.dng File — Digital Negative

DNG (Digital Negative) is an open RAW image format created by Adobe in 2004 to address the proliferation of proprietary camera RAW formats that threaten long-term accessibility of digital photographs. DNG is based on the TIFF/EP standard and provides a standardized container for raw sensor data from any camera. The format supports lossless and lossy compression, embedded original RAW files, linear DNG for pre-demosaiced data, and comprehensive metadata including camera profiles, lens corrections, and XMP sidecar data within the file itself. Several camera manufacturers including Leica, Hasselblad, Pentax, and many smartphone makers (Google, Apple ProRAW) have adopted DNG as their native RAW format. Adobe's DNG Converter tool can convert hundreds of proprietary RAW formats to DNG for archival purposes. DNG has gained significant traction in the photography community as an archival format because its open specification ensures that images will remain accessible even if camera manufacturers discontinue support for their proprietary formats.