DDS to BMP Converter

What happens when you convert DDS to BMP

• ImageMagick, the open-source image toolkit, decodes the DDS texture on our conversion server, taking its full-size image rather than the smaller mipmaps, and saves it as a 24-bit bitmap.
• BMP has no transparency, so transparent areas are filled with white.
• DDS textures in the newer DX10 layout, such as BC7, may not open.
• This conversion runs on our server: the file is uploaded, converted, and deleted together with the result as soon as the result has been sent back to you. Nothing is kept. Files up to 25 MB are accepted.

How to convert DDS to BMP online

1. Press "Choose DDS files" and select one or more files, or drag them onto the box. Files up to 25 MB each can be converted.
2. There are no settings to choose: the converter keeps everything the target format can hold.
3. Press "Convert to BMP". The file is uploaded to our conversion server, converted in a few seconds, and deleted together with the result as soon as the result is sent back.
4. Save each BMP with its download button. Our server has already deleted both your DDS and the BMP by then.

Why convert DDS to BMP?

DDS files usually come from textures in games and 3D engines, and game mods. People convert them to BMP because BMP is read by almost every Windows program, embedded display and old piece of software.

In short, DDS is good at what it was made for, and BMP is the more practical choice when the file has to open, upload or print somewhere else. DDS does not open in browsers; Paint.NET, GIMP and game modding tools open it, and Photoshop with NVIDIA's plug-in, while BMP opens in browsers and every Windows image tool.

How to convert DDS to BMP on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android

On Windows

Open this page in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, drag your DDS files in from File Explorer, and press Convert. Each BMP is saved to your Downloads folder.

On a Mac

Safari, Chrome and Firefox all work. Drag the DDS files from Finder onto the drop zone and the BMP files land in Downloads.

On iPhone and iPad

Open the page in Safari and tap Choose DDS files. You can pick from Photos or from the Files app. The converted BMP appears in Files, in the Downloads folder; to put it in your photo library, open it there, tap Share and choose Save Image.

On Android

Open the page in Chrome, tap Choose DDS files and pick them from Files or your gallery. The BMP is saved to the Download folder, where any file manager can find it.

Best settings for DDS to BMP

There are no settings: the image keeps its full size.

Keep the DDS as your original, and convert from it again if you need another format.

DDS vs BMP: the differences

About DDS and BMP files

What is a DDS file?

DDS stores a texture the way a graphics card uses it: compressed in blocks of 4 by 4 pixels that the GPU decodes on the fly, often with mipmaps, smaller copies for distant surfaces. That is why game mods are full of DDS files, and why ordinary image viewers cannot open them.

What is a BMP file?

BMP usually stores pixels with no compression at all, so a 12 megapixel photo is about 36 MB. That size is the price of being readable by almost any program ever written for Windows.

DDS to BMP not working? Common problems

• "Files up to 25 MB can be converted." Server conversions have a size limit. Save the image at a smaller size first.
• "The conversion took too long and was stopped." Very long or complex files can pass the 90 second limit. Split the file and convert the parts.
• "This file is not really in DDS format." The converter checks every file before it runs anything, so a file of another format renamed to .dds is refused. Choose the page for its real format.

Convert DDS to BMP from the command line

ImageMagick does the same on your own computer:

magick input.dds[0] -background white -flatten output.bmp

Converting on your own computer keeps the file entirely local, which is worth it for very large or very sensitive documents. For everything else, the converter on this page does it without installing anything.