TCR to WBMP Converter

Free TCR to WBMP conversion online — simple and fast

Drop files here. 1 GB maximum file size or Sign Up
to
Facebook Amazon Microsoft Tesla Nestle Walmart L'Oreal

Lightning-Fast Results

TCR files are tiny and WBMP is a simple format — conversion from TCR to WBMP completes almost instantly on Convertio servers.

Legacy to Legacy Bridge

Convert TCR compressed text from PalmOS into WBMP bitmap images designed for wireless and embedded device displays.

Server-Side Processing

All conversion happens in the cloud — your computer or phone does no heavy lifting. Just upload, convert, and download the WBMP.

How to convert TCR to WBMP

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose wbmp or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your wbmp file right afterwards

About formats

TCR (Text Compression for Reader) is a compressed plain-text ebook format developed by Barry Childress in the early 1990s for the Psion Series 3 family of palmtop computers. The format was created for Childress's Reader3 application, a text file viewer that needed to fit large books into the Psion's extremely limited storage — typically 128 KB to 2 MB of available memory. TCR uses a dictionary-based compression scheme derived from the earlier ZVR format by Ian Giddings, replacing repeated byte sequences with single-byte tokens that reference a header dictionary. This straightforward approach achieves compression ratios of roughly 40-60% on typical English prose while requiring minimal CPU resources for decompression. The Psion Series 3 ran on a 3.84 MHz NEC V30 processor with no floating-point unit, so TCR's low computational overhead was essential for smooth page-by-page reading. A key advantage is remarkable storage efficiency for its simplicity — users could carry dozens of novels on removable SSD cards that held only a few hundred kilobytes. The format found a dedicated user community among Psion enthusiasts who built libraries of compressed literature for portable reading years before smartphones existed. Though the Psion platform faded from the market in the early 2000s, TCR files can still be opened and converted by modern ebook tools, and the format stands as an early example of purpose-built mobile reading technology from the pre-smartphone era.
Developer: Barry Childress
Initial release: 1993
WBMP (Wireless Bitmap) is a monochrome (1-bit, black and white) image format defined as part of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) specification, developed by the WAP Forum (later consolidated into the Open Mobile Alliance) around 1998. The format was designed for the extremely constrained mobile devices of the late 1990s and early 2000s — phones with small monochrome screens, minimal processing power, and narrow bandwidth GSM data connections. WBMP uses the simplest possible encoding: a type identifier byte (always 0 for the only defined type), width and height encoded as multi-byte integers using a variable-length scheme, and the raw pixel data where each bit represents one pixel (0 for white, 1 for black) packed eight per byte. There is no compression, no metadata, and no color — the format is purely a minimal container for delivering small monochrome graphics to WAP-era mobile browsers. One advantage was extreme efficiency on constrained devices — WBMP images could be decoded with virtually zero CPU overhead and minimal memory, critical on early mobile hardware running at single-digit megahertz clock speeds. The tiny file sizes are another strength: a typical WBMP icon occupied just a few hundred bytes, practical for transfer over 9.6 kbps GSM data channels. While the WAP ecosystem has been entirely superseded by modern mobile web browsers capable of rendering full-color JPEG, PNG, and WebP images, WBMP files remain encountered in archived mobile content from that transitional era.
Developer: WAP Forum
Initial release: 1998

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert TCR to WBMP?

TCR is an obsolete PalmOS text format. WBMP produces ultra-lightweight monochrome bitmaps suited for embedded systems and low-bandwidth displays.

What applications open WBMP files?

IrfanView, XnView, GIMP, and ImageMagick can all open WBMP files. Some older mobile browsers also render them natively.

Is the WBMP output black and white only?

Yes, WBMP is a 1-bit monochrome format. Text content from TCR files renders as black characters on a white background by default.

How large are the resulting WBMP files?

WBMP files are extremely small — often just a few kilobytes — since TCR source text is minimal and WBMP uses 1-bit depth.

Does this conversion cost anything?

No, TCR to WBMP conversion is free on Convertio. Premium tiers exist for users who need higher throughput or extra features.