Photoshop Raw (Photoshop)

The Photoshop Raw format is a flexible file format for transferring images between applications and computer platforms. This format supports CMYK, RGB, and grayscale images with alpha channels, and multichannel and Lab images without alpha channels. Documents saved in the Photoshop Raw format can be any pixel or file size, but cannot contain layers. For more information on saving large documents in Photoshop Raw format, see Saving large documents (Photoshop).

The Photoshop Raw format consists of a stream of bytes describing the color information in the image. Each pixel is described in binary format, with 0 representing black and 255 white (for images with 16-bit channels, the white value is 65535). Photoshop designates the number of channels needed to describe the image, plus any additional channels in the image. You can specify the file extension (Windows), file type (Mac OS), file creator (Mac OS), and header information.

In Mac OS, the file type is generally a four-character ID that identifies the file--for example, TEXT identifies the file as an ASCII text file. The file creator is also generally a four-character ID. Most Mac OS applications have a unique file creator ID that is registered with the Apple Computer Developer Services group.

The header parameter specifies how many bytes of information appear in the file before actual image information begins. This value determines the number of zeroes inserted at the beginning of the file as placeholders. By default, there is no header (header size = 0). You can enter a header when you open the file in Raw format. You can also save the file without a header and then use a file-editing program, such as HEdit (Windows) or Norton Utilities® (Mac OS), to replace the zeroes with header information.

You can save the image in an interleaved or noninterleaved format. If you choose interleaved, the color values (red, green, and blue, for example) are stored sequentially. Your choice depends on requirements of the application that will open the file.

Note: Photoshop Raw is not the same file format as a raw image file from a digital camera. A digital camera's raw image file is a camera-specific proprietary format that provides the photographer with a digital negative, an image free of any filtering, white balance adjustments, and other in-camera processing.

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