Documentation can be found at http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl/TkCmd/bitmap.htm

A bitmap is monochromatic representation.  
Use a [photo] [image] when you want color or greyscale images or icons (aka a [pixmap]).

[Tk] uses bitmaps in two senses: directly (via various widgets' '''-bitmap''' options) and indirectly through the `bitmap` [image] type. ''They are different!'' Bitmap images are, first and foremost, images. Naked bitmaps are distinctly uncommon, as well as being difficult to work with in practice.  ''([AMG]: Naked [photo]s, on the other hand... hehehe.)''

If you want to edit the bitmap image, it's easier to use a [photo] with just two colors.
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"[How to edit an executable's desktop icon]"

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Sometimes people want to know how to edit an X bitmap or to create a new one.
See [Paul Obermeier]'s http://www.posoft.de/ 's poBitmap, part of [poSoft utilities] for one tool.

[KPV] See [Bitmap Editor] for a simple tool to create and edit bitmaps.

Also  http://www.sfu.ca/~gay/bme.zip
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A variant [Tk]-pertinent sense of "bitmap" is as a permissible argument to specific
[canvas] subcommands.  A model of such uses is
    .canvas itemconfig rectangle -stipple $bitmap
While Tk offers many interesting bitmap capabilities, it can be difficult tracking 
down their documentation.  A good starting point is the distribution man page for
the library entry point Tk_GetBitmap
[http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.5/TkLib/GetBitmap.htm].
Along with much else, it provides a list--"error", "gray50", "question", and so on--of
standard bitmaps built in to Tk.  Apparently Tk provides no script-level [introspection]
to access this list.  
To view these built-ins, therefore, it's necessary to perform something like the script below. Note, however, that the last 16 bitmaps (from document to caution) are only available on the Mac platform.
    set bitmap_list {error gray75 gray50 gray25 gray12 hourglass
        info questhead question warning document stationery edition
        application accessory folder pfolder trash floppy ramdisk
        cdrom preferences querydoc stop note caution}

    eval destroy [winfo children .]

    canvas .c -height 200 -width 200 -background linen
    listbox .l -height [llength $bitmap_list]

    foreach bitmap $bitmap_list {
        .l insert end $bitmap
    }
    pack .c .l -fill x


    bind .l <ButtonRelease-1> show_bitmap

    proc show_bitmap {} {
        set pattern [.l get [.l curselection]]
        .c delete bitmap
        .c create bitmap 100 100 -bitmap $pattern -tags bitmap
    }
Run this and you'll see such pictures as ... 

[http://tcl.typoscriptics.de/misc/bitmap.gif]


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See also:
   * [Tk syntax help]
   * [Arts and crafts of Tcl-Tk programming]
   * [bitmap.to.photo]
   * [bme]
   * [bitmap images with 2 colors and transparency]

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