To get the best results out of your digital camera, it is recommended to record your pictures in RAW format. This format is specific to a camera and cannot be read directly by image editing applications.

dlRaw is an open-source program to read and 'develop' RAW images from most digital cameras. It reads raw images using a modified version of Dave Coffin's raw conversion utility DCRaw.

dlRaw will convert your RAW files into JPEG or PPM images. JPEG is a standard format to view, print and share your images. PPM is a bit representation of your image suited for further processing, for instance in The Gimp.

dlRaw has a GUI to open a RAW file and experiment interactively with the controls. That way you can see how different settings influence the image. The so obtained image can be written or the settings can be stored in a 'job' file. This job file is used by a command-line oriented batch mode to develop a set of RAW files.

dlRaw Features:
1. Reads all dcraw supported formats
2. Several possible working color spaces
3. Color management using Little CMS
4. Internal full 16bit processing in RGB space (sRGB,Adobe,Wide Gamut, ProPhoto) and CIE Lab
5. Lens corrections (C/A,Vignetting,Distortion) via lensfun
6. White balance settings including presets and color temperature based
7. Auto exposure
8. Arbitrary rotation, crop and resize
9. Channel mixing between RGB with B/W presets
10. Editable curves operating on RGB/R/G/B or L in CIELab
11. USM sharpening in CIELab (only impacting L channel)
12. Refocus sharpening in CIELab (only impacting L channel)
13. Noise reduction using GREYCstoration
14. Command line batch processing based on job files from GUI
15. Histograms with linear and log modes
16. Full size preview can view at the end of the graphical pipe or at intermediate steps.

The preview is normally the image as it would look at the end of the graphical pipe, i.e. when all settings of the Camera, RGB and Lab tab in the main window are applied. However, when 'TabMode' is selected in the 'Preview' menu of the Main Window, then the preview is the image as it is at the end of the selected tab. So if you would select f.i. the RGB tab, you would see the image after all settings up to the RBG tab are applied, but without sharpening or L curve which are part of the Lab tab.

The View Window has a menu 'Zoom' that allows you to zoom :
* Full size, in which case scrollbars might be added to scroll.
* Fit, to fit the image in the window.
* Custom , in which case again scrollbars might be added.
Remark that the reference of the size is 'Size of image in pipe' which is default half size of the original, or smaller if resizing is applied.

The license of this software is Free, you can free download and free use this digital photo software.