VTF to PNG Converter
Open a Source engine texture or spray without installing VTFEdit or a Photoshop plugin. Upload the .vtf and get a PNG with the full-size image and its transparency, ready to view, edit or post.
Image Converter
or drop JPG, JPEG, JPE … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
85 keeps photos visually identical to the original. Lower it only when you need a smaller file.
JPG, BMP and EPS have no transparency. Transparent pixels are filled with this color.
Hex color used behind transparent pixels, e.g. #FFFFFF.
This format holds a single image. Choose GIF or WebP output if you want to keep the animation.
A multi-size icon contains several resolutions in one file; browsers and operating systems pick the one they need.
Keep the original dimensions, or enter one side and the aspect ratio is kept.
Pixels for the side you chose above.
Percentage of the original dimensions.
sRGB is right for screens and the web. Keep the original for print workflows; grayscale discards color.
Metadata only, 0 keeps the original value. Printers and some portals read this number; it does not change pixel dimensions.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the .vtf files
Add up to 20 VTF textures, 95 MB each. Pull them out of the game's VPK archives first if they are packed.
- 2
Choose what happens with animated VTFs
Animated input saves the first frame by default. Switch it to Export every frame as a separate file under Advanced settings to get each frame of an animated spray or texture.
- 3
Press Convert to PNG
Each texture becomes a lossless PNG at its top resolution. The uploads and PNGs are deleted after 30 minutes.
What a Valve Texture Format file holds
Valve introduced VTF in 2004 with the Source engine and Half-Life 2. Every surface in Counter-Strike: Source, Garry's Mod, Team Fortress 2, Portal and Left 4 Dead is a VTF image, paired with a small plain-text VMT material file. The VMT tells the engine how to draw the surface, and its $basetexture line names the VTF without its extension.
A single VTF can carry more than one picture. It usually stores a mipmap chain, each level half the size of the previous one. It may hold several frames for an animated texture or spray, six faces for a cube map, and pixel data in one of many formats. Source requires the width and height to be powers of two, such as 256 or 512, which is why textures from these games come out in those sizes.
VTF image formats: DXT1, DXT5 and uncompressed
| VTF format | Bits per pixel | Alpha | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|---|
| DXT1 | 4 | None or 1-bit | Opaque world textures, small sprays |
| DXT3 | 8 | 4-bit steps | Rare, older content |
| DXT5 | 8 | Smooth 8-bit | Decals, foliage, sprays with soft edges |
| BGRA8888 | 32 | Full 8-bit | HUD and UI art, sharp sprays |
| BGR888 | 24 | None | Uncompressed opaque textures |
| I8 / IA88 | 8 / 16 | IA88 only | Grayscale masks and detail maps |
VTF
Valve Texture Format
VTF is the texture format of Valve's Source engine, used by games such as Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Team Fortress 2 and Garry's Mod. It can hold mipmaps, alpha transparency and multiple frames for animated textures, compressed with GPU formats or stored uncompressed. Modders use VTF for sprays, skins and map materials. Outside Source tools and plugins, almost no software can open it.
- Compression
- Lossy or lossless
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- Yes
- Introduced
- 2004 · Valve
PNG
Portable Network Graphics
PNG is a lossless raster format published in 1996 by the PNG Development Group and later standardised by the W3C and ISO. It keeps every pixel exactly, supports full alpha transparency and handles text, sharp edges and flat colours without artefacts. That precision makes it ideal for screenshots, logos, icons and interface graphics. The trade-off is size: photographs saved as PNG are often several times larger than the same photo as JPEG or WebP. All browsers, operating systems and editors open PNG files.
- Compression
- Lossless
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- No
- Introduced
- 1996 · PNG Development Group
Modders and players convert VTF to PNG to look at, document or rework a Source engine texture or spray in ordinary software; PNG to VTF packs edited art back into the format Source games load.
When a VTF texture will not convert or looks wrong
The file ends in .vtex_c, not .vtf
That is a Source 2 texture from games such as Counter-Strike 2. It is a different format, so look for the original VTF in a Source 1 game instead.
The PNG is light blue or purple
You converted a normal or bump map. Open the VMT and follow its
$basetextureline to the color texture.An animated spray turned into one still image
Set Animated input to Export every frame as a separate file and convert again.
The texture is not in the game folder
It is packed in a VPK archive. Extract it with GCFScape or Valve's
vpktool, then upload the .vtf.
Once you have the PNG, the usual next steps are a recolor, a reskin for a Garry's Mod addon, or a preview image for a Workshop page. Edit at the original power-of-two size so the texture still fits the model's UV layout when you pack it back. Other engines store textures differently: for DirectX games, the DDS to PNG converter decodes the same block-compression family under its BC names.
VTF to PNG questions
What program opens VTF files besides VTFEdit?
VTFEdit by Nem is the classic Windows tool, and the same author's plugin adds VTF support to Photoshop. Most general image viewers and editors cannot read VTF at all. Converting to PNG removes the need for any of them when you only want to see or edit the picture.
Does the PNG keep the transparency of a spray or decal?
Yes. Alpha stored in DXT1, DXT5 or uncompressed VTFs is written to the PNG's alpha channel. Hard cut-outs from DXT1 stay hard, and the smooth fades of DXT5 or BGRA8888 stay smooth.
Why is the VTF to PNG result blurry or blocky?
Most VTFs use DXT compression, which describes each 4 × 4 block of pixels with two colors and a small index. The blockiness is part of the texture as the game stores it, and PNG reproduces it exactly instead of inventing detail.
Where are the textures of a Source game stored?
Inside the game folder under materials, usually packed into .vpk archives. GCFScape or Valve's own vpk tool extracts them. Custom sprays you imported live as VTF and VMT pairs, often under materials/vgui/logos.
Can I convert textures from Counter-Strike 2 or Half-Life: Alyx here?
Not as VTF. Source 2 games such as Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2 and Half-Life: Alyx store textures as compiled .vtex_c resources, a different format. This converter reads the original Source engine VTF used by games up to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Do I get the small mipmap copies as well?
No, only the largest image is saved. The mipmaps are half-size copies the engine uses at a distance, and they are generated again when you build a new VTF with PNG to VTF.