Convert BMP to GIF
Your BMP goes in and a GIF comes out. BMP stores a picture as plain rows of pixels with nothing squeezed out, which makes it easy for old Windows software and simple devices to read. Your file never leaves your computer.
Need the other direction? Convert GIF to BMP
How to convert BMP to GIF
- 1 Drop your BMP .bmp or .dib file onto the page, or click to browse for it.
- 2 Check the options. Nothing is thrown away on the way to GIF, so there is no quality dial to set.
- 3 Convert. The work happens on your own machine, so how long it takes depends on your computer and the file.
- 4 Download the GIF, or add more files and do the whole set in one go.
Why convert BMP to GIF
- Animation plays everywhere with no player or plugin needed.
- Flat colours stay crisp, with nothing smudged around the edges.
- Short looping animations and reaction clips.
- BMP: essentially unusable on the web because of that size.
BMP compared with GIF
How the two formats differ on the things that decide whether a conversion is worth making.
| Property | BMP | GIF |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | .bmp | .gif |
| Compression | Uncompressed | Lossless |
| Animation | No | Yes |
| Colour depth | 1, 4, 8, 16, 24 or 32 bits per pixel | 8-bit indexed, 256 colours per frame |
| Typical file size | Largest | Larger |
| Browser support | All current browsers | Every browser |
| Introduced | 1986 | 1987 |
| Developed by | Microsoft | CompuServe |
| Standard | Proprietary | Open |
Quality and what changes
Both sides are lossless, so every pixel survives the trip intact and converting back returns the same image. What changes is the size and what the file can carry: GIF compresses the same data with a different algorithm, so the size can move in either direction.
- One GIF limitation to keep in mind: only 256 colours per frame, which wrecks photos and smooth gradients.
Questions about BMP to GIF
Why does the GIF look grainy or banded?
GIF allows only 256 colours per frame. Photographic content, gradients and skin tones cannot be represented exactly, so the encoder dithers, which reads as speckle. Flat graphic content survives the palette far better than filmed footage.
Is my BMP file uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole thing runs inside the browser tab you already have open. Your BMP is read straight from your own disk, converted on your machine and handed back as a GIF. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored and there is no account.
Is there a file size limit?
There is no server-side limit because no server sees the file. The real ceiling is your device memory, since the input and the output both have to fit in the tab. A few hundred megabytes is usually fine on a desktop machine and considerably less on a phone.
Can I convert several BMP files at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like and they are processed one after another, then offered as separate GIF downloads or as a single ZIP. Speed depends on your own processor rather than on a queue.
Does the converter work offline?
Yes, after the page has loaded once. The engine is cached by the browser, so you can disconnect, reload and keep converting. That falls out of doing the work locally rather than being a separate mode you switch on.