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Image MIME Reference
AOL-ART

AOL ART Image

image/x-jg
VS

Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)

image/x-tga
TGA

A complete technical comparison of AOL ART Image and Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias) — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature AOL-ART TGA
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading Yes ✕ No
HDR Support ✕ No ✕ No
EXIF Metadata ✕ No ✕ No
ICC Color Profile ✕ No ✕ No
AOL ART Image
image/x-jg
Extension
.art
Container Johnson-Grace Proprietary
Compression Proprietary Wavelet (Photos) / Proprietary Palette-based (Graphics)
Algorithm
Wavelet (similar to early JPEG 2000 concepts)Lossy DCT
Color Depth 8-bit (Indexed), 24-bit (RGB)
Developed by Johnson-Grace Company (Acquired by AOL)
Released 1994
Magic Bytes
4A 47 03 00 or 4A 47 04 00
Full AOL-ART reference →
Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)
image/x-tga
Extension
.tga.icb.vda.vst
Container Truevision TGA Footer/Header
Compression Uncompressed / Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
Algorithm
NoneRLE
Color Depth 8-bit (Grayscale or Indexed), 16-bit (High Color), 24-bit (True Color), 32-bit (True Color with Alpha Channel)
Developed by Truevision Inc.
Released 1984
Magic Bytes
54 52 55 45 56 49 53 49 4F 4E 2D 58 46 49 4C 45 2E 00 (At the end of the file)
Full TGA reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser AOL-ART TGA
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
AOL-ART

AOL-ART Strengths

  • Historically provided massive file size reductions (up to 3x smaller than JPEGs of the era) and highly optimized progressive rendering for 14.4k modems
  • Enabled faster web browsing on the AOL network during the early days of the commercial internet
Limitations
  • Completely proprietary, heavily patent-encumbered, and never officially reverse-engineered for the open-source community
  • On-the-fly proxy compression ruined the visual fidelity of many 1990s websites for AOL users
  • Virtually impossible to open on modern operating systems without installing niche, legacy image viewers
TGA

TGA Strengths

  • Incredibly simple byte layout allows developers to write custom loaders and exporters in a few dozen lines of code, bypassing the need for heavy external libraries
  • Native support for 8-bit alpha channels ensures flawless transparency masking for real-time 3D rendering
  • Fast, predictable RLE decoding requires almost no CPU overhead compared to DEFLATE (PNG) or DCT (JPEG)
Limitations
  • RLE compression is relatively weak by modern standards, resulting in large file sizes
  • Lacks a standard magic byte header at the beginning of the file, making file-sniffing unreliable for older v1.0 files
  • Zero support in web browsers; must be converted to PNG or WebP for web delivery

When to choose which format

AOL-ART
Use AOL-ART when…
  • Historical AOL Dial-up Web Browsing
  • Legacy America Online Client Assets
  • 1990s Internet Archival
TGA
Use TGA when…
  • Video Game 3D Textures and Materials
  • 3D Rendering and Animation Sequences
  • Legacy Video Production Workflows

More comparisons

AOL-ART vs ACES → TGA vs ACES → AOL-ART vs APNG → TGA vs APNG → AOL-ART vs AVCI → TGA vs AVCI → AOL-ART vs AVCS → TGA vs AVCS → AOL-ART vs AVIF → TGA vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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