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Encyclopedia > Windows bitmap

DIB redirects here. For the IATA code see Dibrugarh Airport Dibrugarh Airport (IATA: DIB, ICAO: VEMN) is located at Dibrugarh in the state of Assam, India. ...

Windows bitmap
File extension: .bmp
MIME type: image/x-ms-bmp(unofficial)
Type code: 'BMP '
Uniform Type Identifier: com.microsoft.bmp
Developed by: Microsoft
Type of format: image file

.BMP or .DIB (device-independent bitmap) is a bitmapped graphics format used internally by the Microsoft Windows graphics subsystem (GDI), and used commonly as a simple graphics file format on that platform. A filename extension is an extra set of (usually) alphanumeric characters that is appended to the end of a filename to allow computer users (as well as various pieces of software on the computer system) to quickly determine the type of data stored in the file. ... Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet Standard that extends the format of e-mail to support text in character sets other than US-ASCII, non-text attachments, multi-part message bodies, and header information in non-ASCII character sets. ... A type code is a mechanism used in pre-Mac OS X versions of the Macintosh operating system to denote a files format, in a manner similar to file extensions in other operating systems. ... A Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) is a string that uniquely identifies the type of a class of items. ... The Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Image file formats provide a standardized method of organizing and storing image data. ... Look up device in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Suppose the smiley face in the top left corner is an RGB bitmap image. ... Graphics are visual presentations on some surface such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. ... Format has several meanings; did you mean: Disk formatting — the process of preparing a disk for use File format — various ways information is encoded in computing Format — a command in the Common Lisp programming language Radio format — the musical style and programming philosophy of a radio... Microsoft Windows is a family of operating systems by Microsoft. ... For the Macintosh operating system, which was called System up to version 7. ... GDI is short for Graphics Device Interface or Graphical Device Interface, and is one of the three core components or subsystems of Microsoft Windows. ... See also Category:Graphics file formats Here is a summary of the most common graphics file formats: Some file formats, e. ... In computing, a platform describes some sort of framework, either in hardware or software, which allows software to run. ...


Images are generally stored with a color depth of 2 (1-bit), 16 (4-bit), 256 (8-bit), 65,536 (16-bit), or 16.7 million (24-bit) colors (the bits represent the bits per pixel). 8-bit images can also be greyscale instead of indexed color. An alpha channel (for transparency) may be stored in a separate file, where it is similar to a greyscale image. A 32-bit version with integrated alpha channel has been introduced with Windows XP and is used within its logon and theme system; it has yet to gain wide support in image editing software. Color depth is a computer graphics term describing the number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel in a bitmapped image or video frame buffer. ... One million (1000000), one thousand thousand, is the natural number following 999999 and preceding 1000001. ... In computer graphics, alpha compositing is often useful to render image elements in separate passes, and then combine the resulting multiple 2D images into a single, final image in a process called compositing. ... Transparency is possible in a number of graphics file formats. ... In computing, a grayscale or greyscale digital image is an image in which the value of each pixel is a single sample. ... Windows XP is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft Corporation for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ...

Contents

Storage algorithm

BMP files are usually not compressed, so they are typically much larger than compressed image file formats for the same image. For example, an 800×600 24-bit image will occupy almost 1.4 megabytes. For a more concrete example, the 1058×1058 Wikipedia logo, which occupies 477.6 KB in the PNG format, takes about 3.2 MB as a 24-bit BMP file. Image compression is the application of data compression on digital images. ... A megabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to approximately one million bytes. ... Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based free content encyclopedia project. ... Bold textItalic text [edit] Headline text A kilobyte (derived from the SI prefix kilo-, meaning 1000) is a unit of information or computer storage equal to either 1024 or 1000 bytes. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1058x1058, 477 KB) aa Wikipedia logo, version 1058px square, no text Wikipedia logo by Nohat (concept by Paullusmagnus); compare Wikipedia File links The following pages link to this file: Arabic language Talk:Anarcho-capitalism Talk:Algorithm Talk:Anno Domini Talk:The... A megabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to approximately one million bytes. ...


As such, BMPs are generally unsuitable for transferring images on the Internet or other slow or capacity-limited media.


Depending on the color depth, a pixel in the picture will be stored using one or more bytes, which is determined by n/8 (n is the bit depth, since 1 byte equals 8 bits). The color of the pixel will be calculated (by the picture viewer, for example) based on the value of the bytes and the corresponding values read from the color palette. For more detailed information, see the section of bitmap file format below.


