- History of DNG - Pre-launch | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Future
- History of preceding specifications
- Historical articles on this website
History of DNG
Although ISO 12234-2 (TIFF/EP) includes raw image capability, it is inadequate for interchange and archiving purposes. In effect, DNG is TIFF/EP brought up-to-date and made fit for those purposes. Explanation of some columns:
- CAMs: the number of raw file formats (other than in-camera DNG) of camera models that can officially be converted to DNG by Adobe software. (The unofficial number is typically about 30+ higher, partly because Adobe unofficially supports a few camera models in the release before they provide official support, but mainly because several cameras and digital backs, mainly but not only Kodak, have never become important enough to warrant official support). The raw file formats of many other cameras and digital backs can be converted to DNG by non-Adobe products.
- PRODs: The number of known non-Adobe products that support DNG in some way. (The quoted number has been rounded down to allow for errors and disputes).
Pre-launch | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Future
| Date | Topics | Commentary | CAMs | PRODs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-launch | ||||
| 2003 (late) | DNG specification |
Adobe starts work on the DNG specification. Kevin Connor (September 2004): "Adobe has been working on this format for almost a year ...". |
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| 2004 (start) | DNG specification |
Adobe starts talking to other companies about DNG. Kevin Connor (September 2004): "We have been sharing the specification with manufacturers since the beginning of the year and soliciting their input". |
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| March 2004 | DNG specification | At Photoshop World in San Francisco this March, Adobe Senior Vice President Bryan Lamkin said, "we need to come together as an industry and define a digital master. And what I mean by digital master is a format that is permanent, that has permanence, that 100 years from now people will be able to go to a written record that says this is how that format is declared and interpreted." | ||
| Year 1 - from 27 September 2004 | ||||
| September 2004 | Public launch of DNG. | |||
| September 2004 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 2.3 and the 2.3 DNG Converter. DNG version 1.0.0.0 only. | 65 | |
| September 2004 | DNG specification | Publication of DNG specification version 1.0.0.0. | ||
| January 2005 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 2.4 and the 2.4 DNG Converter. Includes the ability to embed original raw file in the DNG. They can read DNG version 1.1.0.0 as well. | 73 | |
| February 2005 | DNG specification | Publication of DNG specification version 1.1.0.0. | ||
| Feburary 2005 (end) | After 5 months (at end of February 2005): |
15 | ||
| April 2005 | Alternatives | Launch of OpenRAW lobby group. Its motto "Digital Image Preservation Through Open Documentation" is compatible with use of DNG for archival purposes. In practice, its leaders and some of its supporters displayed antipathy and even hostility towards DNG. As a result, OpenRAW was never effective. | ||
| April 2005 (end) | After 7 months (at end of April 2005): Non-Adobe products supporting DNG in some way: 25. |
25 | ||
| May 2005 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 3.1 and the 3.1 DNG Converter (to work with Photoshop CS2 and replace ACR 3.0 supplied with CS2). Enables XMP metadata, for ACR settings and asset & rights management, to be held in the DNG file. | 78 | |
| June 2005 | Cameras | After about 8 and a half months, the first camera (in fact a digital back) supports DNG - Leica DMR back. | ||
| July 2005 | Cameras | First camera manufacturer to provide a DNG converter for its own raw file formats - Hasselblad-Imacon's FlexColor 4.5. | ||
| End of year summary | After 1 year (at end of September 2005): Non-Adobe products supporting DNG in some way: 77. Including 3 cameras and 4 digital backs, plus some software from camera manufacturers. |
78 | 77 | |
| Year 2 - from 27 September 2005 | ||||
| September 2005 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 3.2 and the 3.2 DNG Converter. Includes a command-line interface to the DNG Converter, and choice of preview sizes. These products and subsequent ones write DNG specification version 1.1.0.0, while continuing to read both DNG version 1.0.0.0 and DNG version 1.1.0.0. |
87 | |
