About the Crw file format
- Name
- Canon Raw CIFF Image
- Extension
- .crw
- Format
- Binary
- Category
- Camera
- Developer
- Canon
- Description
- The CRW file format is a type of raw image file created by Canon digital cameras. It stands for Canon Raw CIFF (Camera Image File Format), which is a proprietary file format developed by Canon for capturing all the image data recorded by the camera's sensor when a photo is taken. Unlike JPEG or other compressed image formats, CRW files contain uncompressed and unprocessed data, offering photographers a higher degree of control over image adjustments such as exposure, white balance, and color corrections during the post-processing.
- MIME Type
- image/x-canon-crw
- Sample
- sample.crw
- Wikipedia
- .crw on Wikipedia
Canon Raw CIFF Image (CRW) files are raster files created by Canon digital cameras. The images are neither processed nor compressed so they contain so much information from the camera’s intake. So they are large files that occupy quite a chunk of space. As long as you don’t compress the image files, you retain the highest quality images. The only problem comes when you want to send, share, or upload the images thanks to their massive size.
Nowadays, Cr2 is replacing the CRW format as it’s the standard format with the newer Canon cameras. CRW file is very similar to other raw image files like Nikon’s NEF, Sony’s ARW, or Fuji’s RAF.
Their structure closely resembles the TIFF files but they are a major improvement on TIFF. Unlike TIFF, their offsets aren’t absolute but relative to the beginning of the data block for every directory. Meaning, a rewriter software doesn’t have to completely understand the format to rewrite it. As a result, you can move or copy them to another file without adjusting the offsets.
You can open the file with the application that comes in the Canon camera. Or the Microsoft Windows Photos, IrfanView, XnView, Able RAWer, RawTherapee, and Microsoft Windows Live Photo Gallery.
