> DNG format is an open specification, published and provided by Adobe
> with no license fees for its use. It is not open source as it
> contains no source code. However, there's no reason that open source
> products cannot be based on the specification ... the license clearly
> defines what can or cannot be considered DNG specification, that's
> it, and places no restrictions on redistribution in implementation.
> To wit: dcraw uses the DNG specification and it is an open source
> software product, it meets all the rules and licensing requirements.
>
> So if there was an ecology of software products that allowed
> compatibility with DNG format on Linux, it would be just fine to use
> it ... a PEF to DNG converter would be the FIRST product necessary
> for this until the introduction of the K10D for an all Linux image
> processing workflow.
>
> But little serious user-end image processing happens on Linux at
> present given its limitations in system wide color management and
> good color managed applications at the user-end level. Lots of high-
> end image processing happens (render farms for the cine industry's
> animation and cgi work) on specialized, non-open-source software
> products.
>
> For user-end stuff, if you want to find value in PEF to DNG
> conversion, start promoting DNG as a RAW container format, promote
> more and better user-end color management and applications (whether
> open source or not) and build the software ecology ... and user base.
> A business case for this that returns profit on the investment would
> then become appealing to graphics software providers.
>
> Godfrey
>
I am aware of all of this and agree completely that many facets of
end-user image processing on linux are missing. Gimp's blatent
indifference toward deep color and color management as a prime example.
It's really a chicken-and-egg problem. Color management is broken from
the onset unless one's monitor can be calibrated. That requires physical
hardware and either drivers to run it, or open info to the hardware that
allows others to write drivers (neither of which has happened to any
significant degree).
What I was stating was that although a PEF->DNG converter could be
(relatively easily) written, it doesn't have much merit. The proprietary
information in the PEF is still proprietary if you wrap it up into a DNG.
The open or reverse-engineered parts of it are already known enough to
decode the image data and much of the EXIF info. Since dcraw and its ilk
are open-source and already support older cameras (which will never get
retroactive DNG support from their manufacturers), end-user applications
on linux don't benefit from DNG. Now, for *NEW* cameras (e.g. the K10D),
having DNG right out of the camera is great.
Ideally, Adobe would release an open-source converter that could
interpret the proprietary tags in the manufacturers' RAW files and convert
them into DNG's. An alternative would be for the manufacturers to allow
similar utilities to be written by publishing the specificiations for
(all parts of) their RAW files. THEN there would be merit.
-Cory
--
*************************************************************************
* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
*************************************************************************
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