.TGA file signature

A Targa image data file begins with the bytes 54 52 55 45 56 49 53 49 4F 4E 2D 58 46 49 4C 45 2E 00 (TRUEVISION-XFILE. in ASCII) at 26 bytes before the end of the file. The signature is the same whatever the file is named, which is why a renamed or extensionless TGA file is still recognisable.

Signature

Offset	Hex	ASCII
end -26	54 52 55 45 56 49 53 49 4F 4E 2D 58 46 49 4C 45 2E 00Only TGA 2.0 files carry this footer; older files have no signature.	TRUEVISION-XFILE.

MIME type: image/x-tga · usual extensions: .tga

How to check a file's signature

Without installing anything: drop the file on our detector. It reads the bytes in your browser and shows the hex dump alongside the verdict; nothing is uploaded.

macOS and Linux (Terminal):

xxd -l 32 file.tga
file file.tga

Windows (PowerShell):

Format-Hex -Path file.tga -Count 32

This signature is a trailer at the end of the file: tail -c 26 file.tga | xxd | head.

If the bytes do not match

A file named .tga whose first bytes are something else is not a TGA file. The common explanations are a wrong or deliberately misleading extension, a download that saved an HTML error page instead of the file, or a container such as ZIP wrapping the real content. The detector reports what the bytes say; the TGA guide explains what a genuine file should contain.

What is .TGA file?All file signatures