Digital Negative Format

ADOBE -- One of the most important facets of the multimedia software suite installed on Tipperary Institute classroom workstations is Photoshop CS. This image editing program is quickly establishing another digital photo format as an industry standard, the Digital Negative specification.

Adobe's Digital Negative specification and converter tool allows students to translate and store raw files, which contain images prior to any in-camera processing, from more than 65 types of cameras. This process is different from storing the images as JPEGs or TIFFs, which are altered from an image's raw file. It means being able to use subtle hues from sunsets captured by the Fuji S602Z camer.

Adobe's Digital Negative (DNG) format can be used in digital cameras, printers and software products for free, without legal restrictions. The Adobe converter tool is also free to download and use.

Adobe's strategy is similar to others it has taken with attempts to make its products de facto standards. The company did well with its PDF (Portable Document Format), the defacto specification for Irish government documents.

Adobe's move into DNG should quiet parts of the digital photography market by securing a place for a unified, public format for raw files.

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Dawn Kawamoto -- "Adobe offers standard for raw photo formats"
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