Digital camera photo RAW image format
File type: Bitmap image file, Digital camera RAW file
Files with raw extension is used by various digital cameras and scanning devices for generic recording format. A raw file stores minimally processed data from the image sensor of either a digital camera, image scanner, or motion picture film scanner.
Found 10 different file type records with the same raw filename suffix.
File type category:
Bitmap image file
Digital camera RAW file
Date updated: July 14, 2025
File extension raw is traditionally used for RAW image format, a picture format used by digital cameras for "raw" images take by the device that are not yet processed to for use. These files are sometimes also called digital negatives, because they serve same purpose as negatives in film photography.
The RAW image stores a wider dynamic range or color gamut than the eventual final image format, and it preserves most of the information of the captured image.
RAW image content:
There are many different RAW formats, most of them based on TIFF format. Major digital camera manufacturers assign different file extension for their RAW formats. One of the most known RAW formats include:
Digital camera photo RAW files can be opened in vendor's specialized software, like Canon Digital Photo Professional, Nikon Capture NX-D, Panasonic PHOTOfunSTUDIO, etc.
You can also use universal photo editors, like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Zoner Photo Studio and many more.
These apps are also able to transform RAW images to popular picture image formats, like JPG, PNG, BMP etc.
Photo editors, like Adobe Photoshop generally are able to work with RAW image files.
There is usually bundled software to digital camers, which can process and export RAW file formats to common image formats like JPEG.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Microsoft Windows)
Zoner Photo Studio (Microsoft Windows)
HDR Darkroom (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
ArcSoft PhotoStudio (Microsoft Windows)
Corel PaintShop Pro (Microsoft Windows)
PhotoFiltre Studio (Microsoft Windows)
PanoramaStudio (Microsoft Windows)
ACDSee Photo Manager (Microsoft Windows)
Picture Window Pro (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
darktable (Linux/Unix)
Affinity Photo (Multiplatform)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Microsoft Windows)
Zoner Photo Studio (Microsoft Windows)
HDR Darkroom (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
ArcSoft PhotoStudio (Microsoft Windows)
PhotoFiltre Studio (Microsoft Windows)
Picture Information Extractor (Microsoft Windows)
PanoramaStudio (Microsoft Windows)
ACDSee Photo Manager (Microsoft Windows)
Picture Window Pro (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
darktable (Linux/Unix)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Microsoft Windows)
Zoner Photo Studio (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
ArcSoft PhotoStudio (Microsoft Windows)
PanoramaStudio (Microsoft Windows)
ACDSee Photo Manager (Microsoft Windows)
IrfanView (Microsoft Windows)
FastStone Image Viewer (Microsoft Windows)
Picture Window Pro (Microsoft Windows)
PhotoOnWeb (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
darktable (Linux/Unix)
XnView MP (Multiplatform)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Microsoft Windows)
Zoner Photo Studio (Microsoft Windows)
RAW2NEF (Microsoft Windows)
HDR Darkroom (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe DNG Converter (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
ArcSoft PhotoStudio (Microsoft Windows)
Corel PaintShop Pro (Microsoft Windows)
BatchPhoto (Microsoft Windows)
PanoramaStudio (Microsoft Windows)
ACDSee Photo Manager (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
RAW2NEF for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
darktable (Linux/Unix)
Affinity Photo (Multiplatform)
Picture Information Extractor (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Microsoft Windows)
Zoner Photo Studio (Microsoft Windows)
HDR Darkroom (Microsoft Windows)
ArcSoft PhotoStudio (Microsoft Windows)
ACDSee Photo Manager (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
darktable (Linux/Unix)
XnView MP (Multiplatform)
PhotoOnWeb (Microsoft Windows)
File type category:
Bitmap image file
Date updated: October 14, 2024
The raw file extension is associated with the Adobe Photoshop, a picture image and digital photo editing tool for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X operating systems.
The raw file stores picture image or photo in TIFF (Aldus Tagged Image File Format) without file header (with no information on the size of the image, pixel place and order etc.. but only the pixel data).
The Photoshop RAW format is used, for example, with medical devices as the way the file should be read (the header) is located in the machine, therefore, no header is required in the file itself.
A Photoshop Raw image is not in the same file format as a camera raw image file from a digital camera!
Use Adobe Photoshop to open *.raw files.
Adobe Photoshop is able to export *.raw files to other formats.
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
PhotoScape X for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Photoshop (Microsoft Windows)
Adobe Photoshop for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Hydra (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
PhotoScape X for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
Adobe Creative Cloud (Multiplatform)
File type category:
Various data file
Date updated: February 6, 2019
The raw file extension is associated with the HP V41 programmable calculators introduced in 1979 by Hewlett-Packard. Production was stopped in 1990.
