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Image MIME Reference
BMP

Windows Bitmap (Legacy Windows MIME Alias)

image/x-windows-bmp
VS

Tagged Image File Format (Legacy MIME)

image/x-tiff
TIFF

A complete technical comparison of Windows Bitmap (Legacy Windows MIME Alias) and Tagged Image File Format (Legacy MIME) — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

BMP wins on browser support

Feature Support

Feature BMP TIFF
Transparency (Alpha) Yes Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support ✕ No Yes
EXIF Metadata ✕ No Yes
ICC Color Profile Yes Yes
Windows Bitmap (Legacy Windows MIME Alias)
image/x-windows-bmp
Extension
.bmp.dib
Container DIB (Device-Independent Bitmap)
Compression Uncompressed / Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
Algorithm
NoneRLE4RLE8
Color Depth 1-bit (Monochrome), 4-bit (16 colors), 8-bit (256 colors), 16-bit (High Color), 24-bit (True Color), 32-bit (True Color with Alpha)
Developed by Microsoft Corporation
Released 1985
Magic Bytes
42 4D
Full BMP reference →
Tagged Image File Format (Legacy MIME)
image/x-tiff
Extension
.tiff.tif
Container IFD (Image File Directory) Tag Structure
Compression Uncompressed / LZW (Lossless) / ZIP / Deflate (Lossless) / PackBits (Lossless RLE) / JPEG (Lossy) / CCITT Group 3/4 (Fax/Document)
Algorithm
NoneLZWDeflatePackBitsJPEGCCITT
Color Depth 1-bit (Monochrome), 8-bit (Grayscale or Indexed), 16-bit (Per Channel), 32-bit (Float Per Channel)
Developed by Aldus Corporation (Later acquired by Adobe Systems)
Released 1986
Magic Bytes
49 49 2A 00 (Little-endian) or 4D 4D 00 2A (Big-endian)
Full TIFF reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser BMP TIFF
Chrome Chrome
✓ 1
 ✕
Firefox Firefox
✓ 1
 ✕
Safari Safari
✓ 1
 ✕
Edge Edge
✓ 12
 ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✓
 ✕
BMP

BMP Strengths

  • Universally supported by all major operating systems and modern web browsers
  • Maintains perfect, lossless fidelity because pixel data is stored without lossy compression artifacts
Limitations
  • Massive file size overhead due to a lack of modern compression algorithms
  • Legacy MIME strings like 'image/x-windows-bmp' can trigger validation warnings in strict security or API environments if unhandled
TIFF

TIFF Strengths

  • Universally accepted as the gold standard for high-fidelity archival and professional print workflows
  • Highly adaptable structure supports multiple pages (documents), layers, vast bit depths, and diverse compression algorithms within a single file
  • Unmatched support for rich metadata including EXIF, IPTC, XMP, and custom ICC color profiles
Limitations
  • Produces exceptionally large file sizes compared to modern web formats
  • The 'x-tiff' legacy MIME string forces developers to write extra validation logic to prevent strict security filters from rejecting valid uploads
  • The format's immense complexity means that many lightweight parsers only implement a subset of the specification, sometimes failing to read obscure compressions (like CCITT or old JPEG-in-TIFF)

When to choose which format

BMP
Use BMP when…
  • Legacy Windows Desktop Registry Associations
  • Older Enterprise Intranet Applications
  • Windows Graphics Archival
TIFF
Use TIFF when…
  • Professional Print and Desktop Publishing
  • High-Resolution Archival Scanning
  • Master Copies of Digital Photography

More comparisons

BMP vs ACES → TIFF vs ACES → BMP vs APNG → TIFF vs APNG → BMP vs AVCI → TIFF vs AVCI → BMP vs AVCS → TIFF vs AVCS → BMP vs AVIF → TIFF vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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