RAW File

What are RAW files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a RAW file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your RAW files.

What is a RAW file?

RAW files have multiple uses, and Camera RAW Image is one of them. Read more about the other uses further down the page.

Camera RAW Image

RAW files are photos captured by digital cameras. The photos are uncompressed and unaltered - no processing has been done on the image as it is saved exactly as the camera lens sees it.

RAW images have the largest amount of detail, which is why photographers prefer to use this format. They have maximum detail to work with when post-processing the images, and RAW can easily be edited and converted to other more common image formats.

How to open RAW files

We have identified six RAW openers that are compatible with this specific type of RAW file.

Programs that open Camera RAW Image files

Last updated: August 4, 2026

All known file formats using extension .RAW

While Camera RAW Image is a popular type of RAW-file, we know of 12 different uses of the .RAW file extension. Different software may use files with the same extension for different types of data.

CT Raw Disk Image

CT Raw Disk Image files are disk-format images produced by the KryoFlux hardware and software system for preserving floppy disk data. These files capture sector‐level data from standard floppy disks using a specific MFM (Modified Frequency Modulation) encoding, typically with 84 tracks, double‐sided (DS), double density (DD), and a 300 RPM spindle speed. The format is designed for use with legacy floppy disk systems and for archival work where exact sector data preservation matters.

Such files are created by KryoFlux's Disk Tool Console (DTC) or the GUI, selecting the "CT Raw image" profile. These images are often one of multiple output formats generated together (for example alongside "stream files" and sector‐decoded images) to allow for later inspection, analysis, or conversion to emulator‐friendly disk formats. As of KryoFlux version 2.20, the CT Raw image profile may be omitted unless the SoftPres Analyser (also known as CTA) will be used for later inspection.

CT Raw Disk Image files can be distinguished internally by specific byte signatures: the file begins with the ASCII characters "CAPS" at offset 0, includes "DATA" at byte offset 12, and "PACK" at offset 48.

While we have not verified the apps ourselves yet, our users have suggested ten different RAW openers which you will find listed below.

DCTV Raw Bitmap

DCTV Raw Bitmap is a digital video-image file created by the Amiga graphics/video system known as DCTV (Digital Composite Television) from Digital Creations. It captures full-color still frames (24-bit) by converting analogue video input (from a TV, video camera, etc.) into a format that the DCTV hardware and its associated Amiga software can recognize and display or save. These files store frames in a form where the composite video waveform information has been digitized and compressed for use with Amiga's memory and display circuitry when using the DCTV display output.

Files of this type are usually generated by the DCTV unit together with its paint and digitizing software bundled for the Amiga. Once generated, a user may view, edit or convert them (for example into standard Amiga IFF bitmap or paint programs), but they are not standard raw sensor-data files like modern camera RAWs. Their purpose is to preserve the frames DCTV produces or captures so that the visual output seen on the display can be reconstructed later.

A technical signature appears at the start of each file: the file begins with the ASCII characters FORM at offset 0, followed by DCTVANNO (starting at offset 8), and further includes the string WrittenbyDCTV at offset 20. These markers allow Amiga software (or file-identification tools) to distinguish DCTV Raw Bitmap files from other IFF or FORM‐based Amiga image files.

Finnigan Xcalibur Raw Data

Finnigan Xcalibur Raw Data files are proprietary binary files created by Thermo Fisher Scientific mass spectrometer systems (originally Finnigan instruments) using the Xcalibur data system software. These .RAW files record the raw instrument output - including spectra and chromatograms - directly as acquired by the instrument. They serve as the primary source data for experiments in mass spectrometry before any processing or conversion.

These files are produced during data acquisition with Xcalibur-enabled instruments. Scientists use tools such as Xcalibur software or Thermo Fisher's FreeStyle application to review data within .RAW files, and they can convert them to other formats (e.g., peak lists or open formats like mzML) using utilities such as MSFileReader, RawFileReader, or third-party converters. The .RAW files may contain unprocessed profile or centroid spectra, instrument metadata, detector settings, and chromatographic/scan timing information.

