What is a TGA file?
TGA, or Targa, was created by Truevision in 1984 for its video capture cards. It is about as simple as an image format gets: a small header followed by raw pixels, optionally run-length encoded, in 8, 16, 24, or 32 bits per pixel with a proper alpha channel. That simplicity is why it never died. Game engines, 3D modeling tools, texture painters, and modding pipelines still read and write it, decades after web formats replaced it everywhere else.
How to open a TGA file
Browsers, Windows Photos, and most phone apps cannot open TGA. Photoshop, GIMP, Paint.NET, Krita, and Blender can. If you just need to look at one or use it on the web, convert it to PNG (lossless, keeps the alpha channel) or JPG (small, for previews) in your browser.
TGA in game and 3D workflows
Artists export textures as TGA because it is lossless, keeps alpha exactly, and imports cleanly into Unity, Unreal, Source, and older engines. From there, textures are usually compressed to DDS for shipping. Our converters handle both directions, and they decode TGA and PNG in Rust rather than through the browser canvas, so the colors of transparent pixels survive intact, which matters for sprites and decals.
Frequently asked questions
Is TGA lossless?
Yes. The optional RLE compression is lossless, and most files are stored uncompressed.
TGA or PNG for textures?
Both are lossless with alpha. PNG is smaller and universal; TGA is what some older engines and tools insist on. Convert between them freely.