Data structure for encoding pictures as a set of bits, in which each image pixel is mapped to a bit or a group of bit. Also used for encoding other complex data where each elementary information is mapped to bits, in a similar fashion. For platform specific bitmap API, prefer more specific tags (e.g. android-bitmap or nsbitmapimagerep).
A bitmap is a general data structure that maps complex data to a large set of bits. Each elementary information is mapped to specific bits.
Bitmaps are mostly used to encode graphic data and images. Each image pixel is mapped to a bit (black & white image) or a group of bits (grey scale or color image).
Usage guidelines:
- For platform specific bitmap API, prefer android-bitmap, [tag: nsbitmapimagerep], and rendertargetbitmap
- For bit storage structures regardless of encoding, use bitset, std-bitset, bitarray and other bit or bool containers.
- For data-structures encoding some specific information as a group of bits use bit-fields
External references:
- Bitmap on Wikipedia
- Bitmap indexes on Wikipedia
