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Raw file formats are extremely popular in digital photography workflows because they offer creative professionals greater creative control. However, cameras can use many different raw formats — the specifications for which are not publicly available — which means that not every raw file can be read by a variety of software applications. As a result, the use of these proprietary raw files as a long-term archival solution carries risk, and sharing these files across complex workflows is even more challenging.

The solution to this is Digital Negative (DNG), a publicly available archival format for the raw files generated by digital cameras. By addressing the lack of an open standard for the raw files created by individual camera models, DNG helps ensure that photographers will be able to access their files in the future.

Within a year of its introduction, several dozen software manufacturers such as Apple, Canto, Extensis, and iView developed support for DNG. And respected camera manufacturers such as Casio, Hasselblad, Leica, Ricoh, and Samsung have introduced cameras that provide direct DNG support. Learn more ›

In addition to the Digital Negative Specification, Adobe provides the free Adobe DNG Converter (Windows® | Mac OS), which easily translates raw files from many of today's popular cameras. Software developers and manufacturers can download the complete DNG Specification (PDF, 486k). DNG is supported by Adobe® Photoshop® CS6, CS5, CS4, CS3, CS2, and CS, as well as Photoshop Elements 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, and all versions of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom® software.