How to use it
- Drop in TGA files.
- Each is decoded, flipped the right way up if needed, and saved as PNG.
- Download the PNGs.
Why TGA is still everywhere in 3D
Truevision created TGA in 1984 for its graphics cards, and it stuck in games and 3D for simple reasons: it stores an 8-bit alpha channel reliably, it is trivial for software to read, and it is lossless. Texture packs, game mods, older engines and many render outputs still use it. But almost nothing outside that world can display it: not browsers, not phones, and not most photo viewers.
What is supported
True-colour (16, 24 and 32-bit), greyscale and colour-mapped TGAs, both uncompressed and RLE-compressed. The origin flag is respected, so images stored bottom-up, the default for TGA, come out the right way up. Files whose alpha channel is present but empty are treated as fully opaque, a common quirk of some exporters.
Keeping textures lossless
PNG is also lossless, so the colours and alpha are exactly preserved. That matters for normal maps and masks, where any compression changes the data the renderer reads.
TGA and PNG compared
| TGA | PNG | |
|---|---|---|
| First released | 1984 | 1996 |
| Compression | None or RLE, lossless | Lossless |
| Transparency | Yes, 8-bit | Yes, including soft edges |
| Animation or pages | No | Only as APNG, rarely used |
| Best for | Game textures and 3D pipelines | Screenshots, graphics, text and transparency |
| Support | Game engines, 3D and image editors; not browsers | Universal |
Questions people ask
Is TGA to PNG lossless?
Yes. Colour and alpha are preserved exactly.
Why do some converters show TGA upside down?
TGA usually stores images bottom-up, with a flag saying so. Tools that ignore the flag flip it. This one reads it.
Can I convert PNG back to TGA?
Yes, with PNG to TGA.