Definition of BMP

BMP (short for bitmap) is a graphic format used internally by the Microsoft Windows graphics subsystem, and used commonly as a simple graphics file format on that platform. BMP files are usually not compressed, so they are typically much larger than compressed image file formats such as JPEG or PNG. Despite its shortcomings, the simplicity of BMP and its widespread use in Microsoft Windows and elsewhere, as well as the fact that this format is well-documented and free of patents, makes it a very common format. As such, many image programs are likely to be able to read in BMP files.