Bitmapped Images (or bitmaps) are composed of a set of bits in computer memory that define the color and intensity of each pixel in an image. Bitmaps are typically used to reproduce images that contain lots of detail, shading, and color. Photographs, film negatives, and other illustrations are commonly stored as bitmaps. The following example shows how a bitmap is formed.
You can create bitmaps by using paint software, by scanning photographs or flat art using a color scanner, or by digitizing video frames using a video camera and frame grabbing equipment.
The software tools used to create bitmaps are often called Paint programs, as they require you to build the image by painting individual pixels a specific color. The standard bitmap format used by Windows is the Device Independent Bitmap format (DIB). Generally, you'll create the images in some other industry standard format (such as PCX) and then convert them to DIB for incorporation into your application.
Bitmap images often display more quickly than complex vector graphic images. Bitmaps can load directly into memory for display, eliminating the time needed by a rendering engine to build a vector graphic image.
Bitmaps, however, require more disk space than vector graphics, since bitmaps have to specify information about each pixel displayed on the screen.
Using bitmaps can also cause your application to reach limitations of the PC display system, unless you recognize the factors associated with Resolution, Image Depth, and File Size.