The raw file stores program created for HP V41 calculator.
File type category:
Bitmap image file
Date updated: September 6, 2018
The raw file extension is associated with the ISIS, a pulsed neutron and muon source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.
Data collected during an experiment on an ISIS instrument is saved to disk as an ISIS RAW data file.
Use compatible tools to work with *.raw files.
Probably can be exported to other formats.
Open GENIE (Multiplatform)
File type category:
Various data file
Date updated: March 28, 2018
The raw file extension was also used for Nimbus 7 data format.
The Department of Atmospheric Physics has accumulated a valuable archive of atmospheric infra-red radiance measurements from its satellite experiments which started with the Nimbus 4 SCR in 1970.
Originally data was recorded on magnetic tape. The old tapes became unreliable and data was copied to optical discs in 1990. The optical disk media in turn became expensive and unreliable to support.
In 1997 a NERC SEEDCORN grant was awarded to move the data to CD-ROMs which could make the data available on a wide variety of hardware. This opportunity was also used to catalogue and publicise the archive.
This archive is intended as a supplement to that at the British Atmospheric Data Centre which concentrates on retrieved geophysical parameters (Temperatures, volume mixing ratios etc) rather than the radiance data available here. Low level radiance data is less in demand not least because its interpretation requires more knowledge of the details of the instrument making the measurements.
Probably not meant to be accessed by the user.
Probably cannot be converted to anything else.
Fortran 77 (Multiplatform)
File type category:
Audio and sound file
Date updated: August 19, 2024
The raw file extension is also used for RAW sound files. The raw audio file can contain sound in any codec but is usually used for PCM audio data. It is rarely used except for technical tests.
Winamp (with AdPlug plugin) should be able to play *.raw files. However, some specialized audio editors should be able to work with this kind of *.raw files.
Likely can be exported and saved to other audio formats.
MIDIPLEX (Microsoft Windows)
MIDIPLEX (Microsoft Windows)
MIDIPLEX (Microsoft Windows)
Winamp (Microsoft Windows)
MIDIPLEX (Microsoft Windows)
Audio Overload (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
RDosPlay (Microsoft MS-DOS)
File type category:
Disk image (ISO) binary file
Date updated: June 20, 2024
The raw file extension is also related to one of the less common disk image formats supported for example by VirtualBox software from Oracle.
The raw disk image stores captured data from floppy disks, hard drives, or optical disks without any procession, customization, or compression only sector by sector binary copy depend on file system.
The raw disk image is able to contain multiple tracks, audio, video, data tracks.
However, typically raw files are either pictures (photos taken by digital cameras in their raw data format) or audio files ripped from disks, not disk images.
Some CD/DVD burning applications may not support raw CD/DVD images, but renaming it to ISO can make it recognizable for the software.
Most disk image handling programs should be able to work with *.raw files, provided they are indeed disk images.
It should be possible to convert these files to ISO or other similar program with a proper software tool.
VirtualBox (Microsoft Windows)
VirtualBox for Mac (Apple macOS / Mac OS X)
QEMU (Linux/Unix)
VirtualBox for Linux (Linux/Unix)
QEMU (Linux/Unix)
QEMU (Linux/Unix)
Nero Multimedia Suite (Microsoft Windows)
CloneCD (Microsoft Windows)
File type category:
Encoded and encrypted file
Date updated: July 26, 2018
The raw file extension is associated with the Sentry 2020, a data protection and encryption application for Microsoft Windows operating system.
The raw file stores encrypted and protected user's case sensitive data.
Use Sentry 2020 to open *.raw encrypted files.
You cannot convert *.raw files to anything else, you need to first decode them using proper credentials.
Sentry 2020 (Microsoft Windows)
Sentry 2020 (Microsoft Windows)
File type category:
Bitmap image file
Date updated: July 29, 2016
The raw file extension is associated with the XL-Paint, a picture image editing software developed for ATARI 8-bit family of computers, introduced in 1979.
The raw file stores picture image (160x192, 16 colors) created in the XL-Paint program.
Use RECOIL to open *.raw files.
RECOIL (Multiplatform)
RECOIL (Multiplatform)
File type category:
Emulator file
Date updated: January 14, 2019
The raw file extension is associated with some emulators of ZX Spectrum 8-bit computers, developed by Sinclair Research in early 1980s.
The raw file stores RAW memory dump from a real Spectrum. It is the 48Kb of ZX Spectrum RAM and a CODE header on the front.
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