Byte-level identification features include the ASCII signature starting at offset zero identifying "Finnigan" (encoded in UTF-16 or similar), followed by strings like FINNIGAN, XCALIBUR, COMPANY, METHODS, CLIENT, and PHONE somewhere in the file, with a specific header pattern "bytes 0x01A1460069006E006E006900670061006E00000000000000000000000000000000 at offset 0 (ASCII: ..F.i.n.n.i.g.a.n)".

Flipper Zero RAW RFID Format

The Flipper Zero RAW RFID Format (.RAW) is a type of file produced by a Flipper Zero handheld device when reading low-frequency RFID (125 kHz) cards in debug mode. It records the unprocessed signal the RFID card emits, after basic demodulation, for later inspection or protocol decoding. The device offers it when the standard "Read" action fails or when more detailed signal information is needed.

Flipper Zero writes two RAW RFID files for each "Read RAW" attempt (one for ASK modulation, one for PSK) into the "lfrfid" folder on its microSD card. These files hold binary or signal-level data, not textual identifiers or decoded card IDs. They are used by developers inspecting the underlying bit or symbol transitions of the card's signal, or by tools that convert or visualise raw RFID data.

Internally, these .RAW files begin with a fixed header: the ASCII signature "RIFL" followed by certain bytes including 0x01..., 0x24 at offset zero.

Helios Raw Disk Image

Helios Raw Disk Image is a disk image format used with the Helios II Disk Memory System under PTDOS, an operating system built for machines using the Intel 8080 and the Helios II disk controller. The image represents a full, block-level copy of a Helios-formatted disk (or diskette), preserving its original sector, track, and inter-record layout as used by PTDOS. It allows tasks such as backup, distribution, or archival of disks including all low-level disk metadata and structure.

Helios Raw Disk Image files are produced by PTDOS utilities or by imaging software compatible with the Helios II controller. Once created, the image file can be mounted or emulated by software that understands Helios disk structure in order to read, write, or extract files stored within it. The format is not designed for general-purpose raw storage of camera sensor data or generic sector dumps from other systems - it specifically corresponds to the Helios II Disk Memory System under PTDOS.

The file begins with the ASCII signature HELIOSraw at byte offset 0, identifying it as this Helios Raw Disk Image format.

ImageKnife Raw Bitmap

ImageKnife Raw Bitmap is a simple bitmap image format used by the Amiga program ImageKnife to store unprocessed or minimally processed still-image pixel data. These files are generally created when users export artwork or processed images from ImageKnife, serving as a way to save native image data for further editing or archival use.

ImageKnife writes RAW files in a format that retains basic image structure and colour information without applying camera‐style compression or heavy post‐processing. The file can be reopened later in ImageKnife or compatible Amiga‐aware tools to continue editing or compositing, such as adjusting pixel values, colour palettes or applying filters.

Files begin with the four ASCII characters IKRA at offset 0 (hex 49 4B 52 41), which serves as a signature identifying the file as an ImageKnife Raw Bitmap file.

KryoFlux Raw Stream

KryoFlux raw stream files are binary dumps of exactly what the KryoFlux hardware records from a floppy disk drive: the magnetic flux reversals and index timing signals. They are produced by KryoFlux when imaging floppies and serve archival or forensic purposes by preserving the lowest-level signal data before any interpretation into sectors or files. This format is useful when inspecting copy protection, understanding disk-level defects, or converting later into disk image formats like ADF or IMG once formatting parameters are known.

The files are created by the KryoFlux device along with its Disk Tool Console (DTC) software. While streaming data from the floppy via USB to the host, every flux transition is logged in a continuous protocol stream. No filesystem or sector layout is assumed. Later tools interpret these raw stream files by decoding the timing and index markers and can reconstruct sectors or metadata. Users often produce one .RAW file per track, possibly capturing multiple disk revolutions per track.

