What is a Bitmap Image?

A bitmap image, also known as a bitmap or raster image, is composed of individual points called pixels (picture elements). These points can be arranged and colored differently to form a pattern. When you zoom in on the bitmap, you can see the countless individual squares that make up the entire image. The effect of increasing the size of a bitmap is to increase a single pixel, making lines and shapes appear jagged. However, if you look at it from a distance, the color and shape of the bitmap image appear continuous. Pictures taken with a digital camera, pictures scanned by a scanner, and computer screenshots are all bitmaps. The feature of a bitmap is that it can represent color changes and subtle transitions of colors to produce a realistic effect. The disadvantage is that the position and color value of each pixel need to be recorded when saving, occupying a large storage space. Commonly used bitmap processing software includes Photoshop (also includes vector functions), Painter and Windows's own drawing tools, etc. Adobe Illustrator is vector software.

Also known as

When dealing with bitmaps, focus on resolution ^[3]

BMP is an image file format that has nothing to do with hardware devices and is widely used. It uses

Compare bitmaps to vector graphics

Image type	composition	advantage	Disadvantage	Common production tools
Dot matrix image	Pixel	As long as there are enough pixels of different colors, a colorful image can be produced to realistically represent the natural scene	Scale and rotate easily distorted, and large file size	Photoshop, drawing, etc.
Vector image	Mathematical vector	Small file size, the image will not be distorted when zooming in, zooming out or rotating	Difficult to make images with too many color changes	Illustrator, Flash, CorelDraw, etc.