A bitmap is a type of raster image made up of a grid of individual pixels, where each pixel has a specific colour value. The term “bitmap” is often used interchangeably with “raster image,” though it also refers to a specific file format on Windows systems (.bmp).
A bitmap is a matrix of dots (bits) that form an image. Each bit or group of bits corresponds to a pixel on the screen or output device. Unlike vector graphics, which define shapes mathematically, bitmaps define images pixel by pixel.
Resolution-dependent: Scaling a bitmap up results in visible pixelation
Fixed dimensions: Defined by width × height in pixels
Can represent any image: From photographs to low-resolution icons
Large file sizes: Especially at high resolutions or colour depths
Colour depth varies: From 1-bit black-and-white to 24-bit true colour and beyond
Photographs and complex images with continuous tone
Digitised paintings or scanned documents
Low-level pixel manipulation in early computer graphics
Embedded displays in hardware with limited graphic capabilities
In your work, bitmap images often emerge as outputs or transitional phases in the modelling pipeline. A scanned Agfa film image becomes a bitmap (e.g. a TIFF or JPEG) capturing material and chromatic contingencies. Bitmap data may later be abstracted into vector or toolpath forms, or used directly in pixel-oriented processes such as halftoning, dithering, or UV printing.
Crucially, bitmap formats record the residue of prior operations—optical blur, chemical grain, scanner noise—making them rich sites of procedural accumulation. In a categorical framework, a bitmap might represent an intermediate morphism between analogue material input and digital transformation, encoding the environmental and technical history of the image in its fixed pixel grid.
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