noun

BMP

bee-em-PEE

BMP (noun) means an older image format, associated with Windows, that stores a picture as a straightforward grid of pixels, usually with little or no compression, giving large files. Example: “The scanner defaulted to BMP, so each page came out at twenty megabytes.”

noun

An older image format, associated with Windows, that stores a picture as a straightforward grid of pixels, usually with little or no compression, giving large files.

"The scanner defaulted to BMP, so each page came out at twenty megabytes."

"Old clip art collections are full of BMP files."

An individual image saved in that format.

"He opened the BMP in Paint and cropped it."

How to Use BMP

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishAn old Windows image file that stores every dot plainly, so it takes up a lot of space.

When to use it

Somewhat dated; mostly encountered with legacy Windows software. Written in capitals.

Memory tip

"Bitmap" is also a general term for any pixel-grid image, so not every bitmap is a BMP file.

Trace the full origin ↓

Easily confused with

PNG → TIFF → bitmap

Common pairings

BMP file save as BMP convert BMP to PNG 24-bit BMP

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The scanner defaulted to _____, so each page came out at twenty megabytes.

Etymology

A shortening of bitmap, the term for an image stored as a grid of individual pixels. It is a contraction rather than an initialism — the letters are not the initials of separate words.

Origin: English

Synonyms

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bitmap bitmap image raster image

Related Words

SVG

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between BMP and PNG?

Both keep every pixel of the image, but PNG compresses the data losslessly while BMP usually stores it raw. That makes a BMP considerably larger than the equivalent PNG for no gain in quality, which is why PNG replaced it for most purposes.

Is BMP still used?

Rarely for sharing or publishing, because the files are so large. It still turns up in older Windows software, in some scanning and imaging tools, and wherever a simple uncompressed pixel grid is easier to work with than a compressed format.

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