bin2bmp

Name

bin2bmp – Convert binary files to bitmaps for visual inspection

Synopsis

bin2bmp <-i INPUT-FILE> [-w WIDTH] [-o OUTPUT-FILE] [-d DEPTH]
    [-v] [-r] [-t] [-T]

Description

This script converts arbitrary files to bitmap images by encoding the binary data in the pixel values. This can be used for visual inspection of small and medium-sized (up to a few megabytes) files. Additionally, it is possible to reverse the encoding by means of the -r option.

Technically, larger files will work, too. Although there does not seem to be a good usecase for it, check section Issues with Large Files if interested.

Options

-i	INPUT-FILE	Input filename (required)
-w	WIDTH	Width of output image (default is 1200)
-o	OUTPUT-FILE	Output filename (default is input_filename.png)
-d	DEPTH	Set color depth (24 default, 32 also possible)
-v		Display version and license information
-r		Restore input file a to binary file
-t		Write TGA instead of PNG images
-T		Write TIFF instead of PNG images

Examples

Display the source code as image

./bin2bmp -i bin2bmp -w 60 -o bin2bmp.png

Bugs

Issues with Large Files

• The whole input and output file is loaded into memory. Processing thus requires about two times the size of the input file of memory + overhead (for instance: 4 GiB input file needs 10 GiB RAM).
• The program is entirely single-threaded (hence slow)
• Large files may exceed the formats’ capabilities. Use option -T to produce TIFF files which can accomodate for large bitmaps. In case other programs reject opening the files, consider using a GIS (despite that not being its original function, it works well as a viewer for extra-large TIFF files).
• A better workaround for performance issues is to use split to make multiple small input files from a single file and then process these files with bin2bmp in parallel.

Other

• Monochrome mode does not work

See Also

• An older version of the bin2bmp source code is available on Pastebin: https://pastebin.com/8W1jA1r9
• BinVis (Source)