Free webp to jpg
EN
Image MIME Reference
FLIF

Free Lossless Image Format

image/flif
VS

Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)

image/x-tga
TGA

A complete technical comparison of Free Lossless Image 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 FLIF TGA
Transparency (Alpha) Yes Yes
Animation Support Yes ✕ No
Progressive Loading Yes ✕ No
HDR Support Yes ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
Free Lossless Image Format
image/flif
Extension
.flif
Container FLIF Bitstream
Compression Lossless (MANIAC Entropy Coding)
Algorithm
MANIAC (Meta-Adaptive Near-zero Integer Arithmetic Coding)
Color Depth 1-bit to 16-bit (Per Channel), Grayscale, RGB, RGBA, CMYK
Developed by Jon Sneyers and Pieter Wuille (Cloudinary)
Released 2015
Magic Bytes
46 4C 49 46
Full FLIF 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 FLIF TGA
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
FLIF

FLIF Strengths

  • Achieves some of the highest lossless compression ratios ever developed for raster images
  • Incredible progressive decoding allows an image to be highly recognizable even after only 5% of the file has been downloaded
  • Supports animations and complex alpha channels losslessly
Limitations
  • Officially abandoned in favor of JPEG XL
  • Zero native support in web browsers or standard operating system previewers
  • Encoding speed can be significantly slower than standard PNG or WebP compression
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

FLIF
Use FLIF when…
  • Archival of Uncompressed Image Assets
  • Bandwidth-Constrained Progressive Image Loading (Historical)
  • Medical and Scientific Imaging Storage
TGA
Use TGA when…
  • Video Game 3D Textures and Materials
  • 3D Rendering and Animation Sequences
  • Legacy Video Production Workflows

More comparisons

FLIF vs ACES → TGA vs ACES → FLIF vs APNG → TGA vs APNG → FLIF vs AVCI → TGA vs AVCI → FLIF vs AVCS → TGA vs AVCS → FLIF vs AVIF → TGA vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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