BMP to SVG Converter

BMP (Windows Bitmap) is the oldest mainstream raster format: uncompressed, no codec required, every pixel stored as raw bytes in BGR order. Windows has opened BMP files natively since version 3.0 in 1990. Legacy enterprise software, industrial HMI systems, hardware display drivers, older CAD applications, and DOS-era design tools all output BMP because it requires nothing to decode — no library, no patent, no runtime dependency. SVG is the XML container format that every modern browser, design tool, and web platform treats as the standard for scalable embedded graphics. Converting BMP to SVG wraps the bitmap pixel data inside an SVG container: the server reads the BMP, decodes the raw pixel rows, re-encodes them as a lossless PNG, and embeds the PNG as a base64 data URI inside an SVG <image> element. The result is a .svg file with XML structure that web pipelines, documentation platforms, and design tools understand natively — no BMP decoder required on the receiving end.

BMP files appear in workflows that predate modern format alternatives: Windows GDI application resources, embedded device splash screens, CAD system raster underlays, legacy game engine sprite sheets, and archival captures from industrial imaging software. When those BMP assets need to move into a web workflow, a documentation system, or a design tool that accepts SVG, this conversion produces a compatible output without requiring format-aware tooling on the destination system.

How to convert BMP to SVG

1. Click Choose File and select a BMP file from your device. Files up to 20 MB are supported. Standard 24-bit BMP files (the most common type) and 32-bit BMP files with alpha channel are both accepted.
2. A preview of the bitmap appears in the browser so you can verify the correct file was selected.
3. Click Convert to SVG. The server reads the BMP's BITMAPINFOHEADER, decodes the pixel rows (handling the bottom-to-top row order inherent in the BMP format), converts BGR to RGB, re-encodes the pixel data as lossless PNG, and wraps it inside an SVG file.
4. Click Download SVG when the result card appears. The file size is shown before the download — SVG with embedded PNG is typically 60–80% smaller than the uncompressed BMP source due to PNG's lossless compression.

Both the uploaded BMP and the SVG output are deleted from the server immediately after your download completes.

Technical details

BMP stores pixels in BGR byte order (blue-green-red, not the RGB order used by PNG and most other formats) with rows written from bottom to top — a legacy of early Windows display conventions. ImageMagick handles both the BGR-to-RGB conversion and the row-order reversal automatically before encoding the output PNG. The resulting pixel values in the SVG are correctly oriented and color-mapped.

The SVG output uses the W3C standard <image> element with an xlink:href="data:image/png;base64,..." attribute. The SVG viewBox attribute is set to the source BMP's pixel dimensions as read from the BITMAPINFOHEADER (width and height fields). This ensures the SVG displays at the exact pixel dimensions of the source bitmap without scaling or cropping.

BMP transparency: 24-bit BMP files (three bytes per pixel: B, G, R) have no alpha channel — these produce a fully opaque SVG image. 32-bit BMP files have a fourth byte per pixel that ImageMagick reads as an alpha channel when present. Transparent areas in a 32-bit BMP are preserved as RGBA alpha in the embedded PNG and render as transparent in the SVG output. Most software-generated BMP files are 24-bit; hardware-captured or OS-generated bitmaps are occasionally 32-bit.

File size comparison: BMP is uncompressed by design — a 1920×1080 24-bit BMP is always exactly 6,220,854 bytes for the pixel data, plus a 54-byte header. PNG's DEFLATE lossless compression reduces this significantly depending on image content: flat color areas compress 70–85%, photographic content compresses 30–50%. A 6 MB BMP of typical content produces a PNG of 1.2–2.5 MB embedded in the SVG, plus XML overhead.