| October 2005 (or earlier) | Respectability | The "Sustainability of Digital Formats Planning for Library of Congress Collections" identifies DNG as the preferred, indeed only, raw format. | ||
| November 2005 | Other products | An interesting example of a tool that works with DNG but no other formats - DNG Recover Edges. | ||
| December 2005 | Survey (apparently December 2005): "According to a recent InfoTrends study with 1,754 professional photographers, over 18 percent of photographers use DNG as part of their imaging workflow". |
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| November 2005 & January 2006 | Adobe products | Beta release then full release of ACR 3.3 and the 3.3 DNG Converter. | 103 | |
| April 2006 | Adobe products | Release of the (freely-available) DNG SDK (Software Development Kit) version 1.1. | ||
| Aril 2006 | Survey (by OpenRAW, April 2006): This suggests that, of those who responded, at least 27% always use products that don't accept DNG, and at least 31% sometimes use products that don't accept DNG. In early 2006, about 40% of raw shooters could work purely with DNG files, while about 60% needed to use the original raw files some or all of the time. By far the largest problem is software from camera manufacturers, with Capture One from Phase One in second place. |
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| May 2006 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 3.4 and the 3.4 DNG Converter. | 111 | |
| May 2006 | Alternatives | Launch of Microsoft's HD Photo. (Originally called "Windows Media Photo" with extension ".wdp". Its official name is "HD Photo" with extension ".hdp"). This is not a raw file format, having no method of describing data using a CFA (Colour Filter Array). It competes with TIFF and JPEG, but its high compression, which can be lossless, may suggest that it could be used instead of in-camera TIFF, and be a substitute for raw for some purposes. | ||
| September 2006 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 3.5 and the 3.5 DNG Converter. | 118 | |
| September 2006 | Cameras | First camera to use a LinearizationTable to reduce the size of the DNG file - Leica M8. First camera to offer the user a choice of proprietary raw (PEF) or DNG - Pentax K10D. |
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| End of year summary | After 2 years (at end of September 2006): Non-Adobe products supporting DNG in some way: 140+. Including at least 6 cameras, 4 digital backs, and some specialised products and software from camera manufacturers. |
118 | 140+ | |
| Year 3 - from 27 September 2006 | ||||
| October 2006 | Adobe products | Beta release then full release of ACR 3.6 and the 3.6 DNG Converter. | 132 |
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| December 2006 | Adobe products | Beta release of ACR 4.0. Includes the ability to open TIFF and JPEG images and save them to Linear DNG. | 132 | |
| February 2007 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 3.7 and the 3.7 DNG Converter. These respect the editing XMP metadata stored in DNGs by Lightroom 1.0. | 135 |
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| Release of Lightroom 1.0. This might appear to add nothing to the history of DNG. In fact, it makes easy-use of DNG credible and available to a much wider user-base. In future, many photographers will identify Lightroom as their introduction to a DNG-based workflow. | ||||
| April 2007 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.0 and the 4.0 DNG Converter. | 136 | |
| May 2007 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.1 and the 4.1 DNG Converter. A subtle feature of this release may have significant implications. Raw support for a new camera cannot properly be catered for directly by earlier versions of ACR, for example ACR 2.4 used by Photoshop CS, and ACR 3.7 used by Photoshop CS2. Support for the Fujifilm S5 Pro needs the use of Linear DNG for best support in earlier versions. |
149 | |
| 4.1 DNG Converter. This will automatically convert TIFFs to Linear DNG. (This doesn't appear to be a documented feature). This makes it easier to create Linear DNGs, for example from scanned images. |
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| May 2007 | Other products | Pixelmator was probably the first raw converter & photo-editor I was aware of whose only raw format appears to be DNG! (That is probably a sensible business management decision, based on return on investment). | ||
| June 2007 | Adobe products | Release of Lightroom 1.1 with a camera list matching ACR 4.1. | 149 | |
