In this paper, we propose a content-based image retrieval (CBIR) approach using color and texture features extracted from block truncation coding based on binary ant colony optimization (BACOBTC). First, we present a near-optimized common bitmap scheme for BTC. Then, we convert the image to two color quantizers and a bitmap image-utilizing BACOBTC. Subsequently, the color and texture features, i.e., the color histogram feature (CHF) and the bit pattern histogram feature (BHF) are extracted to measure the similarity between a query image and the target image in the database and retrieve the desired image. The performance of the proposed approach was compared with several former image-retrieval schemes. The results were evaluated in terms of Precision-Recall and Average Retrieval Rate, and they showed that our approach outperformed the referenced approaches.