BMP
BMP is a family of simple raster graphics image file format designed to store bitmap digital images independently of a display device. BMP was originally and is primarily used on Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems. The format is sometimes known as Device-Independent Bitmap (DIB), since, when loaded into memory using Windows software, the image is held as a DIB structure.
As of November 2012, there have been 7 versions (similar but not identical) of the Windows Bitmap format, identified by PRONOM as: fmt/114 (version 1.0); fmt/115 (version 2.0); fmt/116 (version 3.0); fmt/117 (version 3.0 NT); fmt/118 (version 4.0); fmt/119 (version 5.0); x-fmt/270 (OS/2 Bitmap version 2.0. See OS/2 BMP). No MIME type has been officially registered. Strings found in practice are: image/bmp; image/x-bmp; image/x-ms-bmp
Identification
The standard file extension is .bmp. Reportedly, .dib and .rle have occasionally been used.
BMP files start with bytes 'B' 'M' ?? ?? 00 00 00 00.
Sample images
References
- BMP (file format): Wikipedia
- Bitmap Image File (BMP), Version 5, from Library of Congress resource on Sustainability of Digital Formats
- Microsoft Windows Bitmap File Format Summary From Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats at FileFormat.Info (1996)
