BMP vs TGA
A detailed comparison of BMP Image and TGA Image — file size, quality, compatibility, and which format to choose for your workflow.
BMP Image
Raster & Vector ImagesBMP is an uncompressed raster image format native to Windows. Files are large but preserve exact pixel data with no compression artifacts. Rarely used on the web due to file size.
About BMP filesTGA Image
Raster & Vector ImagesTGA (Targa) is a raster graphics format used in game development and video editing.
About TGA filesStrengths Comparison
BMP Strengths
- Dead-simple format — trivially easy to read and write.
- Lossless and uncompressed — perfect bit-exact pixel storage.
- Universally supported in Windows applications since 1985.
- Supports 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, and 32-bit color depths.
TGA Strengths
- Extremely simple — trivially easy to read and write.
- Lossless with optional RLE compression.
- Supports 8, 16, 24, and 32-bit color with alpha channel.
- Universal in legacy game development and 3D rendering pipelines.
Limitations
BMP Limitations
- Enormous file sizes — no meaningful compression in typical use.
- Not a web format — browsers support it but nobody serves BMPs over HTTP.
- No metadata support (no EXIF, no ICC profile in practice).
- Multiple header versions mean "a BMP" is ambiguous — parsers must handle several variants.
TGA Limitations
- No metadata, no color profile, no gamma correction.
- Aging — PNG and EXR cover its use cases with better compression.
- Bottom-up pixel order trips up newcomer parsers.
- Not a web format — browsers don't display TGA natively.
Technical Specifications
| Specification | BMP | TGA |
|---|---|---|
| MIME type | image/bmp | image/x-targa |
| Extensions | .bmp, .dib | .tga, .icb, .vda, .vst |
| Compression | None (typical); RLE 4/8 bit (rare) | None or Run-Length Encoding (RLE) |
| Color depths | 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 bits per pixel | — |
| Byte order | Little-endian | Little-endian |
| Bit depths | — | 8, 16, 24, 32 bits per pixel |
Typical File Sizes
BMP
- Small icon (32×32) 4 KB
- Screenshot (1920×1080) ~6 MB
- 4K image (3840×2160) ~25 MB
- Scanned A4 at 300 dpi ~25 MB
TGA
- 512×512 game texture (uncompressed) ~768 KB
- 2K render output (uncompressed) ~12 MB
- 4K render with alpha (RLE) 20-40 MB
Ready to convert?
Convert between BMP and TGA online, free, and without installing anything. Encrypted upload, automatic deletion after 2 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
BMP (Bitmap) is a raster image format developed by Microsoft for Windows. It stores images with no compression by default, resulting in large file sizes but pixel-perfect quality. It has been part of Windows since version 1.0.
TGA (TGA Image) is an image format used to store raster graphics — a two-dimensional grid of pixels describing a picture. It is part of the raster & vector images family and designed around a specific trade-off between file size, visual fidelity, and feature support (transparency, colour depth, compression type). Photographers, web designers, and content creators choose TGA when its particular strengths match the publishing target.
BMP files open in Windows Paint, Photos, macOS Preview, GIMP, Photoshop, and virtually any image viewer. All Windows applications support BMP natively.
Most desktop photo viewers (Windows Photos, macOS Preview, GIMP, Photoshop, Affinity Photo) open TGA natively. On mobile, iOS Photos and Google Photos display TGA in the gallery when supported by the OS. If the format is rare or new, convert to JPG or PNG first — both are universally readable — using our TGA to JPG or TGA to PNG converter.
PNG is better than BMP in almost every scenario since it provides lossless compression (smaller files), transparency support, and wider cross-platform use. BMP is mainly relevant for legacy Windows applications.
Upload the TGA to KaijuConverter and pick a target format (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, SVG, PDF). The conversion runs in the browser via ImageMagick and returns a download in seconds. No account or installation required; both input and output delete automatically within two hours.