Among the graphic formats supported by ImageConverter Plus you will come across RAW and DNG and might wonder about their real difference. Many photographers work with Raw-format files from their digital cameras and are frustrated by the many versions out there—varying not just from manufacturer to manufacturer but also from camera to camera. Adobe tried to solve that problem with its Digital Negative Specification (DNG format). Should you use DNG or RAW format? This is one of the most important questions that you as a photographer need to ask yourself, because it will definitely affect your digital photography workflow. It is important to know the key differences between the two, along with their advantages and disadvantages. RAW images, also known as “digital negatives” are truly “raw”, meaning they are almost unprocessed data coming directly from the camera sensor. RAW is a proprietary format that is tied to the camera manufacturer; sometimes RAW files may even vary within one camera model. DNG is also considered to be a RAW image file. It was created to store image data in a generic, highly-compatible format regardless of the camera model. RAW files are large in size. They contain all of the image data captured by the camera’s image sensor without it being processed or adjusted in any way. This lets you move the images to the computer and interpret this data the way you want instead of having the camera do it for you. So, RAW images need a lot of post-processing on the computer. A DNG file is greatly smaller in size than RAW. DNG files are capable of storing full original RAW files and these RAW files can be manually extracted later, if needed. To process DNG files you have to convert RAW to DNG first, and it takes extra time during the import process. When processing DNG images all changes are written into the DNG file itself, and you would have to back up the entire DNG file every time you make changes to it. ImageConverter Plus can be considered as universal software for processing images of both types. ImageConverter Plus is proud to support the RAW files generated by most of the digital cameras, and the list of cameras is constantly updated. It definitely supports DNG if that’s your preference. Whether or not one should use DNG or RAW is a matter of an individual choice, and with our software you can convert your DNG and RAW images into a variety of graphic formats.