BIM or Bitmap is a device independent image format developed by Microsoft. It’s a raster format generally without compression or lossless compression. Though you can view BMP files on any devices without graphics card, the problems comes due to its huge size. Many applications like email clients and file sharing apps may restrict sharing BMP images as the size may exceed the limit. The easy solution is to convert BMP to JPG or PNG image format which are widely used.
Reducing BMP Image Size
Below is an example of a BMP image showing in MacBook Finder app with 1.1 MB in size. The size is huge even though the dimensions are small as 640×427 pixels. As mentioned, pasting few such large image files in your Word document or Outlook email will make the apps unresponsive.
After converting 1.1 MB BMP image to JPG or PNG with the same dimensions, the size become 35 KB and 281 KB respectively. The Mac supported HEIF format is smallest in size with only 21 KB. However, Windows and many third-party Mac apps do not support HEIF/HEIC formats by default. Since PNG supports transparent background, you can go for PNG if you need transparency. Otherwise, JPEG is the best option with lossy compression and without transparency.
1. Convert BMG to JPG or PNG in Windows
Earlier days, the popular Paint app used to save the images in BMP format. However, now it saves in PNG format and you can the app to convert BMP to JPG or PNG.
- Search and open Paint app.
- Go to “File > Open” menu and open your BMP image.
- Go to “File > Save as” and you will see a list of file types.
- Select “JPEG”, “PNG” or “GIF” from the list.
- If you want to save in other format, select “Other format” option.
- This will open “Save as” dialog and click on “Save as type” dropdown. You will see file types like TIFF and HEIC in addition to JPEG/PNG/GIF.
- Select the image format you want to convert and choose the location.
- Click on “Save” button to convert the image.
Similar to Paint, you can also save as BMP file to any other format using Paint 3D app.
1.1. Using Photos App for Image Conversion
Windows by default opens image files using Photos app. You can also use this Photos app for converting images from one format to other.
- Locate your BMP file and double click to open it with Photos app. Otherwise, right-click or shift + right-click on the BMP image, select “Open with” option and open the file with Photos app.
- Click on the “See more” three dots icon in Photos app and select “Save as” option. Alternatively, press “Control + S” keyboard shortcut keys.
- Select “JPG” or “PNG” format to convert BMP files to the selected format. Photos app also supports converting to JXR and TIFF formats.
- Choose the location and click “Save” button to get your converted image.
2. Convert BMP to JPG or PNG in Mac
Preview is the default app in Mac to open image files. You can use the app to convert images to different format without any third-party tools.
- Simply double click on your image to open it in Preview app. Otherwise, first open Preview app and go to “File > Open” and open your BMP image.
- Go to “File > Save As…” or “File > Export…” menu option in Preview app.
- Click the “Format” dropdown in the pop-up and choose the image format for conversion.
- Preview app supports JPEG, PNG, TIFF, JPEG-2000, HEIC, OpenEXR and PDF formats.
- Since JPEG images allow lossy image compression, you will see additional options for changing quality when you select JPEG format.
- You will also see the estimated file size of the converted image to understand how much space you can save. For JPEG, you can adjust the quality slider to reduce or increase the compression and hance the image size.
- After settings the format and quality, select the location and click “Save” button to convert the BMP file.
2.1. Using Finder App to Convert BMP Images
The other easy option in Mac is to use the default Quick Actions in Finder app. This will help to convert BMP to JPG or PNG while viewing without opening Preview app.
- Open Finder app and select your BMP file.
- Arrange the items “as Columns” so that you can see a list of Quick Actions below the selected image on the preview pane.
- Click “Convert Image” option to open a pop-up. If you do not see “Convert Image” option, click on “More” and select “Customize” option. This will open Finder Extensions preferences where you can enable “Convert Image” Quick Actions.
- Select your image format for conversion in the pop-up. Here the supported formats are limited to JPEG, PNG and HEIF.
- Select one of the image sizes to create small, medium, large or actual size. You will also see the estimated output file size for each dimension.
- Enable “Preserve Metadata” to keep image details and click “Convert to ….” button.
- This will create a duplicate of the image with the same name but with the selected format. You can change the file name if required.
- The converted image will be available in the same folder of the original image.
Note: Both Preview app Finder Quick Actions do not support converting JPG or PNG back to BMP format. Therefore, make sure not to delete your original BMP files if you want to retain them.
3. BMP to JPG/PNG Conversion with Third-Party App Snagit
There are also plenty of third-party apps available for image conversion. However, we recommend using premium apps like Snagit as the app has high quality editor for image processing. This is also one of the best tools for screen capturing and recording your screen.
- First, purchase and install Snagit app from the developer’s website. You should type the valid license key to activate the app.
- For converting a single file, Go to “File > Open” and open your BMP image in Snagit Editor. When the file is opened in editor, go to “File > Save As” menu.
- Select the “Format” and quality for JPG image. The app offers conversion to JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF and also in PDF.
- Choose the location and click “Save” button to convert the image.
The best part is that you can select multiple images from the Library and batch convert BMP to JPG/PNG with few clicks. For example, you can select 2 BMP and 2 PNG images and convert all of them to JPG format. Since the app works on your computer, you do not need to upload the images in Cloud or on any external server.
4. Online Tools for BMP to JPG/PNG Conversion
Using online tool is the best option on the smartphones especially when you do not want to use any third-party apps. Most websites offer single file conversion for free and restrict batch conversion only for premium users. Convertio is one of the freemium tools for doing single or batch conversion. The tool supports 2 images for batch processing with free account and you need to upgrade to premium for increasing this limit. The supported output formats include PNG, JPG, TIFF, ICO, WebP, SVG, etc. You can also upload files from Google Drive or Dropbox and convert them.
- Go to Convertio website and click on the “Choose Files” button.
- Upload your BMP images and select the output format for each image.
- Click on the “Convert” button to start the processing.
- The free service allows two files concurrently and convert them to the selected formats. If you have uploaded more than 2 images with free account, first 2 images will be converted with a notification message to sign up for the service.
- Once the conversion is finished, you will see “Finished” against each image and click on “Download” button to save the images to your computer. The converted images will be available 24 hours for you to download before getting deleted from their servers.
Remember, you need to upload the images to their server for processing images. Therefore, do not upload confidential or private images in any online tools.
Final Words
There are multiple ways to convert BMP to JPG or PNG image format. for single image conversion, you can always use the in-built apps like Paint or Preview. However, using a desktop app like Snagit is the safer and faster way for frequent batch processing of BMP files. Though online tools can help for on the fly conversion from mobiles, you should be aware of the privacy when uploading files on free third-party servers.
