BGI File

What are BGI files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a BGI file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your BGI files.

What is a BGI file?

A .BGI file is a Borland Graphics Interface file.

Borland Graphics Interface device driver files provide graphics support for programs written with Borland's DOS-era compilers. They are used by applications that call into the BGI graphics library - Turbo Pascal, Turbo C, or Borland C++ - to draw lines, shapes, text, etc., in a device-independent way. The main program writes these driver files; the graphics kernel library loads and uses them at runtime to render on specific display hardware.

When a program initializes graphics (via functions like initgraph), it selects a driver and a video mode; the kernel loads the corresponding .BGI driver from disk (or uses one previously registered or embedded). That driver supplies low-level routines (putpixel, getpixel, line drawing, etc.) tailored to the target video hardware. Higher-level graphics operations are handled by the library, sometimes using those primitives. Drivers can also be bundled into executables by converting them into object modules and linking them statically, so the program does not need to load the file separately.

The file format for a driver consists of a fixed-size header followed by a binary image containing both code and data usable in real mode. For the classic version (v2.0), code and data share the same segment, and the header is always 160 bytes long. The image part begins right after the header and includes a far-call entry stub, a dispatch table (DDOVEC) of primitive routines, tables describing available video modes, and data or scratch space the driver needs.

How to open BGI files

Important: Different programs may use files with the BGI file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your BGI file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

While we have not verified the apps ourselves yet, our users have suggested ten different BGI openers which you will find listed below.

Last updated: August 24, 2026

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of BGI files. Remember, different programs may use BGI files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

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