JPG to BMP Converter

JPG vs BMP — Which Should You Actually Keep?

BMP is Microsoft's device-independent bitmap: pixels written out row by row with no compression to undo. JPG is the opposite — a lossy DCT format built to make photos small. Converting JPG to BMP is worth doing when something downstream insists on a raw bitmap: legacy Windows software, GDI-based tooling, embedded firmware, machine-vision rigs, printer utilities and sprite editors that read pixel buffers directly. It is not a way to recover quality, because the detail JPEG discarded is already gone before the file reaches us.

Side-by-side Comparison

What Each Quality Preset Writes

The Quality Preset dropdown on this page is not a JPEG-style quality slider — BMP has no such control. It selects between three genuinely different bitmap encodings:

Microsoft's BITMAPINFOHEADER reference documents both halves of this: at 16 bits per pixel the layout is RGB 555, and row stride is the width in bytes rounded up to the nearest 4-byte boundary — which is why an uncompressed bitmap's size is fully predictable from its dimensions.

When Converting to BMP Makes Sense

• A legacy Windows application, GDI routine or MFC dialog expects a .bmp and refuses compressed input.
• Embedded devices, kiosk splash screens and firmware images that blit raw pixel buffers with no decoder onboard.
• Machine-vision, medical or scientific capture chains that standardised on bitmaps decades ago and never moved.
• Sprite and tile editors for retro game engines that read fixed-stride pixel data.
• Printer and label-maker utilities whose import filter lists BMP and little else.

When to Stay on JPG or Pick PNG Instead

• You want the photo to look better. It will not — BMP faithfully stores the JPEG artefacts that already exist.
• You want a smaller lossless file. JPG to PNG compresses losslessly; choose the Highest quality preset there for true-colour output.
• You need transparency. BMP alpha exists but is unevenly supported; PNG is the safe answer.
• You are sending it to someone. A 24 MB bitmap where a 3 MB JPEG would do is a poor way to use an inbox.

How to Convert JPG to BMP

1. Upload Your JPG File: Drag it onto the page or click "+ Add Files". JPG, JPEG and JFIF are accepted, and you can queue several photos in one go.
2. Choose a Quality Preset: Under Image Compression, pick High, Medium or Low — that choice sets the bitmap encoding described in the table above, not a compression percentage.
3. Set the Resolution (Optional): Image resolution offers Keep original, Resolution Percentage, Preset Resolutions, or an explicit Width / Height / Width x Height if the target device needs exact pixel dimensions.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the .bmp. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does converting JPG to BMP improve image quality?

No. JPEG compression is lossy and permanent — the fine detail and the 8×8 block edges are already baked into the pixels. BMP stores those pixels faithfully, artefacts included. Converting is about format compatibility, not restoration.

What exactly does the High preset produce?

An uncompressed bitmap at 16 bits per pixel using the RGB 555 layout — five bits each for red, green and blue, giving 32,768 possible colours. Every pixel takes two bytes regardless of content, so a 4000×3000 photo lands at roughly 24 MB.

Why is my BMP so much bigger than the JPG?

Because nothing is compressed. A JPEG stores a frequency-domain approximation; an uncompressed bitmap stores every pixel literally, with rows padded out to four-byte boundaries. Expect an order of magnitude increase over the source photo. Medium and Low shrink it by dropping to a palette and applying run-length encoding.

What is the difference between the Medium and Low presets?

Both write an RLE-compressed palette bitmap with Floyd–Steinberg dithering, which spreads quantisation error across neighbouring pixels so banding looks like fine noise instead of hard steps. Medium keeps 256 colours; Low drops to 86 and tags the file at 150 pixels per centimetre. Low is the smallest and the most visibly dithered.

Will my photo look slightly different after conversion?

On flat graphics, no. On photographs with smooth skies or skin tones, 32,768 colours can show mild banding compared with the original's 16.7 million, and the palette presets will show dithering texture. Viewed at normal size the difference is subtle; on a large gradient it is visible.

Does the BMP keep EXIF data like date, camera model or GPS?

No. The BMP header carries dimensions, bit depth and pixel-density fields and nothing else — there is no EXIF block to write to. If you need that metadata, keep the original JPG alongside the bitmap, or convert to a format that stores EXIF.

Can a BMP have a transparent background?

There is a 32-bit BMP variant with an alpha channel, but application support for it is inconsistent, and a JPG has no transparency to carry over in the first place. For anything that needs real transparency, PNG is the correct target.

Can I resize the image during conversion?

Yes. Image resolution lets you keep the original size, scale by percentage, choose a preset, or type exact Width and Height values — useful when the receiving device expects a fixed frame such as a splash screen or LCD panel.

How do I go back from BMP to a normal photo format?

Use BMP to JPG to get a shareable file again. Remember that the round trip does not restore anything: JPG → BMP → JPG applies a second generation of lossy compression on top of the first.

What happens to my uploaded file?

Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public.