| 31 August 2007 | Other products | Public Beta of Capture One 4 supporting DNG. The significance is that Capture One is sometimes considered to be a "bellwether" product, whose lack of DNG support has been cited as evidence against DNG. | ||
| September 2007 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.2, DNG Converter 4.2, and Lightroom 1.2. | 163 | |
| End of year summary | After 3 years (at end of September 2007): Non-Adobe products supporting DNG in some way: 190+. Including at least 8 cameras, 4 digital backs, and some specialised products and software from camera manufacturers. |
163 | 190+ | |
| Year 4 - from 27 September 2007 | ||||
| Autumn 2007 | Survey | "... 40% of Lightroom users who aren't shooting with a DNG-native camera have already decided to utilize the Convert To DNG option while importing their photos". See my earlier prediction! | ||
| November 2007 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.3, DNG Converter 4.3, and Lightroom 1.3. | 170 | |
| December 2007 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.3.1, DNG Converter 4.3.1, and Lightroom 1.3.1. | 170 | |
| February 2008 | Other products | Apple's Aperture 2.0 supports cameras via DNG that it doesn't support natively. (Previously Aperture was one of the last products only to support DNGs where it also supported native raw). | ||
| February 2008 | Other products | DNG on Nokia mobile phones! | ||
| 14 March 2008 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.4, DNG Converter 4.4, and Lightroom 1.4. These convert to DNG version 1.2.0.0 (backward compatibility with version 1.1.0.0). |
179 | |
| 16 March 2008 | Withdrawal of ACR 4.4, DNG Converter 4.4, and Lightroom 1.4 because of bugs. | |||
| 11 April 2008 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.4.1, DNG Converter 4.4.1, and Lightroom 1.4.1. These convert to DNG version 1.2.0.0 (backward compatibility with version 1.1.0.0). |
179 | |
| 14 April 2008 | Specification | Adobe announces CinemaDNG initiative. Its relationship with the DNG described on these pages is not clear. | ||
| April 2008 | DNG specification | Adobe's Kevin Connor talking to Digital PhotoPro: "We've actually started talking to ISO ... of potential standardization around a new RAW format. We've submitted DNG as something for them to consider". |
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| 12 May 2008 | DNG specification | Publication of DNG specification version 1.2.0.0. | ||
| Adobe products | DNG WIC Codec for Vista released by Adobe Labs. (Release candidate). | |||
| Adobe products | DNG SDK to support version 1.2.0.0. | |||
| 15 May 2008 | DNG specification | Adobe is submitting its DNG 'universal RAW' format to the International Standard's Organization (ISO), in a move aimed at increasing acceptance and usage. The format is being proposed as part of ISO's TIFF/EP (electronic photography), standard. Adobe's Tom Hogarty talking to DP Review: "It was a topic that came up for [ISO], so we put this forward as a solution. The time was also right for such a move. Early on in the development of a format, you want to make sure you can be responsive and adaptive - large bodies don't necessarily innovate as quickly as we can. However, after four years and the many cameras that have been launched in that time, the standard has only needed revising twice. We've not had to rev[ise] the format because there are things missing, we're rev'ing it to add new features." | ||
| 6 June 2008 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.5 beta, DNG Converter 4.5 beta. | 181 | |
| 29 July 2008 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.5, DNG Converter 4.5, and Lightroom 2.0. | 181 | |
| Release of DNG Profile Editor and Camera Profiles, both in public beta (V1). | ||||
| 12 September 2008 | Other products | First movie camera to use DNG as a raw file format: Ikonoskop - A-cam dII | ||
| 18/20 September 2008 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.6 beta, DNG Converter 4.6 beta, , and Lightroom 2.1 beta. | 185 | |
| End of year summary | After 4 years (at end of September 2008): Non-Adobe products supporting DNG in some way: 240+. Including at least 20 cameras, (one of them a movie camera), 4 digital backs, and several specialised products and software from camera manufacturers. DNG is the raw file format of choice for niche, and some minority, camera and digital back manufacturers. |
185 | 240+ | |
| Year 5 - from 27 September 2008 | ||||
| 28 September 2008 | Other products | First DNG converter for Linux. digiKam | ||
| 10 October 2008 | Adobe products | Release of ACR 4.6 and DNG Converter 4.6. | 196 | |
| September 2008 | This entry in this table is updated occasionally. | 196 | 240+ | |
