bitmap

American  

[bit-map] / ˈbɪtˌmæp /

Or bit map

noun

Computers.

1. a piece of text, a drawing, etc., represented, as on a computer display, by the activation of certain dots in a rectangular matrix of dots.

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bitmap British  

/ ˈbɪtˌmæp /

noun

1. a picture created on a visual display unit where each pixel corresponds to one or more bits in memory, the number of bits per pixel determining the number of available colours

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verb

1. (tr) to create a bitmap of

bitmap Scientific  

/ bĭt′măp′ /

1. A set of bits that represents a graphic image. Each bit or group of bits corresponds to a pixel in the image. Optical scanners and fax machines convert text or pictures into bitmaps.

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Other Word Forms

• bitmapped adjective

Etymology

Origin of bitmap

First recorded in 1970–75; bit ³ ( def. ) + map ( def. )

Example Sentences

A week’s effort of filtering the data segment, which Carracedo Carballal likens to peeling layers off an onion, eventually led to an 8.2-kilobyte bitmap image of five speckled clusters set against a blank background.

From Scientific American • Aug. 3, 2023

The bitmap design philosophy for interstellar communication stretches back to the Arecibo message.

From Scientific American • Mar. 30, 2022

This message featured a custom bitmap “alphabet” created by physicists Yvan Dutil and Stéphane Dumas as a protoalien language that was designed to be robust against transmission errors.

From Scientific American • Mar. 30, 2022

Price: ~$23 Benevolence LA Bitmap Textile Coasters Spruce up your place with these retro coasters, featuring a bitmap design from Susan Kare, the designer who created the iconic original Macintosh icons.

From The Verge • Apr. 30, 2019

"He wrote a program that massages X bitmap files into GIF format."

From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Steele, Guy L.