VimWiki to BMP3 Converter
FileFlip converts VimWiki to BMP3 entirely inside your browser, using Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick 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 VimWiki file to BMP3?#
- Drop your VimWiki 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 BMP3 and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick on your own machine.
- Save the BMP3 file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting VimWiki to BMP3 lose quality?#
Yes, in the sense that text stops being text. Each VimWiki page is rendered to pixels and handed to BMP3, so the result looks right and can no longer be selected, searched, or reflowed.
Is it safe to convert VimWiki files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts VimWiki 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 VimWiki to BMP3 actually does to the file#
Converting VimWiki to BMP3 runs on Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick, downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, renders each page to pixels, keeps page layout, and drops selectable text and transparency.
| Engine | Pandoc, MuPDF and ImageMagick |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | 3 steps: VimWiki → HTML → PNG → BMP3 |
| Downloaded to your browser | 79.9 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Text becomes pixels |
| You get back | One image per page, zipped when the source has several |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Selectable text | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
| Page layout | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| Transparency | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
Worth knowing before you start:
- pages render at twice their point size in opaque RGB, roughly 144 DPI, with no transparency
- reflowable input is laid out on a fixed 595x842pt page at 11pt before anything else happens
- the file passes through HTML on the way, so anything HTML cannot express does not survive
What is a VimWiki file?#
A file with VimWiki's default .wiki extension holds a page in VimWiki's markup, the syntax the VimWiki plugin uses to turn a folder of plain-text files into a personal wiki inside Vim.
Keep notes as VimWiki while they're actively edited inside Vim, where the plugin provides links, checkboxes, and folding for free.
Convert VimWiki files to another format to share notes with someone who doesn't use Vim, or to publish them somewhere VimWiki's own HTML export doesn't reach.
What is a BMP3 file?#
BMP3 is ImageMagick's name for a Windows bitmap saved with the 40-byte BITMAPINFOHEADER that Windows 3.0 introduced in 1990, an encoding choice rather than a different file format, and it's the header structure the overwhelming majority of ordinary .bmp files already use.
Choose BMP3 for maximum compatibility, since it's the header format nearly all BMP-reading software expects.
Convert away from BMP to PNG when the image needs transparency, or when you want lossless compression smaller than BMP3's largely uncompressed pixel data.
VimWiki to BMP3 questions people ask#
What program opens a .wiki file from VimWiki?
A VimWiki .wiki file is plain text, so any text editor displays it, but the VimWiki plugin for Vim or Neovim is what turns it into a linked, navigable wiki page with folding and to-do checkboxes. Without the plugin, it just looks like text with visible markup characters.
Do I need Vim to read a VimWiki file?
No, since a VimWiki file is plain text underneath, but reading it comfortably without Vim usually means converting it to a format like Markdown or HTML first. Vim with the VimWiki plugin is what's needed to edit and navigate it as an actual wiki.
Why does my .wiki file look like Markdown instead of VimWiki syntax?
VimWiki supports three syntax dialects: its own native syntax, Markdown, and MediaWiki, chosen in the plugin's configuration rather than by the file extension. A .wiki file set to the Markdown dialect is written in Markdown syntax even though it keeps the .wiki extension.
What is BMP3?
BMP3 is ImageMagick's name for a standard Windows bitmap written with the 40-byte BITMAPINFOHEADER, not a separate format. It's the same header structure that almost every ordinary .bmp file already uses.