Image to BMP Converter

Convert Image to BMP Online

Turn a JPG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, WebP, or RAW camera file into a Windows Bitmap (.bmp) — the plain, header-plus-pixels format Microsoft shipped with Windows 2.0 in 1987 and never really retired. People convert to BMP when something downstream demands it: a legacy Windows application, an embedded display or LED panel, a microcontroller image loader, or a test fixture that reads raw pixel rows instead of decoding a modern codec.

This page is honest about one thing most converters gloss over: BMP is not a quality upgrade. It has no way to recover detail a JPG already threw away, and the preset you pick here changes the bit depth and palette of the bitmap, not the fidelity of the source.

How to Convert an Image to BMP

1. Upload Your Image File: Drag and drop, or click "Add Files" to pick images. The converter accepts 36 input types — JPG, JPEG, JFIF, PNG, APNG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF, TIF, BMP, ICO, PSD, EPS, PPM, XCF, PUB, ODG, and RAW files from Canon (CR2, CR3, CRW), Nikon (NEF), Sony (ARW), Adobe (DNG), Olympus (ORF), Pentax (PEF), Panasonic (RW2), Fujifilm (RAF), Hasselblad (3FR), Kodak (DCR), Epson (ERF), Leaf (MOS), Minolta (MRW), and Sigma (X3F). Drop a mixed batch and they all convert with the same settings.
2. Pick a Quality Preset: Under Advanced Options, "Image Compression" offers a Quality preset dropdown. On BMP targets it is deliberately cut down to three entries — High, Medium, and Low — because BMP has no JPEG-style quality dial. Each one writes a structurally different bitmap; see the table below before you choose.
3. Set the Image Resolution (Optional): The "Image resolution" group starts on Keep original. Switch to Resolution Percentage, Preset Resolutions, Width, Height, or Width x Height to scale while converting. Because BMP stores pixels rather than compressing them, shrinking the dimensions is the only dependable way to shrink the file.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert, then download the BMP on its own or grab the whole batch as a ZIP. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

What Each BMP Quality Preset Actually Writes

Two consequences worth planning around. First, none of the presets produces a 24-bit true-colour BMP — High tops out at 16-bit RGB555, so a photograph loses its lowest two bits of colour precision and can show faint banding in smooth skies. Second, Medium and Low are genuinely smaller than High despite being lower down the list, because run-length encoding plus a palette beats uncompressed 16-bit pixels on most graphics.

Size is arithmetic, not luck. At the High preset a bitmap costs two bytes per pixel plus a 14-byte file header and a 40-byte info header, with every pixel row padded out to a multiple of four bytes — so a 1920 × 1080 image lands near 4.1 MB whatever the picture shows. Halve the dimensions and you quarter the file.

BMP vs PNG vs JPG — Which Target Fits

If you want a small lossless file, use Image to PNG. If you want a compact photo, use Image to JPG. Pick BMP only when a specific program asks for it by name.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will converting my image to BMP improve its quality?

No, and it can quietly cost you a little. BMP has no mechanism to reconstruct detail a lossy source already discarded, so a JPG converted to BMP keeps every artefact it arrived with. On top of that, this tool's High preset writes 16 bits per pixel rather than 24, so an 8-bit-per-channel source is reduced to 5 bits per channel on the way in. The file gets much bigger; the picture does not get better.

Why is my BMP so much larger than the original image?

Because the High preset stores pixels instead of compressing them. Two bytes per pixel, plus a 14-byte file header, a 40-byte info header, and four-byte row padding, means size tracks dimensions and ignores content entirely — a flat white rectangle and a detailed photograph of the same size produce nearly the same byte count. A 2 MB JPG routinely becomes several megabytes as a BMP. If that is a problem, drop to the Medium preset, which palettises and run-length encodes, or scale the image down under Image resolution.

Which preset should I choose for a photograph?

High. It is the only one of the three that keeps a full-colour pixel for every pixel; Medium and Low both quantise to a 256- or 86-entry palette and dither, which is fine for flat UI graphics and logos but shows obvious speckling and banding across skin, sky, and gradients. If the file size at High is unworkable, reduce the dimensions rather than dropping the preset — losing pixels usually looks better than losing colours.

Does BMP keep transparency from a PNG, WebP, or HEIC source?

No. The bitmaps this tool writes carry no alpha channel, so transparency does not survive the conversion, and what shows up underneath formerly transparent pixels depends on the RGB values the source stored there — often black. If the artwork needs a predictable backdrop, flatten it first: run it through Image to JPG, which mattes transparency onto white, and convert that result to BMP. If you actually need to keep transparency, stay on Image to PNG.

What happens if I upload an animated GIF or APNG?

You get a single still: the first frame, written as one bitmap. BMP has no concept of multiple frames or timing, so animation cannot be represented. To keep the motion, convert to a video or animated target instead — Image to APNG or Image to MP4 both preserve every frame.

Can I convert RAW camera files like CR2, NEF, or ARW to BMP?

Yes. RAW files from Canon, Nikon, Sony, Adobe DNG, Olympus, Pentax, Panasonic, Fujifilm, Hasselblad, Kodak, Epson, Leaf, Minolta, and Sigma are all accepted and demosaiced to a normal bitmap. Be aware of the maths, though: a 24-megapixel RAW frame at the High preset is roughly 48 MB of pixel data, so set a smaller Preset Resolution or a Width unless you genuinely need full sensor dimensions.

Why can't I set a target file size on this page?

Because a target-size search only works when the encoder has a quality knob to turn, and BMP does not have one — there is no equivalent of JPEG's quality scale to binary-search against. That control is therefore hidden on BMP targets. To hit a size budget, pick the dimensions that get you there (Width x Height under Image resolution) or choose the Medium or Low preset, which shrink the file by cutting colours rather than fidelity.

Will a 16-bit BMP open in old software?

Usually, but not always. Windows GDI and every mainstream image library have handled 16-bit BMP since the 1990s, and modern viewers open it without comment. The exceptions are minimal or hand-written bitmap loaders — some firmware image readers and embedded display libraries only parse 24-bit BI_RGB files. If your target is that kind of device and it rejects the output, the Medium preset's palettised BMP3 file is the more conservative format to try next.

Are my uploaded images kept after conversion?

No. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — never shared, never made public, and never watermarked. There is no sign-up. The practical ceiling on a very large image is upload size and time rather than anything in the conversion itself.