- Governmental organisations that endorse DNG
- Exploitation in professional workflows
- Commercial and academic endorsements for DNG
- Digital image archiving
DNG is gaining recogition as a raw image file format that has uniquely valuable characteristics, especially for interchange and archival purposes. Endorsement or recognition is spread over several disciplines and organisations, with varying degrees of importance. Only cases where DNG is singled out, rather than simply being included with camera manufacturers' raw file formats, are listed here.
This is all "work in progress". These uses and endorsements necessarily follow behind the availability of tools that support DNG, and tend to rely on trends identified elsewhere in these pages.
Governmental organisations that endorse DNG
Government agencies may be concerned with national archives, or with ensuring that government investments are secured with a long life.
- US Library of Congress:
The "Sustainability of Digital Formats Planning for Library of Congress Collections" identifies DNG as the ONLY suggested raw format. (Some people have been confused by the presentation on that page. Note that the "Less desirable file formats" include RAW, and the "Suggested alternatives" include DNG).
Here is what they say about DNG in more detail. (I am referred to a few times by the US Library of Congress on that page!)
More on this subject is at "Digital Preservation" (by Jeff Schewe, 11 May 2005). - UK Technical Advisory Service for Images:
The UK's Technical Advisory Service for Images, which provides advice and guidance to the Further and Higher Education community, identifies DNG as one of the file formats to "Archive all data exactly as created by the capture device".
Exploitation in professional workflows
Unlike the other topics on this page, this trend typically isn't strongly promoted or publicised.
- Professional photographer survey:
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". - DISC (Digital Image Submission Criteria):
The DISC Working Group (established by IDEAlliance) has published a set of specifications for use by Creative Professionals (including photographers and illustrators) as a standard format prior to submission for publication. It says: "Today the preferred delivery file formats for DISC image submissions are: JPEG High Quality (level 8); DNG". It also exploits XMP. - digitalphoto.PRIMEDIA:
digitalphoto.PRIMEDIA is PRIMEDIA's online resource for internal and freelance photographers. It exploits DISC (Digital Image Submission Criteria), saying "DNG format ... is recommended for all camera raw files". - Being followed up:
From a forum: "I have a client and the advertising agency is now requesting DNG files".... "DNG has been requested as a delivery file format for some time by magazines". - Some limited information:
From a forum: "I've recently started working for a magazine and they like the DNG format". And: "Powder magazine likes to see .dng files. I work on staff for a local mag and we've decided to use the .dng format". Later: "Powder that I've worked with wants to ensure that what they are getting is a real image, not some super duper photoshoped sunrise shot, etc".
Commercial and academic endorsements for DNG
Commercial and academic organisations are increasingly recommending DNG for interchange, submission criteria, etc. This trend will continue, often together with "XMP-within-DNG".
- Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines Working Group:
The UPDIG Working Group's "Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines", available for download, come out strongly in favour of DNG throughout. These are good and comprehensive discussions of the advantages of DNG, together with remaining disadvantages. - JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment:
JHOVE, the "JSTOR/Harvard Object Validation Environment", lists DNG as part of a standard module. - Peter Krogh (author of "The DAM Book") :
"The DAM Book - Digital Asset Management for Photographers", by Peter Krogh, exploits DNG as a "digital job jacket" for both the raw image and for the asset management metadata. (Microsoft acquisition of iView). - Florida Digital Archive:
The mission of the Florida Digital Archive is to provide a cost-effective, long-term preservation repository for digital materials in support of teaching and learning, scholarship, and research in the state of Florida. "For born digital images, we prefer Adobe Digital Negative DNG (.dng) over the RAW format". - Chuck Westfall (Canon Consumer Imaging Group Director) :
I3A held a Technical Forum in conjunction with the PMA Show on 27 February, 2006, on the topic "Going RAW - Is a Standard RAW Image Format Possible". Canon Consumer Imaging Group Director Chuck Westfall stated that "Adobe's DNG file format has excellent features for archival storage".
Digital image archiving
Several papers in the field of digital image archiving, published or presented at conferences, have mentioned DNG. Sometimes the theme is "wait and see" - DNG was recognised as a potential archival file format for raw image data, but hasn't yet made the breakthough for all of these authors. Some of this work may turn into more solid endorsements in future. (DNG was launched in September 2004. It takes time to research and publish an academic paper. Most academic papers that have discussed digital image preservation could not have mentioned DNG).
It is important to recognise that there is no credibility among the academic community for the use of camera manufacturers' raw file formats for archival purposes, and there is unlikely to be in future. The considered alternative to DNG is TIFF, (or possibly PDF/A), not such formats as NEF or CR2. A few examples:
| Resource | More information | Relevance to DNG |
|---|---|---|
| "Permanent pixels: Building blocks for the longevity of digital surrogates of historical photographs" Copyright © 2005 René van Horik |
This thesis has been made possible with financial support from:
|
There are 11 references to DNG in the text. DNG is used mainly in the context of confirmation of TIFF 6.0 as a key format for digital image preservation, given that DNG is an extension of TIFF 6.0. |
| "Digital Images Archiving Study" Sheila Anderson, Mike Pringle, Mick Eadie, Tony Austin, Andrew Wilson, Malcolm Polfreman March 2006 |
The Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) is a national service funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher and Further Education Funding Councils and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to collect, preserve and promote the electronic resources which result from research and teaching in the arts and humanities. | There are 20 references to DNG in the text. It is mainly used in the context of "A similar watching brief should be conducted for DNG". But it also says: "The fact that the format is being developed by Adobe, the leading image editor, is in its favour as this should ensure uptake and compatibility with all major browser and software manufacturers, and sufficient uptake from users. However the format is perhaps most suitable for images that have been created in a RAW format, such as those made by one-shot digital cameras. We will have to see if it becomes a standard archive format for all digital images." |
| "Born Digital Photographs: Acquisition and Preservation Strategies" Rosaleen Hill |
AABC Conference 2006 (Archives Association of British Columbia) Rosaleen Hill is AABC Conservation Coordinator |
There are 6 references to DNG in the text. It is listed as a relevent file format, alongside JPEG, TIFF, JPEG 2000, and RAW. It is singled out with the statement "if used will allow access to file formats no longer supported by camera manufacturer". |
| "Digital Image File Formats -
TIFF, JPEG, JPEG2000, RAW and DNG" July 2007 Tim Vitale |
Tim Vitale is Conservator of Paper and Electronic Media, Preservation Associates. Available at: |
A reasonably up-to-date discussion about these formats, with 43 references to DNG. |