BMP

The BMP file format, also known as bitmap image file or Device Independent Bitmap (DIB) file format or simply a bitmap, is a raster graphics image file format used to store bitmap digital images, independently of the display device (such as a graphics adapter), especially on Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems. The BMP file format is capable of storing 2D digital images of arbitrary width, height, and resolution, both monochrome and color, in various color depths, and optionally with data compression, alpha channels, and color profiles.

BMP files are often not compressed,and therefore are bigger then compressed grapical image files that contain a picture of the same image. The datacompression for BMP files uses Run-length encoding (RLE) wich is suitable for drawings,but not for photo's. BMP files in 24 bits-true-color are never compressed.

BMP files can be in these formats

 * 1 bit ( 2 colors)
 * 4 bit ( 16 colors)
 * 8 bit (256 colors)
 * true-color (RGB, 8 bits for each color, so 24 bits for each pixel).

filename extension
.bmp or .dib