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BMP vs RAF

BMP vs RAF

A detailed comparison of BMP Image and Fujifilm RAW — file size, quality, compatibility, and which format to choose for your workflow.

Convert RAF → BMP
BMP

BMP Image

Raster & Vector Images

BMP is an uncompressed raster image format native to Windows. Files are large but preserve exact pixel data with no compression artifacts. Rarely used on the web due to file size.

About BMP files
RAF

Fujifilm RAW

Raster & Vector Images

RAF is the RAW image format used by Fujifilm cameras, containing unprocessed sensor data with Fujifilm color science.

About RAF files

Strengths Comparison

BMP Strengths

  • Dead-simple format — trivially easy to read and write.
  • Lossless and uncompressed — perfect bit-exact pixel storage.
  • Universally supported in Windows applications since 1985.
  • Supports 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, and 32-bit color depths.

RAF Strengths

  • Full 14-bit (most bodies) or 16-bit (GFX) sensor data.
  • Film simulation recipe stored in metadata.
  • X-Trans sensor produces distinctive moiré-free rendering.
  • Supports every classic Fuji film-simulation look.

Limitations

BMP Limitations

  • Enormous file sizes — no meaningful compression in typical use.
  • Not a web format — browsers support it but nobody serves BMPs over HTTP.
  • No metadata support (no EXIF, no ICC profile in practice).
  • Multiple header versions mean "a BMP" is ambiguous — parsers must handle several variants.

RAF Limitations

  • X-Trans demosaicing is the hardest raw problem to solve cleanly.
  • Third-party tools rarely match Fuji's own rendering.
  • Proprietary with no official spec.
  • GFX RAF files are massive (150+ MB per shot).

Technical Specifications

Specification BMP RAF
MIME type image/bmp image/x-fuji-raf
Extensions .bmp, .dib —
Compression None (typical); RLE 4/8 bit (rare) —
Color depths 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 bits per pixel —
Byte order Little-endian —
Extension — .raf
Container — Fujifilm proprietary TIFF-like
Sensor arrays — X-Trans (APS-C), Bayer (GFX medium-format)
Bit depth — 14-bit (X-series); 16-bit (GFX)

Typical File Sizes

BMP

  • Small icon (32×32) 4 KB
  • Screenshot (1920×1080) ~6 MB
  • 4K image (3840×2160) ~25 MB
  • Scanned A4 at 300 dpi ~25 MB

RAF

  • 26 MP RAF (X-T4, X-T5) 40-55 MB
  • 40 MP RAF (X-H2, X-T5 40MP) 60-80 MB
  • 102 MP RAF (GFX 100 II) 150-220 MB

Ready to convert?

Convert between BMP and RAF online, free, and without installing anything. Encrypted upload, automatic deletion after 2 hours.

Convert RAF to BMP

Frequently Asked Questions

BMP (Bitmap) is a raster image format developed by Microsoft for Windows. It stores images with no compression by default, resulting in large file sizes but pixel-perfect quality. It has been part of Windows since version 1.0.

RAF (Fujifilm RAW) is an image format used to store raster graphics — a two-dimensional grid of pixels describing a picture. It is part of the raster & vector images family and designed around a specific trade-off between file size, visual fidelity, and feature support (transparency, colour depth, compression type). Photographers, web designers, and content creators choose RAF when its particular strengths match the publishing target.

BMP files open in Windows Paint, Photos, macOS Preview, GIMP, Photoshop, and virtually any image viewer. All Windows applications support BMP natively.

Most desktop photo viewers (Windows Photos, macOS Preview, GIMP, Photoshop, Affinity Photo) open RAF natively. On mobile, iOS Photos and Google Photos display RAF in the gallery when supported by the OS. If the format is rare or new, convert to JPG or PNG first — both are universally readable — using our RAF to JPG or RAF to PNG converter.

PNG is better than BMP in almost every scenario since it provides lossless compression (smaller files), transparency support, and wider cross-platform use. BMP is mainly relevant for legacy Windows applications.

Upload the RAF to KaijuConverter and pick a target format (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, SVG, PDF). The conversion runs in the browser via ImageMagick and returns a download in seconds. No account or installation required; both input and output delete automatically within two hours.