| Future | ||||
| ? | DNG specification | DPReview Forum: DNG may use the compression of Microsoft's HD Photo as an optional better compression. | ||
? (Is this being superceded by the news of April and May 2008?) |
DNG specification | Kevin Connor (September 2004): "If over time, there is a consensus between various parties that it should be controlled by a standards body, Adobe is open to doing whatever it takes to make sure customers' needs are addressed". Peter Krogh (April 2005): "As to the standard being owned by Adobe, I checked into that as well. The response I got was that the standards bodies don't want it until it's done. If you know someone else out there who is willing to fund and manage the effort, I'm sure the folks at Adobe would be interested in a discussion. At this point nobody is interested in doing that work". Tom Hogarty (February 2007): "Adobe is constantly evaluating the right time in the DNG format evolution to submit the format to a standards organization. By managing the DNG format evolution internally Adobe can ensure responsiveness to industry needs during a period of rapid growth. Rest assured that Adobe continues to evaluate the format's readiness for a transition to a standards body". |
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| September 2009 or earlier? | DNG specification | Thomas Knoll: has stated that he thinks it will be a 3-5 year battle to finally get to the stage where there are strict standards for raw file formats. |
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History of preceding specifications
DNG is an extension of TIFF 6.0 and is compatible with ISO 12234-2 (TIFF/EP). This is a brief history of those specifications.
| Date | Topics | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| TIFF 6.0 (Aldus then Adobe) | ||
| 1992 | Specification | TIFF Revision 6.0. Final - June 3, 1992. (Aldus). |
| 1995 | Specification | TIFF Revision 6.0.1. Contact information has been switched from Aldus to Adobe, otherwise unchanged. |
| ISO 12234-2 (TIFF/EP) | ||
| 1998 | Specification | Draft of ISO 12234-2: "Photography - Electronic still picture imaging - Removable memory - Part 2: Image data format - TIFF/EP". |
| 2001 | Specification | ISO 12234-2: Ratified and Published International Standard. |
| 2006 | Revision | I3A forum: "The current standard ISO 12234-2 on TIFF/EP is under revision and TC42 is considering the addition of further raw data definitions". I3A Newsletter: "Another standard under review is ISO 12234-2 – TIFF/EP. The 5-year revision cycle begins this year. It has been suggested that the revision needs to address some issues related to RAW format support. For example, the revision might describe updated metadata that is particularly useful for supporting RAW image files. WG18 experts will provide recommendations for updated metadata relevant to RAW format images in relation to the revision of ISO 12234-2". |
| 2007-03-16 | Revision | Email from TC42 WG18: "The Adobe DNG format was derived from this standard and the group has Adobe's permission to incorporate modifications and developments made for DNG in the new standard". "In addition the standards group is asking all interested people for comments and requirements - which are not part of the current DNG or Tiff/EP standard - to be incorporated in the new standard. If you have such please forward them to me by the end of April". "Hopefully we will soon be able to provide a standardized file format which meets everybody's expectations and gets a wide support by camera manufacturers, software vendors, and photographers". |
| 2007-10-03 | Revision | At 2007-10-03, the status of ISO 12234-2 (TIFF/EP) was 90.60 - "Review summary dispatched". |
| 2008-03-11 | Revision | Email from TC42 WG18: "... the new version will be merging TIFF/EP, DNG, some other metadata and a few future additions into one format". |
Historical articles on this website
The substantive content of the following pages has been frozen. They have mainly historical significance, for example when tracing the global trends towards support of DNG. The dates are based on the fact that DNG was launched on 27 September 2004.
| Page | Date since launch | Non-Adobe products |
|---|---|---|
| DNG support, end-February & end-April 2005 | Five months | 15 |
| Seven months | 25 | |
| DNG support, to end-September 2005 | One year | 77 |
| DNG support, to end-September 2006 | Two years | 140 or more |
| DNG support, to end-September 2007 | Three years | More than 190 |
| DNG support, to end-September 2008 | Four years | More than 240 |