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Image MIME Reference
Canon-CRW

Canon Raw Format

image/x-canon-crw
VS

Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)

image/x-tga
TGA

A complete technical comparison of Canon Raw Format 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 Canon-CRW TGA
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support Yes ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile ✕ No ✕ No
Canon Raw Format
image/x-canon-crw
Extension
.crw
Container CIFF (Camera Image File Format)
Compression Lossless JPEG (ITU-T81)
Algorithm
Lossless JPEG
Color Depth 10-bit (Per Channel), 12-bit (Per Channel)
Developed by Canon Inc.
Released 1998
Magic Bytes
49 49 1A 00 00 00 (Header) / 48 45 41 50 43 43 44 52 (HEAPCCDR signature near end)
Full Canon-CRW 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 Canon-CRW TGA
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
Canon-CRW

Canon-CRW Strengths

  • Preserves original raw sensor data from foundational early digital SLR cameras, allowing for modern noise reduction and demosaicing algorithms to extract better images than software could in 2003
  • Files are remarkably small (often 6-8 MB) compared to modern 40MB+ raw files due to the lower megapixel count of early sensors
Limitations
  • Completely obsolete and utilizes the idiosyncratic CIFF structure rather than the modern, standardized TIFF/EP structure
  • Cannot be natively viewed in web browsers or standard operating system image viewers without specialized codecs
  • Less robust metadata support compared to modern CR2 or CR3 formats
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

Canon-CRW
Use Canon-CRW when…
  • Historical Digital Photography (2000-2004)
  • Non-destructive Image Post-Processing
  • Raw Imaging Archival
TGA
Use TGA when…
  • Video Game 3D Textures and Materials
  • 3D Rendering and Animation Sequences
  • Legacy Video Production Workflows

More comparisons

Canon-CRW vs ACES → TGA vs ACES → Canon-CRW vs APNG → TGA vs APNG → Canon-CRW vs AVCI → TGA vs AVCI → Canon-CRW vs AVCS → TGA vs AVCS → Canon-CRW vs AVIF → TGA vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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