GIF to RAW Converter

Encoding: the GIF uses lossless LZW over a palette of at most 256 colours; RAW uses uncompressed, lossless JPEG or vendor-specific coding of the sensor data, depending on the maker, and the download is a Linear DNG: demosaiced 8-bit RGB with the colour matrices raw editors need.

Bit depth: 8 bits per pixel, as indexes into a palette in the GIF; RAW allows 12 to 16 bits per channel, and the DNG written here has 8 bits per channel, linearised.

Colour: an indexed palette of up to 256 colours per frame in the GIF; RAW supports camera-native RGB from a colour filter mosaic, written here as 8-bit sRGB.

Transparency: the GIF stores it as one palette entry marked transparent, so each pixel is either fully shown or fully hidden; the DNG has none, so transparent areas are filled with the colour you choose.

Animation: image blocks with their own delay and disposal method, looped by the NETSCAPE2.0 extension; the DNG holds one image, so only the first frame is converted.

Metadata: the GIF can carry comment and application extension blocks, but no EXIF; RAW can carry EXIF and vendor maker notes, almost always with an embedded JPEG preview, but nothing is copied across.

GIF is the classic animated image format. It is limited to 256 colours per frame and 1-bit transparency, so photos look grainy and files are large, but it plays everywhere.

A GIF starts with 'GIF89a' (or the older 87a), a logical screen descriptor and an optional global colour table, then image blocks, each preceded by a graphic control extension that sets its delay and transparent colour.

GIF files usually come from reaction clips, memes, old websites and screen recordings.

Camera RAW files (CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG, ORF, RW2, RAF and others) hold the unprocessed sensor data from a camera along with an embedded full-size JPEG preview rendered by the camera.

.RAW is an extension rather than one format. Panasonic and Leica compacts wrote TIFF-like .RAW files before Panasonic moved to RW2, and scanners and scientific cameras use .raw for headerless dumps with no width, height or layout recorded, which nothing can read without being told those values.

RAW files come from older Panasonic and Leica compacts that saved .RAW, and scanners or scientific cameras that use the extension for pixel dumps.

Forms and workflows that ask for RAW usually feed a raw editor, and each of those opens DNG as well, so the DNG can take the RAW's place. Keep the GIF if you only need to view or share the picture.

What RAW offers when it comes straight from the camera: Maximum editing latitude in RAW editors; Includes a camera-rendered preview. Its drawbacks: Huge files; Every brand uses its own format; Phones, browsers and websites cannot display it.