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CRW at a glance
CRW
Early Canon digital-camera workflows used raw formats like CRW before the later EOS raw families stabilized around CR2 and then CR3.
PGM Raw at a glance
PGM Raw
The raw PGM branch reflects the practical evolution of Netpbm-style tool formats: keep the tiny header and easy parsing, but move the pixel raster into a binary form that is much more usable for real data sizes.
Format comparison
| Feature | CRW | PGM Raw |
|---|---|---|
| File type | Image | Image |
| Extensions |
|
|
| MIME type |
|
|
| Created year | 2000 | 1988 |
| Inventor | Canon | Jef Poskanzer |
| Status | proprietary | active |
| Transparency | Not supported | Not supported |
| Animation | Not supported | Not supported |
| Primary use cases |
|
|
| Layer support | Not supported | Not supported |
| Vector scaling | Not supported | Not supported |
| Camera raw data | Supported | Not supported |
| HDR support | Not supported | Not supported |
| Streaming ready | Not supported | Not supported |
When to use each format
When to use CRW
- Your source file is already in CRW.
- Preserve source expectations before exporting to PGM Raw.
- CRW is commonly used in image workflows.
When to use PGM Raw
- Your target workflow expects PGM Raw.
- Improve delivery compatibility with PGM Raw.
- PGM Raw is commonly used in image workflows.
FAQs
Why convert CRW to PGM Raw?
Convert to PGM raw when a pipeline needs direct grayscale raster data for vision research, microscopy or scientific-image preprocessing, algorithm tests, or command-line tooling where minimal format overhead matters.
It is particularly useful as an intermediate format between automated processing steps.
What changes when converting CRW to PGM Raw?
This conversion changes how the format behaves in downstream tools and delivery environments.
Moving to PGM Raw removes camera raw data.
What should I review after converting CRW to PGM Raw?
Validate output quality on representative files and confirm the target format behaves correctly in the destination workflow.