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Image MIME Reference
TGA

Truevision TGA (Legacy MIME Alias)

image/x-tga
VS

Pixologic ZBrush PCX

image/vnd.zbrush.pcx
ZBrush-PCX

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

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature TGA ZBrush-PCX
Transparency (Alpha) Yes ✕ No
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support ✕ No ✕ No
EXIF Metadata ✕ No ✕ No
ICC Color Profile ✕ No ✕ No
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 →
Pixologic ZBrush PCX
image/vnd.zbrush.pcx
Extension
.pcx
Container ZSoft PCX
Compression Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
Algorithm
ZSoft Run-Length Encoding (RLE)
Color Depth 8-bit (Grayscale), 24-bit (RGB)
Developed by ZSoft (Format) / Pixologic (MIME Registration)
Released 1985
Magic Bytes
0A 05 01 08
Full ZBrush-PCX reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser TGA ZBrush-PCX
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
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
ZBrush-PCX

ZBrush-PCX Strengths

  • Extremely simple, lossless RLE compression makes it trivial to parse and encode programmatically
  • Universally supported by almost every 2D image editor created since the 1990s
Limitations
  • Completely obsolete for modern 3D workflows, which require 16-bit or 32-bit floating-point precision (like OpenEXR or TIFF) to avoid stepping artifacts in displacement maps
  • No support for modern metadata (EXIF/XMP) or native alpha channels
  • Zero native support in modern web browsers

When to choose which format

TGA
Use TGA when…
  • Video Game 3D Textures and Materials
  • 3D Rendering and Animation Sequences
  • Legacy Video Production Workflows
ZBrush-PCX
Use ZBrush-PCX when…
  • Legacy ZBrush Alpha Brushes
  • 8-bit Grayscale Displacement Maps
  • ZBrush Texture Exports

More comparisons

TGA vs ACES → ZBrush-PCX vs ACES → TGA vs APNG → ZBrush-PCX vs APNG → TGA vs AVCI → ZBrush-PCX vs AVCI → TGA vs AVCS → ZBrush-PCX vs AVCS → TGA vs AVIF → ZBrush-PCX vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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