BMP to GIF Converter
Some old systems, forums and chat tools still ask for GIF, and your picture is sitting in a BMP. This converter turns the bitmap into a standard single-image GIF. It is not an animation maker: you get one still picture, built in your browser with no upload.
How to convert BMP to GIF
- Add your BMP files by dropping them, clicking the drop zone or pasting.
- The output format is already set to GIF. Adjust quality or size if you need to.
- Press Convert and compare the original and new size for each file.
- Download each file or all of them as a ZIP.
When to convert, and when not to
- A legacy tool or site accepts only GIF and your artwork is a bitmap.
- The picture is a simple graphic, icon or diagram with a limited colour range.
- You need a still GIF, not an animation.
- Avoid it for photographs; reducing them to 256 colours causes visible banding. JPG or PNG is better there.
What changes
- GIF holds at most 256 colours. This tool picks a palette of 255 colours from your picture plus one reserved transparent colour.
- Smooth gradients and photographs can show banding after the colour reduction.
- Mostly transparent pixels become fully transparent; partly see-through edges are not blended, which can leave slightly rough borders.
- The result is a single frame. It will not move.
- No quality slider applies, and metadata is not carried over.
What happens to your colours
A bitmap this tool produces or reads can contain millions of different colours. GIF can only point to a palette of 256 entries. The converter therefore analyses your picture, groups similar colours together and builds a palette that matches it as closely as it can.
For flat artwork with a handful of colours the result can look identical. For anything with smooth shading the loss is easy to see, so look at the converted picture at full size before you use it.
Why GIF is still around
GIF is one of the oldest web image formats, which gives it a unique advantage: almost anything can open it. That is the only good reason to choose it for a still image today. PNG gives better quality for graphics and takes similar space in many cases.
If the destination accepts PNG, use that instead. If it insists on GIF, this page gets you there.
Transparency and edges
GIF supports exactly one transparent colour with no partial opacity. A bitmap rarely has transparency at all, so most conversions produce a fully opaque picture. If yours does contain see-through regions, expect hard edges rather than smooth fades.
GIF is rarely the best technical choice today, but compatibility sometimes outranks quality. Ancient message boards, some e-mail systems and embedded devices were built around it. If you know the target accepts GIF only, this page gives you a quick and private route.
Before sending the file anywhere, look at the converted image at full size. Check smooth areas for banding and make sure small details survived. If it looks poor, a PNG may be accepted instead and will keep far more of the original.
Privacy: your files stay on your device
- The tool decodes, resizes and encodes your pictures with your browser. The files are never sent to a server.
- To check it yourself: open the browser developer tools (F12), open the Network tab, convert a file, and look for any request that carries your image. You will see none.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make an animated GIF here?
No. This tool writes one still frame from one image.
Why do my colours look banded?
GIF limits a picture to 256 colours, and smooth gradients suffer from that. Use PNG or JPG if banding is a problem.
Is the GIF bigger than the BMP?
Usually it is smaller, since bitmaps are uncompressed, but compare the sizes shown for your own file.
Does it keep transparency?
It can keep fully transparent pixels. Partly transparent edges are not blended.
Is anything sent to a server?
No. The whole conversion happens in your browser.