RAW to PSD Converter
Convert RAW to PSD in your browser. The camera's embedded JPEG preview is what gets converted, not the sensor data; it matches what the camera showed on its screen. No raw development happens here. You get an 8-bit RGB Photoshop document with one layer and a merged composite, RLE compressed, with transparency kept. Nothing is uploaded.
- Processed locally
- No upload, no wait
- No sign-up
- No watermark
Drop images here
or choose files · paste with Ctrl/⌘ V
RAW expected · other image formats also work
How to use RAW to PSD
- 1
Add your RAW files: drop them here, choose them, or paste from the clipboard.
- 2
There is nothing to tune: the PSD is written losslessly. Resizing and rotating are under More options if you need them.
- 3
Click Convert. Each file is decoded and encoded in a background thread on this device.
- 4
Download the .psd files one at a time or together as a ZIP.
Why use Aback Images for raw to psd
Where the PSD goes next
PSD opens in Photoshop, Affinity Photo, GIMP, Photopea and Krita.
PSD next to RAW
The PSD holds the camera preview's pixels with lossless compression: usually smaller than a 20 to 80 MB raw file, though far larger than a JPEG of the same photo.
No new artefacts
The preview inside the RAW is a camera JPEG; the PSD stores its decoded pixels losslessly, so this step adds no compression damage of its own.
Processed on your device
Your images are decoded, edited and encoded inside this browser tab by Web Workers. Nothing is uploaded to a server.
RAW vs PSD
What changes from RAW to PSD
Encoding: the RAW uses uncompressed, lossless JPEG or vendor-specific coding of the sensor data, depending on the maker; PSD uses raw or RLE (PackBits) channel data, ZIP in some 16 and 32-bit files, and the download is an 8-bit RGB Photoshop document with one layer and a merged composite, RLE compressed, with transparency kept.
Bit depth: 12 to 16 bits per channel in the RAW; PSD allows 8, 16 or 32 bits per channel, and the PSD written here has 8 bits per channel. The sensor's 12 to 16 bits are not used: the camera's 8-bit preview is converted.
Colour: camera-native RGB from a colour filter mosaic in the RAW; PSD supports RGB, CMYK, Lab, greyscale, indexed or multichannel, written here as 8-bit sRGB.
Metadata: the RAW can carry EXIF and vendor maker notes, almost always with an embedded JPEG preview; PSD can carry XMP, EXIF, IPTC and ICC in image resource blocks, but nothing is copied across.
About RAW
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 usually come from older Panasonic and Leica compacts that saved .RAW, and scanners or scientific cameras that use the extension for pixel dumps.
About PSD
PSD is Adobe Photoshop's layered working format. It keeps layers, masks and effects, but almost nothing outside Photoshop can display it, so finished designs are exported to PNG or JPG.
A PSD has five sections: a header ('8BPS', channel count, size, depth, colour mode), colour mode data, image resources (thumbnail, ICC, XMP, resolution), layer and mask information, and finally the merged composite image that the Maximize Compatibility option saves.
When converting RAW to PSD makes sense
PSD is the better choice for editing in Photoshop, while RAW suits editing in Lightroom, Capture One or darktable.
PSD strengths: Keeps every layer and edit. Drawbacks to weigh: Huge files; Cannot be viewed on the web or most phones.
Limitations
- A headerless .raw pixel dump has no preview and no size information, so it cannot be converted here.
- The Photoshop document holds the picture as a single layer: a starting point for editing, not a reconstruction of layers.
- Photoshop, Affinity Photo, GIMP and Photopea open it.
More conversions
Related tools
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Resize to exact pixels, a percentage or a longest side, with Lanczos3 and Magic Kernel resampling. Batch ready.
Strip EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC and comments losslessly. Pixels are never re-encoded for JPG, PNG and WebP.
Convert between 34 image formats in bulk: HEIC, WebP, AVIF, JPEG XL, PNG, JPG, GIF, TIFF, SVG, ICO, PSD, RAW and more.
Frequently asked questions
Does converting RAW to PSD lose quality?
PSD is written losslessly, so the pixels are stored exactly as decoded. Those pixels come from the camera's JPEG preview, so its compression stays, but nothing new is lost. The sensor's 12 to 16 bits are not used: the camera's 8-bit preview is converted.
Does this process the RAW sensor data?
No. Camera RAW files carry a JPEG rendered by the camera when the picture was taken, and that is what gets converted, so the result matches what you saw on the camera screen. For full development (white balance, highlight recovery, lens corrections) use a RAW editor.
Which apps open PSD files?
Photoshop, Affinity Photo, GIMP, Photopea and Krita. It does not open in web browsers.
Are my images uploaded anywhere?
No. Processing happens inside your browser with WebAssembly and Web Workers. The site only downloads the app code and codecs; your files never leave your device. You can confirm this with the live upload counter on the tool, or in your browser's network panel.
Can I process many files at once?
Yes. Drop a whole selection or folder. Files are processed in parallel on several worker threads, each result can be downloaded on its own, and everything can be saved as one ZIP.
Is it free? Is there a file limit or watermark?
It is free with no account, no watermark and no daily limit. The only limit is your device's memory: very large images (over roughly 100 megapixels) may be refused to keep the tab from crashing.