The approximate size for a n-bit (2n colors) bitmap in bytes can be calculated as: A byte is commonly used as a unit of storage measurement in computers, regardless of the type of data being stored. ...


size of BMP file approx 54+4 cdot 2^n+frac{width cdot height cdot n}{8}, where height and width are given in pixels. A pixel (a contraction of picture element) is one of the many tiny dots that make up the representation of a picture in a computers memory. ...


In the formula above, 54 is the size of the header of the bitmap file. And 4 cdot 2^n is the size of the color palette. Notice that this is an approximation, as for a n-bit bitmap image, although there can be maximum 2n colors, a specific image may not use all of these colors. Since the color palette only defines the colors that are used by the image, the actual size of the color palette will be smaller than 4 cdot 2^n. Also, only 8-bit (or less) bitmaps use a palette. For 16-bit (or higher) bitmaps, omit the palette part from the size calculation: In information technology, Header refers to supplemental data placed at the beginning of a block of data being stored or transmitted, which contain information for the handling of the data block. ... A palette, in computer graphics, is a designated subset of the total range of colours supported by a computer graphics system. ...


size of BMP file approx 54+frac{width cdot height cdot n}{8}


Using the unit step function u(x), the two formulae above can be combined: The Heaviside step function, sometimes called the unit step function and named in honor of Oliver Heaviside, is a discontinuous function whose value is zero for negative argument and one for positive argument: The function is used in the mathematics of control theory and signal processing to represent a signal...


size of BMP file approx 54+u(15-n) cdot 4 cdot 2^n+frac{width cdot height cdot n}{8} where u(x)=1 if x>0 and 0 otherwise.


Due to effects of dword padding (if the number of bytes matching a horizontal line in the image does not form multiple dwords, i.e. divisible by 4, null bytes are added), the term describing the raw image size is approximated and the calculated size will be slightly different from the actual file size. For detailed information, see the sections on file format below. In computer science, a dword is a unit of data that is twice the size of a word and half the size of a qword. ...


Typical file format

A typical bitmap file usually contains the following blocks of data:

  • Bitmap Header: stores general information about the bitmap file.
  • Bitmap Information: stores detailed information about the bitmap image.
  • Color Palette: stores the definition of the colors being used.
  • Bitmap Data: stores the actual image, pixel by pixel.

The following sections discuss the data stored in the bitmap file in details. Notice that this is the standard bitmap file format. Some bitmap images may be stored using a slightly different format, depending on the application that creates it. Also, not all fields are being used, and as such, a value of 0 will be found in these unused fields.


Bitmap header

This block of bytes is used for identification. A typical application will read this block first to ensure that the file is actually a bitmap file and that it is not damaged.

  • Bytes #0-1 store the data that will be used to identify the bitmap file. Typical values for these 2 bytes are BM.
  • Bytes #2-5 store the size of the bitmap file using a dword.
  • Bytes #6-9 are reserved. Actual values depend on the application that creates the image.
  • Bytes #10-13 store the offset, i.e. starting address, of the byte where the bitmap data can be found.

In computer science, a dword is a unit of data that is twice the size of a word and half the size of a qword. ... In computer science, an offset within an array or other data structure object is an integer indicating the distance (displacement) from the beginning of the object up until a given element or point, presumably within the same object. ...

Bitmap information

This block of bytes tells the application detailed information about the image, which will be used to display the image on the screen. It starts at byte #14 of the file.

  • Bytes #14-17 specify the header size. Values are: 40 - Windows V3, 12 - OS/2 V1, 64 - OS/2 V2, 108 - Windows V4, 124 - Windows V5
  • Bytes #18-21 store the bitmap width in pixels.
  • Bytes #22-25 store the bitmap height in pixels.
  • Bytes #26-27 store the number of color planes being used. Not often used.
  • Bytes #28-29 store the number of bits per pixel, which is the color depth of the image. Typical values are 1, 4, 8, 24 and 32.
  • Bytes #30-33 define the compression method being used. Possible values are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5:
 0 - none (also identified by BI_RGB) 1 - RLE 8-bit/pixel (also identified by BI_RLE8) 2 - RLE 4-bit/pixel (also identified by BI_RLE4) 3 - Bit field (also identified by BI_BITFIELDS) 4 - a JPEG image (also identified by BI_JPEG) 5 - a PNG image (also identified by BI_PNG) 

However, since most BMP images are uncompressed, the most common value is 0. Run-length encoding (RLE) is a very simple form of data compression in which runs of data (that is, sequences in which the same data value occurs in many consecutive data elements) are stored as a single data value and count, rather than as the original run. ... A bit field is a common idiom used in computer programming to store a set of Boolean datatype flags compactly. ...

