/ Help / Help| Filename extension | .tga, .icb, .vda, .vst, .tpic |
| MIME | image/x-targa, image/x-tga |
| Type code | 'TPIC' |
| Uniform Type Identifier (UTI) | com.truevision.tga-image |
| Developed by | Truevision |
Truevision TGA, often referred to as TARGA, is a raster graphics file format created by Truevision Inc. It was the native format of TARGA and VISTA boards, which were the first graphic cards for IBM-compatible PCs to support Highcolor/truecolor display. This family of graphic cards was intended for professional computer image synthesis and video editing with PCs; for this reason, usual resolutions of TGA image files match those of the NTSC and PAL video formats.
TARGA is an acronym for Truevision Advanced Raster Graphics Adapter; TGA is an initialism for Truevision Graphics Adapter.
The format can store image data with 8, 15, 16, 24, or 32 bits of precision per pixel – the maximum 24 bits of RGB and an extra 8-bit alpha channel. Color data can be color-mapped, or in direct color or truecolor format. Image data may be stored raw, or optionally, a lossless RLE compression similar to PackBits can be employed. This type of compression performs poorly for typical photographic images, but works acceptably well for simpler images, such as icons, cartoons and line drawings.
