Definition:
A bitmap is a type of graphic composed of pixels (picture element) in a grid. Each pixel or "bit" contains color information for the image. Bitmap graphics formats have a fixed resolution which means that resizing a bitmap graphic can result in distortion and jagged edges. The opposite of bitmap is the vector graphics format that is resolution-independent and scalable without loss of quality.
Some common bitmap formats are GIF, JPG or JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PICT, PCX, and BMP. Photo-editors or image-editing graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Photo-Paint are designed for creating and editing bitmap graphics.
Pronunciation: [BIT-map]
Also Known As: raster | fixed resolution image
Alternate Spellings: bit map
Examples:
Bitmap images look best used at the size at which created. Making bitmaps larger usually distorts them.
