What does 'raw RGB' mean here?

A flat byte array with exactly 3 bytes per pixel (red, then green, then blue), in top-to-bottom, left-to-right row order, with no file header, no dimensions stored, and no compression — just the pixel values themselves.

What happens to transparency?

It's discarded. Raw RGB has no alpha channel, so any transparency information in the source PNG is dropped; if you need to preserve alpha, use the PNG to RGBA converter instead.

Why would I want a raw pixel dump instead of a PNG?

Some native libraries, GPU texture uploads, and custom file formats expect pixel data with no container overhead at all — you feed the bytes straight into a buffer once you separately know the width and height.

How do I know the width and height of the output?

The raw dump itself doesn't store them (that's the point of the format), so you need to note the source PNG's dimensions yourself; the tool shows them alongside the download.

PNG to RGB Converter - Export Raw RGB Pixel Bytes

Overview

Introduction

This tool strips a PNG down to its raw RGB pixel bytes entirely in your browser, for cases where you need pixel data with zero container overhead.

Nothing is uploaded to a server; decoding and byte packing both happen on an off-screen canvas.

What Is PNG to RGB Converter?

A client-side PNG-to-raw-RGB converter that reads an uploaded PNG's decoded pixels and repacks them as 3 bytes per pixel (red, green, blue), dropping the alpha channel entirely.

The output has no header of any kind — it's the same shape of data a C array of `unsigned char rgb[width*height*3]` would hold.

How PNG to RGB Converter Works

The upload panel decodes the PNG into a plain RGBA pixel buffer via canvas, then this tool's pure function walks every pixel, copying just its red, green, and blue channel bytes into a new buffer and skipping the fourth (alpha) byte.

The resulting byte array is offered as a direct download with no PNG chunk structure, compression, or metadata wrapped around it.

When To Use PNG to RGB Converter

Use it when a downstream tool, embedded device, or graphics API expects a raw RGB framebuffer rather than a compressed image container.

It's also useful for teaching or debugging pixel formats, since you can inspect exactly which 3 bytes correspond to each pixel.

Often used alongside RGB to PNG Converter, PNG to RGBA Converter and PNG to BGR Converter.

Features

Advantages

Runs entirely client-side; your image never leaves the browser.
Produces the exact minimal byte layout many native and embedded pixel pipelines expect.
No compression or metadata overhead in the output file.

Limitations

Transparency is permanently discarded; use the RGBA variant if you need to keep it.
The output file stores no dimensions, so you must track width and height separately to reinterpret the bytes correctly.

Examples

Export a small icon's pixels

Input

A 16x16 opaque PNG icon

Output

A 768-byte (16 x 16 x 3) raw RGB file

Each of the 256 pixels contributes exactly 3 bytes, with no header.

Prepare a texture for a shader pipeline

Input

A 64x64 PNG texture

Output

A 12,288-byte raw RGB buffer ready to upload

Many low-level graphics APIs expect pixel data in exactly this packed form.

Best Practices & Notes

Best Practices

Note the source image's width and height before downloading, since the raw file doesn't store them.
Use the RGBA converter instead if the image has meaningful transparency you need to keep.

Developer Notes

The pure conversion loop lives in a lib function that operates on a plain PixelBuffer and returns a Uint8Array with no DOM dependency, walking the RGBA source buffer 4 bytes at a time and writing 3 bytes at a time to the output.

PNG to RGB Converter Use Cases

Feeding pixel data into a native or embedded graphics pipeline
Preparing raw texture data for a custom loader
Inspecting or teaching raw pixel byte layouts

Common Mistakes

Forgetting to record the image's width/height, making the raw bytes impossible to reinterpret later.
Using this converter on an image where transparency matters — the alpha channel is not recoverable afterward.

Tips

Pair this with the matching RGB to PNG converter to verify a round trip reproduces the original opaque pixels exactly.
If your target format needs blue-first byte order instead, use the PNG to BGR converter.

PNG to RGB Converter