About

Bmp2fits is a tool to convert bitmap (.bmp) files to flexible image transport system (.fits) files.

Highlights

• Usable as a CLI or python package.
• Free and open source using the MIT License.

Getting Started

Bmp2fits can be installed from this repo using pip.

pip install git+https://github.com/Cbantz/BMP2FITS.git

After installation, you can use bmp2fits as a command line interface (CLI) or as a python package.

Using CLI

Using the CLI takes a basic command structure:

bmp2fits [input_path] [output_path] [args]

• [input_path] is a path to either a .bmp file or a directory containing .bmp files that you wish to be converted.
• [output_path] is the location you wish the .fits file to be saved. It can be either a directory (recommended) or a file path.
• [args]
  • --overwrite will overwrite any existing files with the same name in an output path when saving your converted files.
  • --verbose will print confirmations of each image as it is converted and saved.

NOTES:

• Currently, if given a directory as an [input_path], the CLI will convert all .bmp files in said directory.
• If a directory is given for the [output_path], files will be saved as their original name but with .fits instead of .bmp
  • e.g. input_path/image.bmp -> output_path/image.fits
• You will get an error if you try to overwrite without using the overwrite flag.

Using Python Package

Bmp2fits can be imported into your project using

import bmp2fits.

The only function you are likely to use is bmp2fits.convert().

This function, much like the CLI, takes arguments for bmp_path, output_path, overwrite, and verbose. For example,

bmp2fits.convert("path/to/bmp.bmp", "my_converted_files", header=my_header, overwrite = True)

Convert() returns the path to the saved FITS file.

Unlike the CLI, the python package is not designed for converting an entire directory. Rather, it converts individual files, passed via the bmp_path argument, and saves them to the output_path, which has the same rules as the CLI. If you wish to convert full directories in python, this is easily accomplished using glob.

Working in python gives you the option to add headers to your converted FITS file by passing an astropy.io.fits.Header object.