BMP to ICO converter

BMP pixels are decoded and encoded as ICO by our image engine for bmp-to-ico; no OCR is performed.

Converted with Image engine · nothing stored
Free: 5 conversions a day · 5 MB each
Higher limits →

What changes

BMP pixels are decoded and encoded as ICO by our image engine for bmp-to-ico; no OCR is performed.
EXIF, color profiles, layers, animation frames, and camera metadata may be stripped unless the destination requires minimal metadata.
Transparency stays for PNG and WebP but is filled with the selected background for JPEG, BMP, PDF, and other opaque targets.
Animated inputs such as GIF are flattened to a still frame unless a server codec explicitly supports animation for that output.
SVG input is rasterized at the requested dimensions or DPI, producing pixels rather than editable vector paths.
This pair runs in a browser worker first, so standard web conversion does not upload the file.

A real BMP → ICO run

We converted our BMP sample (703 KB) with Image engine on 2026-10-20. It took 16 ms and produced a 10 KB ICO file, 99% smaller than the input. The engine raised 1 warning, listed below.

Input · sample.bmp · 703 KB

600 × 400 px, 24-bit

Width: 600
Height: 400
Encoding: 24-bit

Output · sample.ico · 10 KB

256 × 171 px, 1 size: 256×171

Width: 256
Height: 171
Encoding: 1 size: 256×171

Image metadata stripped from output.

Options

width: Set the output width in pixels.
height: Set the output height in pixels.
fit: Contain, cover, or fill within the requested dimensions.
quality: Set lossy output quality where the codec supports it.
background: Fill transparency with this color for opaque formats.
stripMetadata: Remove source metadata when writing the output.
dpi: Rasterize SVG or PDF-derived pixels at the requested scale where supported.

Example

input

BMP image, 1200 × 800 pixels

output

ICO image resized or re-encoded without OCR text extraction

Do it in code

python

from PIL import Image
img = Image.open("input.bmp")
img.save("output.ico")

BMP to ICO by API or MCP

The HTTP API and the MCP server run the exact engine this page uses (Image engine); the response carries the same warnings the web converter shows. Check support first with GET /api/v1/pairs?from=bmp&to=ico.

curl

curl -X POST https://filetypeconverters.com/api/v1/convert \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FTC_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@input.bmp" -F "from=bmp" -F "to=ico" \
  -F 'options={"dpi":96}' \
  --output output.ico

Options this engine accepts for BMP → ICO

Key	Applies to	Type	Default
dpi	Reading BMP	number	96
width	Writing ICO	number	0
height	Writing ICO	number	0
fit	Writing ICO	contain · cover · fill	contain
quality	Writing ICO	number	90
background	Writing ICO	string	#ffffff
stripMetadata	Writing ICO	boolean	true

API reference

Related conversions

This converter works today; a tested write-up of what changes for BMP → ICO is in progress.