![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/dng-iso-featured-800x420.jpg\")
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In March 2004, Australian photographer Robert Edwards<\/a> asked a simple but meaningful question on Rob Galbraith\u2019s now-defunct photography forums: \u201cCould Adobe make a RAW format?\u201d The answer was very much \u201cyes,\u201d and Adobe announced the DNG format<\/a>, or Digital Negative, later that same year. Now, more than two decades later, DNG is now the official standard<\/a> under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). <\/p>\n As Edwards explains<\/a>, this is the result of a quarter-century of work by countless people. It\u2019s also deceptively important work with significant implications for the future of digital photography. <\/p>\n Nearly all cameras, and certainly all of the ones PetaPixel readers care about, capture RAW photos. In most cases, the specific format varies by brand, and sometimes a camera has multiple different RAW file formats with different compression mechanisms. For example, Sony Alpha cameras capture .ARW RAW photos, while Nikon cameras shoot .NEF, Canon\u2019s capture .CR2, Fujifilm has .RAF, and so on. Some cameras capture .DNG RAW files, like Leica, Ricoh, and Sigma cameras. <\/p>\n \u2018Now the responsibility shifts. Camera manufacturers no longer have a valid reason to avoid supporting DNG.\u2019 <\/p>\n These manufacturer-specific RAW photo formats are proprietary, meaning not only are their inner workings industry secrets, but they are also supported at different speeds and to varying degrees in industry-leading photo editing applications and, in some cases, are never fully supported at all. For example, at the time of publication, the Sony a7 V RAW files are still not fully supported in any editing program outside of Sony\u2019s Imaging Edge. Even though in many cases, a photographer\u2019s life is not affected by the fact that their preferred camera has a proprietary RAW format \u2014 most things work most of the time \u2014 it is still a problem. <\/p>\n When Edwards asked if Adobe could make a RAW format in early 2004, he was really asking if a company could make an open-source RAW format that fully preserved edits and was comprehensively documented, ensuring it was archival-quality, versatile, and able to implemented across all aspects of a digital photography workflow, no matter which camera a person used or which apps they used to process and store their RAW photos. <\/p>\n Thomas Knoll, the famous engineer who invented Adobe Photoshop, chimed in on Edwards\u2019 forum post \u2014 Rob Galbraith\u2019s forums were really important at the time \u2014 and said that Edwards\u2019 idea was possible. \u201cYes, it is feasible,\u201d Knoll wrote in his straightforward response. <\/p>\n While Knoll didn\u2019t tip his hand, DNG was already in the works. It arrived in September 2004. <\/p>\n DNG, an open, fully documented RAW file format with widespread support and ISO-compliant technological foundations, solves the potential problems above and more. DNG, given how it was built and documented, has compatibility and longevity that a proprietary RAW photo format can never have. <\/p>\n As Edwards explains, \u201cinteroperability and preservation\u201d has \u201calways been the goal.\u201d <\/p>\n In February 2013, the Australian Institute of Professional Photography invited Edwards to an ISO meeting on photographic standards. Edwards was flanked by manufacturers, scientists, technicians, photographers, engineers, and even government representatives, all there to discuss photographic standards. Since then, and arguably even longer, Edwards has been fighting for DNG to become an ISO standard. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/adobe-raw-format-feasible-copy-725x800.jpg\")
Credit: Robert Edwards <\/p>\n