Targa files commonly have the extension ".tga" and can store image data with 1-32 bits of precision per pixel. Color data can be color-mapped, or in directcolor or truecolor format; optionally, a lossless RLE compression can be employed.
The Targa file format was originally defined by Truevision Inc in 1984. Several enhancements such as "postage stamps" (better known as thumbnails), an alpha channel, gamma value, and textual metadata were introduced in 1989.