ICO to BMP Converter

About ICO to BMP

Converts an ICO icon to a bitmap file, for the situations where a legacy program or a piece of hardware asks for BMP artwork. The icon is decoded by the browser, drawn to a canvas at its own size, and then written out as a genuine 24-bit bitmap.

How to use it

1. Add your .ico file by dropping it into the box or by clicking to browse.
2. Confirm the icon appears in the preview.
3. Press Convert to BMP. No sliders are shown, because BMP has no quality setting.
4. Save the result using Download BMP.

When to use it

• Preparing an icon image for a legacy application that reads bitmap files only.
• Creating a raw, uncompressed copy of an icon for a pixel-inspection script.
• Supplying a small bitmap to firmware or a display library that lists .bmp.

Questions about ICO to BMP

What happens to icon transparency in a BMP?

A standard 24-bit BMP cannot store alpha, so transparent areas of the icon are blended onto white when the file is written. Semi-transparent edges fade toward white.

Is the download a genuine BMP?

Yes. Browsers cannot encode BMP from a canvas, so the tool writes the bytes itself: a BM header, a 40-byte info header and uncompressed 24-bit rows padded to four bytes.

How large would a real BMP be?

For 24-bit, about width × height × 3 bytes plus a 54-byte header. A 256×256 icon comes to 196,662 bytes, far larger than the ICO it came from, which is usually only a few kilobytes.

Which frame is used from a multi-size ICO?

The browser picks one frame, usually the largest, and only that single frame is converted. The other sizes stored in the file are ignored.

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