TGA to BMP Converter

What happens when you convert TGA to BMP

• The image is decoded and written as a 24-bit uncompressed bitmap.
• Browsers cannot read TGA, so this page includes its own TGA reader. It handles uncompressed and run-length compressed files at 8, 16, 24 and 32 bits, and keeps the alpha channel.

How to convert TGA to BMP online

1. Press "Choose TGA files" and select one or more files, or drag them onto the box. You can add files of any size your device can hold in memory.
2. Adjust the settings if you need to. The output is lossless, so there is no quality setting to worry about.
3. Press "Convert to BMP". Images convert in a second or two each.
4. Save each BMP with its download button. Close the tab and every trace of the files is gone from memory.

Why convert TGA to BMP?

TGA files usually come from game textures, 3D rendering and video effects work. People convert them to BMP because BMP is read by almost every Windows program, embedded display and old piece of software.

In short, TGA is good at what it was made for, and BMP is the more practical choice when the file has to open, upload or print somewhere else. TGA does not open in browsers; Photoshop, GIMP and game engines read it, while BMP opens in browsers and every Windows image tool.

How to convert TGA to BMP on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android

On Windows

Open this page in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, drag your TGA files in from File Explorer, and press Convert. Each BMP is saved to your Downloads folder. Paint can also re-save an image as BMP with Save as, provided Windows can open the TGA in the first place.

On a Mac

Safari, Chrome and Firefox all work. Drag the TGA files from Finder onto the drop zone and the BMP files land in Downloads.

On iPhone and iPad

Open the page in Safari and tap Choose TGA files. You can pick from Photos or from the Files app. The converted BMP appears in Files, in the Downloads folder; to put it in your photo library, open it there, tap Share and choose Save Image.

On Android

Open the page in Chrome, tap Choose TGA files and pick them from Files or your gallery. The BMP is saved to the Download folder, where any file manager can find it.

Best settings for TGA to BMP

A 24-bit BMP stores every pixel uncompressed, three bytes each, so size is simply width times height times three: a 12 megapixel photo becomes about 36 MB. Use the Maximum width setting if the program that needs the BMP does not need full resolution.

TGA vs BMP: the differences

About TGA and BMP files

What is a TGA file?

TGA, also called Targa, stores pixels uncompressed or with simple run-length compression, plus an alpha channel. Its simplicity is why game engines and 3D tools still use it for textures decades after it was created.

What is a BMP file?

BMP usually stores pixels with no compression at all, so a 12 megapixel photo is about 36 MB. That size is the price of being readable by almost any program ever written for Windows.

TGA to BMP not working? Common problems

• Colours look slightly different. Browsers convert images to the standard sRGB colour space when they decode them, so wide-gamut and CMYK images can shift a little.
• A phone photo comes out upright even though it looked sideways elsewhere. That is correct: the rotation stored in the photo is applied during conversion, so the BMP is always the right way up.
• The file is bigger than expected. It depends on the settings. At the defaults, the BMP usually comes out close in size to the TGA; lower the quality for a smaller file.

Convert TGA to BMP from the command line

If you work in a terminal, ImageMagick converts TGA to BMP in one line:

magick input.tga output.bmp

To convert every TGA in a folder at once, use magick mogrify -format bmp *.tga. The converter on this page does the same job without installing anything.