How to use it
- Drop in raw files from your camera or card.
- Each is developed with the white balance your camera recorded. Large files take a few seconds each.
- Download the JPGs.
What “developing” a raw file means
A raw file is not really an image yet. It holds the readings from each photosite on the sensor, usually each behind a single red, green or blue filter. Turning that into a photo means working out full colour for every pixel (demosaicing), applying white balance, converting to a standard colour space and applying a tone curve. Cameras do this internally when they save a JPG; raw editors do it with sliders. This converter does it with LibRaw, the open-source library behind many raw tools, running in your browser.
What you get, and what you do not
The result is a faithful, neutral development using the white balance recorded by your camera. It will not match your camera's JPG exactly, because each maker applies its own look, sharpening and noise reduction, and it will not apply the edits you made in Lightroom or Capture One, which live in separate sidecar files. For quick previews, sharing a batch with a client, or getting at photos on a computer with no raw software, it does the job well.
Sizes and speed
Raw files are large, 20 to 80 MB for modern cameras, and developing them is real work. Expect a few seconds per file on a computer and longer on a phone. Phones may scale very large results down to fit their memory; the tool says so if that happens.
RAW and JPG compared
| RAW | JPG | |
|---|---|---|
| First released | Late 1990s, varies by maker | 1992 |
| Compression | Sensor data, uncompressed or lightly compressed | Lossy |
| Transparency | No | No |
| Animation or pages | No (holds a JPEG preview) | No |
| Best for | Editing photos with the most latitude | Photos for sharing, email and print |
| Support | Raw editors and camera software; not browsers | Universal |
Questions people ask
Which cameras are supported?
Most cameras from the last two decades, via LibRaw: Canon CR2 and CR3, Nikon NEF, Sony ARW, Fujifilm RAF, Olympus ORF, Panasonic RW2, Pentax PEF, DNG and others.
Will my Lightroom edits be applied?
No. Edits are stored separately from the raw file. Export from Lightroom to keep them.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The raw file is developed in your browser.
Why does it look different from my camera’s JPG?
Cameras add their own colour style, sharpening and noise reduction. This is a neutral development.