  • Bytes #34-37 store the image size. This is the size of the raw bitmap data (see below), and should not be confused with the file size.
  • Bytes #38-41 store the horizontal resolution of the image.
  • Bytes #42-45 store the vertical resolution of the image.
  • Bytes #46-49 store the number of colors used.
  • Bytes #50-53 store the number of important colors used. This number will be equal to the number of colors when every color is important.

The above is the description of a standard 54-byte header. The format is slightly different some times.

  • For example, when bytes 14-17 have the value 12, then data is stored like this:
    • Bytes #18-19 store the bitmap width in pixels.
    • Bytes #20-21 store the bitmap height in pixels.
    • Bytes #22-23 store the number of color planes being used.
    • Bytes #24-25 store the number of bits per pixel.

Color palette

This block of bytes define the colors being used inside the image. As stated above, the bitmap picture will be stored pixel by pixel. Each pixel is described by a value which will be stored using one or more bytes. Therefore, the purpose of the color palette is to tell the application the actual color that each of these values corresponds to.


A typical bitmap file uses the RGB color model. In this model, a color is created by mixing different intensities (which can vary from 0 to 255) of red (R), green (G) and blue (B). Or in other words, a color will be defined using its 3 values for R, G and B. The RGB color model utilizes the additive model in which red, green, and blue light are combined in various ways to create other colors. ...


In the bitmap file implementation, the color palette contains many entries; the number of entries is the number of colors being used in the picture. Each entry contains 4 bytes. The first 3 bytes store the values for for blue, green and red respectively while the last one is unused and will be filled with 0 by most applications. For each byte, a value of 0 indicates that the corresponding color (either red, green, or blue) is not used to create the current image color. On the contrary, a value of 255 indicates that maximum intensity is used.


As mentioned above, the color palette is not used when the bitmap is 16-bit or higher.


Bitmap data

This block of bytes describes the image, pixel by pixel. Pixels are stored starting in the bottom left corner going from left to right and then row by row from the bottom to the top. Each pixel is described using one or more bytes. If the number of bytes matching a horizontal line in the image is not a quadruple, i.e. an integer divisible by 4, the line is padded with null-bytes. A quadruple is a term from mathematics, depicting an n-tuple with n being 4. ... Thenull character (also null terminator) is a character with the value zero, present in the ASCII and Unicode character sets, and available in nearly all mainstream programming languages. ...


Miscellaneous

Despite the huge file size, the simplicity of BMP and its widespread familiarity in MS Windows and elsewhere, as well as the fact that this format is well-documented and free of patents, makes it a very common format that image processing programs from many operating systems can read and write. In general terms, documentation is any communicable material (such as text, video, audio, etc. ... A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive, and...


The X Window System uses a similar .XBM format for true single-bit black-and-white images, and .XPM (pixelmap) for color images. There is also a .RAW format, which saves raw data with no other information. The Portable Pixmap file format (.PPM) and Truevision TGA (.TGA) formats also exist, but are rarely used - or only for special purposes. Yet other formats store as "bitmaps" (as opposed to vector graphics), but use compression or color indexes, and thus are not strictly considered true bitmaps. KDE 3. ... A bit (binary digit) refers to a digit in the binary numeral system, which consists of base 2 digits (ie. ... Black-and-white or black and white) can refer to a general term used in photography, film, and other media (see black-and-white). ... Color is an important part of the visual arts. ... In general, data consist of propositions that reflect reality. ... Information as a concept bears a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. ... The portable pixmap / greymap / bitmap file formats (PPM, PGM, PBM) are file formats for exchanging graphics files. ... Truevisions TGA File Format, often referred to as TARGA File Format, is a raster graphics file format. ... Example showing effect of vector graphics on ppm scale: (a) original vector-based illustration; (b) illustration magnified 8x as a vector image; (c) illustration magnified 8x as a raster image. ...


Most BMP files compress very well with lossless data compression algorithms such as ZIP because they contain redundant data. Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. ... The ZIP file format is a popular data compression and archival format. ...


See also

This is a comparison of graphics file formats. ... Image file formats provide a standardized method of organizing and storing image data. ... Windows Picture and Fax Viewer is an image viewer. ...

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
Bitmap format (4963 words)
Specifies that the bitmap is not compressed and that the color table consists of three double word color masks that specify the red, green, and blue components, respectively, of each pixel.
Windows supports formats for compressing bitmaps that define their colors with 8 bits per pixel and with 4 bits per pixel.
A Windows 3.0 or later DIB consists of two distinct parts: a BITMAPINFO structure, which describes the dimensions and colors of the bitmap, and an array of bytes defining the pixels of the bitmap.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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