Free online BMP to MUSICXML converter

A scanned musical score may exist only as a BMP image, while notation programs require MUSICXML for editable notes, rhythms, voices, and layout data. This conversion therefore requires optical music recognition (OMR), not ordinary image-format conversion.

What the BMP format is

BMP is a raster image format that stores a grid of colored pixels, commonly without compression or with simple lossless compression. In music composition, BMP files usually come from a scanner, a screenshot, Windows Paint, or an export from older notation and page-layout software.

A BMP preserves the visible page—staff lines, symbols, lyrics, and text—but contains no structured information identifying pitches, durations, measures, clefs, key signatures, or voices. Renaming the extension or using a standard image converter cannot produce a usable notation file.

What the MUSICXML format is

MUSICXML is an XML-based interchange format for digital musical notation. It represents measures, parts, notes, rests, durations, articulations, dynamics, lyrics, staff assignments, layout hints, and other score information.

Notation applications such as MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius, Dorico, and many educational and composition systems can import or export MUSICXML. It is preferable to a page image when the score must be transposed, edited, played back, rearranged, archived as structured notation, or moved between different notation programs.

How to actually convert BMP to MUSICXML

Use an OMR application such as Audiveris. The conversion workflow is:

1. Inspect the BMP. A clean monochrome scan at approximately 300–400 dpi gives OMR software enough detail to distinguish noteheads, stems, beams, and staff lines.
2. If Audiveris does not accept the particular BMP, convert it to PNG or TIFF without reducing its dimensions. ImageMagick can do this with magick input.bmp output.png.
3. Open the image in Audiveris through File → Open. Let the program detect pages, systems, staves, symbols, measures, and musical semantics.
4. Review the recognition results in Audiveris. Correct missed or extra symbols, staff connections, clefs, time signatures, key signatures, note values, ties, tuplets, lyrics, and part assignments before exporting.
5. Export the recognized score through Audiveris’s MusicXML export command. Save the result as a .musicxml or compressed .mxl file, depending on the available export option.
6. Open the exported file in MuseScore or another notation program and compare every measure with the BMP. Save corrections from that program as MUSICXML if necessary.

You can also use the free converter on 101convert.com without installing software. For a scanned score, verify that its conversion workflow supports music OMR; a general-purpose BMP converter can change the image container but cannot infer musical notation.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

OMR accuracy depends on the source image. Skewed pages, shadows, blurred scans, handwritten notation, low contrast, broken staff lines, multiple independent voices, tablature, unusual symbols, and dense orchestral layouts commonly produce incorrect MUSICXML.

Use a straight, evenly lit scan with the complete page visible. Remove borders and background artifacts, but do not erase staff lines or resize the image so aggressively that noteheads and stems merge.

MUSICXML can preserve musical content more reliably than exact page appearance. Printed spacing, system breaks, fonts, custom symbols, and some engraving details may change when the file is opened in another notation program. Always audition the imported score and inspect playback for wrong pitches, durations, rests, ties, tuplets, and voice assignments.

A BMP containing a photograph of a manuscript or a decorative score may require substantial manual rewriting. If the source score is already available as a native notation file, exporting that file directly to MUSICXML produces better results than recognizing a BMP image.