DDS to RAW Converter

Encoding: the DDS uses block compression (BC1 to BC7, also called DXT) or uncompressed RGBA; 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 channel for common texture formats in the DDS; RAW allows 12 to 16 bits per channel, and the DNG written here has 8 bits per channel, linearised.

Colour: RGB(A); normal maps and packed masks store data rather than colour in the DDS; RAW supports camera-native RGB from a colour filter mosaic, written here as 8-bit sRGB.

Transparency: the DDS stores it as alpha inside the compressed blocks (BC2, BC3, BC7) or a 1-bit cut-out (BC1); the DNG has none, so transparent areas are filled with the colour you choose.

Other images: the DDS can hold mipmaps, cubemap faces or texture arrays; only the main image is converted.

Metadata: the DDS can carry a 128-byte header (plus a DX10 header) describing the pixel format, nothing about the picture; RAW can carry EXIF and vendor maker notes, almost always with an embedded JPEG preview, but nothing is copied across.

DDS is a GPU texture format used by DirectX games. It stores block-compressed textures (DXT/BC) and mipmaps that graphics cards decode directly.

A DDS file starts with 'DDS ' and a 124-byte header giving the size, mipmap count and pixel format: a FourCC such as DXT1 or DXT5, or 'DX10' followed by an extra header naming a DXGI format. The largest mipmap comes first.

DDS files usually come from DirectX games, game mods and texture tools such as NVIDIA Texture Tools and Intel's texture plugin.

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 DDS 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.