP files, you can find the ultimate guide for the file from the article.
Part 1: What is a BMP File
BMP is an image file format, which represents the Bitmap Image file. But it means far more than that. Firstly, BMP stands for both a file extension and a file format. An image with a .bmp file extension indicates that it is a raster image or bitmap image. The image is non-compressed and contains a file header and the pixels of the associated bitmap.
The file header tells you and your photo editor the size of the image, the width, the height, the color options as well as the information about where the bitmap pixels should be located within the grid. Generally speaking, the BMP files only store 2D digital images with different resolutions and dimensions. They can be color images or monochrome images.
Cons and Pros of BMP File
The biggest problem is when to use BMP as the image format. Since BMP files stores raster graphic data, it is compatible with almost all digital devices and you do not need a specific BMP viewer.
Pros
- Available to most Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices.
- Easy to ready and compatible with most image editors.
- Support various color depths, alpha channels, color profiles, and more.
- Not compress, it is the reason BMP images are excellent in quality.
- Work well with pint output devices.
- Support lossless compression.
Cons
- The file size is very large due to non-compression.
- BMP images take a lot of space and slow down the performance.
- It is hard to send MBP images through the Internet.
- BMP files are not able to print on a vector plotter.
Bear in mind that JPG and GIF are also bitmaps, but they use image compression algorithms to decrease the file size. It makes sense that they work better on the Internet than BMP. When it comes to file size, PNG is also a lossless image format but significantly smaller. To print an image, TIFF is more flexible than BMP.
Part 2: How to Open and Manage BMP
BMP is easy to browse and open on various devices, but it is very large in file size. What should be the best BMP viewer and manager to open the photos, check the details, or even manage the photo formats and video formats? WidsMob Viewer Pro is an all-in-one BMP photo viewer, converter, and manager that enables you to browse BMP files in different modes, convert photos in a batch process, apply photo filters, and even group the favorite files within clicks.
- Open the BMP photos in thumbnail, full screen, favorite, and other modes.
- Convert the BMP to JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and more formats, or vice versa in batch.
- Support most RAW files, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, PNG, BMP, videos, PDFs, and others.
- Select the desired BMP photos, delete the unwanted files, compare similar ones, etc.
How to Open and Manage BMP Files
Download and install WidsMob Viewer Pro, launch the program on your computer, and locate the desired folder from the left side. If you need to preview your favorite BMP files in a folder frequently, you can click the + icon next to the FAVORITES tab. Select the folder to create a shortcut folder accordingly.
Thumbnail Mode: Once you have set up the program as the default media viewer, you can click any media to browse all files in thumbnails within the program. It enables you to compare two similar photos, transfer BMP photos to another folder, and create a slideshow with the photos within the same folder.
Full-Screen Mode: If you want to view BMP files with details, double-click any BMP to view it on a full screen. Switch to another BMP image, PDF, or even video from the bottom. Click the I icon at the bottom right corner, you can check the EXIF information, such as file name, file size, file creation, and more.
Right-click any file, you can find multiple editing features, including rotate left, rotate right, flip horizontally, flip vertically, crop, move to trash, open the folder of the image, open the image in Explorer, and set up a preference for viewing the image, such as mouse wheel settings, zoom step, check folder, and clean caches.
Slideshow Mode: When it is not convenient to browse BMP files manually, click the View menu and choose the Slideshow mode. Then the images will display one by one. You can adjust the duration and other options.
Part 3: How to Convert BMP Files in Batch
As mentioned previously, BMP should be not the best format if you want to print or share the images. It can also convert BMP images to other photo formats, like JPG, PNG, and TIFF, or vice versa with the original quality.
Step 1: Go to the full-screen mode or double-click the desired image you want to convert, you can select the File menu and choose the Save As button to convert the image to another file format as your requirement.
Step 2: Just name the output file and choose the desired file format, such as JPEG, PNG, and more. Of course, you can also convert other file formats to BMP, which is an option from the drop-down list. After that, you can click the Save button to convert BMP files.
Part 4: FAQs about BMP Image
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In general, BMP images are not compressed. It allows you to receive high-quality images, but, at the same time, the size of the file is very big. But you might also find some compressed BMP files, which are usually suitable for photographs.
BMP is uncompressed bitmapped images with high resolution, compared to the JPEG, which is a compressed digital image with a relatively small size. It is the reason that JPG images, being easily downloadable, are preferred over BMP images for web use.
Yes. You can find some online photo viewers and editors to open BMP files, such as Fotor. Of course, Google Photos is another web-based BMP photo viewer that not only browses photo files, but also converts a BMP file to PDF and many other formats.
Conclusion
Based on the information above, you should understand what BMP is, the advantages and disadvantages of BMP images, and how to open, edit, and manage photo files. WidsMob Viewer Pro is the best way to open and manage BMP files on your computer. Moreover, it can help you to batch convert BMP files into other image formats, or vice versa.