BMP2 to Zim Converter
FileFlip converts BMP2 to Zim entirely inside your browser, using ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert a BMP2 file to Zim?#
- Drop your BMP2 file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to Zim and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc on your own machine.
- Save the Zim file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting BMP2 to Zim lose quality?#
No. The BMP2 picture is placed into the Zim document at its full resolution, so every pixel reaches it intact. What you give up is that it becomes a picture inside a document rather than text.
Is it safe to convert BMP2 files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts BMP2 files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What BMP2 to Zim actually does to the file#
Converting BMP2 to Zim runs on ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc, downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, places the picture into the document at full resolution.
| Engine | ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | 3 steps: BMP2 → PNG → HTML → Zim |
| Downloaded to your browser | 79.9 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Pixels preserved |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
Worth knowing before you start:
- the picture is placed in the document as a picture; no text is recognised out of it
- the file passes through HTML on the way, so anything HTML cannot express does not survive
What is a BMP2 file?#
BMP2 is ImageMagick's name for a Windows bitmap saved with the original 12-byte BITMAPCOREHEADER from 1987's OS/2 1.x, an encoding choice rather than a different file format, so the result is an ordinary uncompressed .bmp using the oldest and most limited header structure.
Choose BMP2 only when a specific legacy OS/2 or early-1990s Windows program requires the old-style bitmap header.
Save as standard BMP or BMP3 for anything opened on a modern system, since BMP2's extra compatibility buys nothing there.
What is a Zim file?#
A Zim file holds a page from Zim, a desktop wiki application that keeps a personal note collection as plain text files marked up with Zim's own lightweight wiki syntax.
Keep notes in Zim markup while they're edited inside the Zim desktop wiki, where the plain text files stay easy to back up and version.
Convert Zim pages to Markdown when notes need to move to a different note-taking app or get published somewhere Zim's syntax won't render.
BMP2 to Zim questions people ask#
What is BMP2?
BMP2 is ImageMagick's name for a Windows bitmap written with the original 12-byte BITMAPCOREHEADER from OS/2 1.x, not a separate image format. The file is still a plain, uncompressed .bmp and opens anywhere BMP does.
What's the difference between BMP2 and BMP3?
BMP2 uses the old 12-byte OS/2 1.x header and tops out at 24-bit color with no compression. BMP3 uses the 40-byte BITMAPINFOHEADER that Windows 3.0 introduced, which adds 16-bit and 32-bit pixel formats plus RLE compression, and is the header nearly every modern BMP file actually uses.
Should I use BMP2 for a new project?
No, BMP2 has no advantage on a modern system. Use plain BMP or BMP3 instead, and reach for BMP2 only if a legacy OS/2 or early-1990s Windows application specifically requires that header.
What is a .zim file?
A .zim file holds a page's worth of Zim's wiki markup, the syntax the Zim desktop wiki uses for notes. Zim itself actually saves each page as a plain .txt file inside a notebook folder, so a .zim file is what you get once that page has been exported or converted rather than opened straight from a Zim notebook.