Frequently Asked Questions

Some frequently asked questions are:

How do I buy toDNG?

toDNG is available exclusively from the Apple App Store.

What file formats will toDNG work with?

Some of the supported formats include GIF, ICNS, JPEG, JPG, JPEG-2000, Microsoft BMP, Microsoft Icon, OpenEXR, Photoshop (PSD), PICT, PNG, SGI, TGA, TIFF, GIF, TIF, ICO, GMP, XBM, and CUR. In addition, toDNG will also make use of any additional image codecs installed on your system, and can also convert many raw image formats. Note however that some of these formats support features not available in a DNG file.

What file formats won't toDNG work with?

toDNG doesn't support vector format files, e.g., PDF, Postscript, SVG, etc. In addition, remember that the DNG format is essentially a photographic format. So it doesn't support features such as layers, multi-page images, masks or transparency. toDNG will do the best it can with images that contain such features, but toDNG may either not be able to convert such images at all, or may not be able to give you a sensible result. For example, as the DNG format doesn't support transparency, toDNG has to render transparent areas of an image as some color - usually black or white, depending on how the original file was created.

Can toDNG recover my original raw data from a JPEG or TIFF file?

No. toDNG builds a so called "linear raw" DNG file, but it contains the equivalent of the RGB data in your JPEG or TIFF file - there is no way to recover the original sensor data (e.g., raw Bayer matrix data) from a JPEG or TIFF file.

Can toDNG can convert raw formats?

Yes, toDNG can convert a very large number of raw format images to DNG format. Raw formats are the images produced by many high-end cameras, DSLRs, etc. Examples include Nikon NEFs and Canon CR2s. However, toDNG converts these files into "linear raw" format. Linear raw DNGs to NOT contain the original raw data from your camera. If you want to encode the original raw data into the DNG, you should use Adobe's Raw Converter product rather than toDNG.

The converted files are much bigger than the originals - what's going on?

Various individual image formats have their own ways of compressing data -e.g., JPEG uses a "lossy" compression that can generate artifacts in the images. In order to ensure that toDNG doesn't cause any degradation of images during conversion, toDNG doesn't use lossy compression, and stores data in 16-bit form. This can cause images to get much bigger than the original.

In what color space are the DNG files?

DNG files don't have a color space in the sense of of an sRGB or Adobe RGB profile. However, toDNG's encoding offers the equivalent of the ProPhoto space.