{"id":"image-vnd-wap-wbmp","mimeType":"image/vnd.wap.wbmp","name":"Wireless Bitmap","shortName":"WBMP","category":"Legacy \u0026 Mobile","extensions":[".wbmp"],"description":"The image/vnd.wap.wbmp MIME type represents the Wireless Bitmap (WBMP) format, developed by the WAP Forum in the late 1990s. Designed explicitly for early mobile phones with constrained processing power, low bandwidth, and monochrome screens, WBMP is a highly simplified, 1-bit (black and white) uncompressed image format. It was a foundational component of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) ecosystem, enabling the very first wave of mobile web browsing. It has since been rendered entirely obsolete by the widespread adoption of color displays and modern formats like PNG, GIF, and JPEG on mobile devices.","seo":{"title":"image/vnd.wap.wbmp MIME Type | Developer Reference for WBMP","description":"Complete reference for the image/vnd.wap.wbmp MIME type: Wireless Bitmap (WBMP) format details, WAP history, 1-bit monochrome images, and mobile legacy.","faqs":[{"question":"What is a WBMP file?","answer":"A WBMP (Wireless Bitmap) is a legacy 1-bit monochrome image format created for early WAP-enabled mobile phones (like late-1990s Nokia and Ericsson models). It was used to display simple black-and-white icons and logos over slow cellular networks."},{"question":"Can modern web browsers display WBMP images?","answer":"No. Modern desktop and mobile browsers do not support rendering WBMP files. They were completely replaced by standard formats like GIF, PNG, and JPEG as mobile screens evolved to support color."},{"question":"How do I convert a WBMP to a modern format?","answer":"Standard command-line image processing tools like ImageMagick, and server-side libraries like PHP's GD extension, still retain legacy support for decoding and converting WBMP files into standard PNGs or JPEGs."}]},"index":{"compression":["Uncompressed"],"browserSupport":{"score":1,"label":"None"},"commonUses":["Legacy WML (Wireless Markup Language) Mobile Sites","Early Mobile Phone Icons and Operator Logos","Historical WAP Archival"]},"technical":{"magicBytes":{"hex":"00 00","ascii":"\\x00\\x00"},"container":"WBMP Type 0","compressionAlgorithm":["None"],"colorDepth":["1-bit (Monochrome)"],"transparency":false,"animation":false,"metadata":{"exif":false,"xmp":false,"iccProfile":false},"alphaChannel":false,"progressiveLoading":false,"hdrSupport":false},"history":{"developer":"WAP Forum (Now Open Mobile Alliance)","released":"1999","specification":"WAP-192-WBMP Specification"},"browserSupport":{"chrome":false,"chromeVersion":"None","firefox":false,"firefoxVersion":"None","safari":false,"safariVersion":"None","edge":false,"edgeVersion":"None","internetExplorer":false},"softwareSupport":[{"name":"ImageMagick","logo":"image-magic.webp"},{"name":"GIMP","logo":"gimp.svg"},{"name":"PHP GD Library","logo":""}],"conversion":{"convertTo":["png","gif","jpeg"],"convertFrom":["png","gif","bmp"]},"developer":{"httpHeaders":[{"header":"Content-Type","value":"image/vnd.wap.wbmp"}],"htmlAccept":"image/vnd.wap.wbmp, .wbmp","fileDetection":["The WBMP format lacks a strong, unique magic string. A standard Type 0 WBMP file simply begins with two 0x00 bytes (TypeField = 0, FixHeaderField = 0).","Because 00 00 is extremely common at the start of various binary formats, relying strictly on magic bytes for WBMP often results in false positives.","Robust parsers must read the subsequent multi-byte integer fields (representing image width and height) and validate that the remaining file size perfectly matches the calculated bitwise dimensions."]},"prosCons":{"pros":["Extremely low processing overhead made it perfectly suited for the ultra-low-power CPUs of late 1990s mobile devices","Tightly integrated into the WML (Wireless Markup Language) stack, enabling the first functional mobile internet experiences"],"cons":["Completely obsolete and lacks support in modern operating systems and browsers","Limited entirely to 1-bit black and white (0 for black, 1 for white) with zero support for grayscale, color, or transparency","The lack of a strong file header signature makes automated MIME type detection highly unreliable"]},"specifications":{"url":"https://www.openmobilealliance.org/tech/affiliates/wap/wap-192-wbmp-20010725-a.pdf","rfc":"","mimeAliases":["image/wbmp"]},"developerSnippets":{"python":"import magic\n# Libmagic may struggle to accurately identify WBMP files due to the weak '00 00' header.\nprint(magic.from_file('icon.wbmp', mime=True))","nodejs":"const mime = require('mime');\n// JS MIME libraries generally map .wbmp to image/vnd.wap.wbmp based on the extension\nconsole.log(mime.getType('icon.wbmp')); // Outputs 'image/vnd.wap.wbmp'","go":"import (\n    \"bytes\"\n    \"net/http\"\n)\n// http.DetectContentType will not reliably identify WBMP files. It will likely return 'application/octet-stream'.","php":"// PHP's GD extension famously retained legacy WBMP support for decades\n$mime = mime_content_type('icon.wbmp');\n// You can also create them dynamically:\n// $im = imagecreate(20, 20);\n// imagewbmp($im, 'icon.wbmp');"},"relatedFormats":["bmp","gif","png"]}