Computer Hardware Terms, Glossary and Dictionary

Device-Independent Bitmap (DIB), also kown as Bitmap (BMP), is the graphics format supported by Windows and some other OS. The graphic files in DIB format are generally end with a .bmp extension. DIB images can also be transferred in metafiles and the clipboard. It's called device-independent because colors are represented in a format independent of the final output device. When a DIB image is output to a specific device, the device driver translates the DIB colors into actual colors that the output device can display. For example, to display bitmap graphs on screen, Device Dependent Bitmap (DDB) must be used.

Related Terms

DIB: Device-Independent Bitmap