What is the difference bitween Bitmap and Pixmap?

What is the difference between Bitmap and pixmap?also what is the file extension of bitmap a开发者_高级运维nd pixmap?

The term "pixmap" is short for "pixel map. A pixmap stores and displays a graphical image as a rectangular array of pixel color values.
while a pixmap that uses only a single bit to denote the color of each pixel is often referred to as a bitmap. Bitmap is also sometimes used to refer to any pixmap.

Reference

Look at here to read more about PixMap.

File extensions

bitmap is .BMP

pixmaps is .XPM

On one side, a Pixmap is a pixel map, so it is a memory area formed of pixels. On the other side, a Pixmap is used for drawing, so it is a 2d rectangular area, where drawing is possible.

This being said, the only thing which is left to understand, is how drawing is performed? The answer is that drawing is performed by setting the pixels of a PIxmap, which leads to the question what is a pixel?

As with everything in a computer, a pixel is just a numeric value. A numeric value is represented in the computer by using bits, so a pixel is a series of bits. When only one bit is used to represent a pixel, this is called a bitmap.

A pixel is a numeric value, which represents what? you might ask. Simply put, it represents a color. 1 bit can represent two colors, two bits can represent four colors, and n bits can represent 2 to the power n colors.

This numeric pixel value, maps to a color scheme, so you have multiple color schemes, for example black and white, monochrome with different intensities, and colorful color schemes such as RGB.

So, for example, in RGB, the numeric pixel value, can represent intensities of light, mixed together to form the final color, like by having a red, green, blue phosphorus material, hit with electron beams.

There are monochrome bitmaps and color bitmaps.

Bitmap is a synonym to a monochrome bitmap.

Pixmap is a synonym to a color bitmap.

Graymap is a synonym to a color bitmap.

Monochrome bitmaps use 1 bit to store a color, hence max 2 colors.

Color bitmaps use several bits for storing a color. The more bits per pixel it dedicates, the more colors this pixmap / graymap / color bitmap will support.