How to read BMP images in Java

In this article I will show you how to read BMP images in Java. We also have a related article covering how to write BMP files in Java.

BMP files are supported by both ImageIO and Apache Commons Imaging. We felt there was room for better support on the Java platform (especially in performance and support for the format. So we added BMP support to JDeli.

How to read a BMP image in Java with ImageIO

1. Create a File handle, InputStream or URL pointing to the raw BMP image.
2. ImageIO will now be able to read a BMP file into a BufferedImage. This syntax is like so:

   BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(bmpFileOrInputStreamOrURL)

How to read a BMP image in Java with JDeli

1. Add JDeli to your class or module path. (download the trial jar).
2. Create a File, InputStream pointing to the raw BMP image. You can also use a byte[] containing the image data.
3. Read the BMP image into a BufferedImage

   BufferedImage image = JDeli.read(bmpFile);