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Windows Metafile (WMF) to PNG converter

WMF → PNG rescues 1990s and 2000s Windows clip-art and Office drawings into an image format that today's apps, phones and websites accept.

  • Converted with Office engine → Image engine · input deleted within 24 h
  • Free: 5 conversions a day · 5 MB each
  • Higher limits →

From real runs

What you get — and what changes

  • Placeable and plain WMF Kept

    Files with the Aldus placeable header and files without one both rendered; the plain ones get their size from the drawing itself.

  • Picture area Kept

    A Visio-exported block diagram came out as a 1020 × 384 PNG trimmed to the boxes and caption, not a page.

  • Text Changed

    Labels are drawn in substitute fonts; the DGPS and RSxx2 labels and the two-line caption were readable and in place.

  • Asian characters Lost

    A file-name caption containing three Asian characters showed an empty box for each of them; the Latin letters around them were fine.

  • Transparency Lost

    WMF clip-art without a background still comes out on white.

  • Damaged files Lost

    A metafile cut short so that nothing is drawn is refused rather than returned as a white picture.

Sample conversions

Block diagram exported from Visio

Input
13,801-byte WMF without a placeable header.
Output
1020 × 384 PNG of 28,319 bytes; 3.9 s for the layout step and 0.1 s to render.

Small placeable WMF

Input
51,590-byte WMF, 41 × 25.4 mm, with a Hello World heading.
Output
248 × 160 PNG of 4,125 bytes.

A real Windows Metafile (WMF) → PNG run

We converted our Windows Metafile (WMF) sample (50 KB) with Office engine → Image engine on 2026-10-20. It took 1.5 s and produced a 4 KB PNG file, 92% smaller than the input. The engine raised 1 warning, listed below.

Input · sample.wmf · 50 KB

51,590 bytes

Output · sample.png · 4 KB

248 × 160 px, 8-bit, colour type 2

Width
248
Height
160
Encoding
8-bit, colour type 2
  • PDF pages rendered as images; selectable text is not preserved.

Options and when to change them

width
Set a pixel width; vector WMF art redraws cleanly larger, which suits icons and clip-art.
dpi
Use 300 to double the pixel size of small clip-art.

Do it yourself

Inkscape

bash
inkscape clipart.wmf --export-type=png --export-width=1024

Inkscape reads most WMF files; pattern brushes and some fonts differ from Windows too.

Windows Metafile (WMF) to PNG by API or MCP

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

curl
curl -X POST https://filetypeconverters.com/api/v1/convert \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FTC_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@input.wmf" -F "from=wmf" -F "to=png" \
  -F 'options={"width":0}' \
  --output output.png

Options this engine accepts for Windows Metafile (WMF) → PNG

KeyApplies toTypeDefault
widthWriting PNGnumber0
heightWriting PNGnumber0
fitWriting PNGcontain · cover · fillcontain
qualityWriting PNGnumber90
backgroundWriting PNGstring#ffffff
stripMetadataWriting PNGbooleantrue
API reference

When this is the wrong conversion

  • If you need the clip-art scalable for a website, WMF → SVG keeps it as vectors.
  • If the WMF is a picture inside an old Word document, converting the whole document to PDF keeps its context.

Windows Metafile (WMF) to PNG questions

What is a placeable WMF?

A WMF with an extra 22-byte header, added by Aldus, that records the picture's size and resolution. Plain WMFs lack it and get their size from the drawing commands; both convert here.

Why do some letters appear as boxes?

The text uses characters, usually Chinese, Japanese or Korean, that the substitute font does not cover. The rest of the picture is unaffected.

Can I convert a whole folder of old clip-art?

Upload the files together; each WMF is converted on its own and returns its own PNG, so one damaged file does not stop the rest.

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