Bitmaps should be saved in a file that uses the established bitmap file format and assigned a name with the three-character .bmp extension. The established bitmap file format consists of a BITMAPFILEHEADER structure followed by a BITMAPINFOHEADER, BITMAPV4HEADER, or BITMAPV5HEADER structure. An array of RGBQUAD structures (also called a color table) follows the bitmap information header structure. The color table is followed by a second array of indexes into the color table (the actual bitmap data).
The bitmap file format is shown in the following illustration.
The members of the BITMAPFILEHEADER structure identify the file; specify the size of the file, in bytes; and specify the offset from the first byte in the header to the first byte of bitmap data. The members of the BITMAPINFOHEADER, BITMAPV4HEADER, or BITMAPV5HEADER structure specify the width and height of the bitmap, in pixels; the color format (count of color planes and color bits-per-pixel) of the display device on which the bitmap was created; whether the bitmap data was compressed before storage and the type of compression used; the number of bytes of bitmap data; the resolution of the display device on which the bitmap was created; and the number of colors represented in the data. The RGBQUAD structures specify the RGB intensity values for each of the colors in the device's palette.
The color-index array associates a color, in the form of an index to an RGBQUAD structure, with each pixel in a bitmap. Thus, the number of bits in the color-index array equals the number of pixels times the number of bits needed to index the RGBQUAD structures. For example, an 8x8 black-and-white bitmap has a color-index array of 8 * 8 * 1 = 64 bits, because one bit is needed to index two colors. The Redbrick.bmp, mentioned in About Bitmaps, is a 32x32 bitmap with 16 colors; its color-index array is 32 * 32 * 4 = 4096 bits because four bits index 16 colors.
To create a color-index array for a top-down bitmap, start at the top line in the bitmap. The index of the RGBQUAD for the color of the left-most pixel is the first n bits in the color-index array (where n is the number of bits needed to indicate all of the RGBQUAD structures). The color of the next pixel to the right is the next n bits in the array, and so forth. After you reach the right-most pixel in the line, continue with the left-most pixel in the line below. Continue until you finish with the entire bitmap. If it is a bottom-up bitmap, start at the bottom line of the bitmap instead of the top line, still going from left to right, and continue to the top line of the bitmap.
The following hexadecimal output shows the contents of the file Redbrick.bmp.