Internally, each file consists of a series of variable-length blocks. Some blocks ("In Stream Buffer") contain timing data for flux reversals; others are "Out-Of-Band" headers carrying index signal timing or device control information. Numeric values are little-endian; the stream begins with control headers, and data before the first proper header can be ignored. The protocol is proprietary and hardware-specific to KryoFlux, and stream files are meant as intermediate or archival material, not readily usable without decoding.

A characteristic signature at the start includes ASCII strings like "host_date=", "host_time=", "name=KryoFlux DiskSystem, version=" embedded among binary fields. These signatures occur at fixed offsets: for example, ".host_date=" at offset 0, ",host_time=" at offset 24, "name=KryoFlux DiskSystem,version=" at offset 44.

PlayStation Pocket Memory Card

We know that one RAW format is PlayStation Pocket Memory Card. We have not yet analyzed in detail what these files contain and what they are used for. We're working on it.

TkImg RAW Bitmap

TkImg RAW Bitmap is a raw image format used by the Img ("TkImg") extension of the Tcl/Tk toolkit to represent unprocessed pixel matrices from files - data consisting of grayscale, truecolor, with or without alpha channels - exactly as they are stored, without compression or color processing. It is produced and used by Img when script authors issue image-handling commands in Tcl/Tk that load or save raw pixel data.

Created by the "img::raw" format handler inside the Img package, the format allows Tcl/Tk to read raw data files - either pure binary arrays or binary data prefixed with a short ASCII header - into Tk photo images, and to write images back in raw form (byte-format only). Images may have 1, 2, 3 or 4 channels (grayscale, grayscale with alpha, RGB, RGB with alpha), and pixel values may be 8-bit, 16-bit unsigned integer, 32-bit unsigned integer, or floating-point (32- or 64-bit) when reading; writing is limited to 8-bit integer truecolor or truecolor-alpha.

When present, the ASCII header consists of seven lines, each in "Keyword=Value" form. The first line must be Magic=RAW, followed by Width, Height, NumChan, ByteOrder ("Intel" or "Motorola"), ScanOrder ("TopDown" or "BottomUp"), and PixelType ("byte", "short", "int", "float", or "double"). Without the ASCII header, external parameters (like image size, channel count, and type) must be supplied via options when loading. A valid header begins at offset 0 with the ASCII signature Magic=RAW.

Track Attack Raw Bitmaps/frames

Track Attack Raw Bitmaps/frames files store collections of image frames used by the DOS game Track Attack. These .RAW files hold raw bitmap graphics (frames) directly as exported by the game's engine to represent visuals like animation sequences or screen graphics, rather than compressed or palette-indexed images.

These files are produced by Track Attack itself during its graphics rendering pipeline. Software working with the game's asset files - editors or fans extracting graphics - will read these RAW files. The typical workflow is: the game writes frame data into a .RAW file, then a tool or viewer loads that file to display or extract the bitmaps.

Inside a Track Attack RAW Bitmaps/frames file, the very beginning of the file contains an ASCII header signature. At offset 0 the file starts with the ASCII string "3DENGINERAWBITMAPS.---------------------.Frames:", followed immediately by frame data.

XL-Paint MAX Bitmap

XL-Paint MAX Bitmap is a native graphics format for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. It stores full-color bitmap images (16 colours) produced by the XL-Paint MAX painting program, usually at a resolution of 160 × 192 pixels.

A file in this format is generated when XL-Paint MAX exports or saves an image; these files are preserved for later display or conversion but are not commonly editable outside software designed for Atari 8-bit graphics. Thanks to community tools like RECOIL, users today can load these images on modern systems to view or convert them.

Files begin with the ASCII signature XLPB at offset 0. The file sizes are fixed at either 792 bytes or 15,372 bytes, reflecting the stored image data for the 160 × 192 pixel, 16-colour format.

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of RAW files. Remember, different programs may use RAW files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

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