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Image MIME Reference
JPS

JPEG Stereo Image

image/x-jps
VS

Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)

image/x-tga
TGA

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

JPS wins on browser support

Feature Support

Feature JPS TGA
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading Yes ✕ No
HDR Support ✕ No ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
JPEG Stereo Image
image/x-jps
Extension
.jps
Container JPEG (JFIF/Exif)
Compression Lossy (JPEG/DCT)
Algorithm
JPEG (Discrete Cosine Transform)
Color Depth 8-bit (Grayscale), 24-bit (RGB)
Developed by Stereoscopic Community (Unofficial Standard)
Released 1990
Magic Bytes
FF D8 FF
Full JPS 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 JPS TGA
Chrome Chrome
✓ 1
 ✕
Firefox Firefox
✓ 1
 ✕
Safari Safari
✓ 1
 ✕
Edge Edge
✓ 12
 ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✓
 ✕
JPS

JPS Strengths

  • 100% backward compatible with every standard 2D image viewer and web browser (which simply display the two halves side-by-side)
  • Inherits JPEG's excellent lossy compression, resulting in small file sizes ideal for web transmission
  • Extremely easy to generate programmatically by simply stitching two JPEG images side-by-side onto a wider canvas
Limitations
  • Lack of a dedicated metadata standard means viewing software has to guess whether the layout is 'cross-eyed' (right eye left, left eye right) or 'parallel' (left eye left, right eye right), occasionally causing inverted depth
  • Suffers from JPEG compression artifacts, which can break the stereoscopic illusion if compression noise differs between the left and right eyes
  • Superseded in consumer electronics by the MPO (Multi-Picture Object) format, which stacks separate full-resolution JPEGs rather than squishing them side-by-side
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

JPS
Use JPS when…
  • Stereoscopic 3D Photography
  • Virtual Reality (VR) Image Galleries
  • Cross-eye / Parallel Stereograms
TGA
Use TGA when…
  • Video Game 3D Textures and Materials
  • 3D Rendering and Animation Sequences
  • Legacy Video Production Workflows

More comparisons

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