While file format (RAF, DNG) often is an acronym, “raw” by itself simply references raw image data; it is not an acronym, not a trademark, and does not need all caps.The mistake of “shouting” raw is perpetuated in the wild even by serious companies, but let’s not let Apple degrade our literacy[0]. I’ll point to Adobe which does, in fact, use the correct spelling[1].
[0] It is fine when used as part of idiomatic spelling of their product or trademark (“ProRes RAW HQ”, etc.), but IIRC their promotional materials and even developer docs do shout it when simply referencing raw image data, which is a little ridiculous.
[1] https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/digital-negative.html
3/21/2026
at
1:31:47 PM
This is one of those "well actuallys" battles that has been lost a long, long time ago my photographic friend.Yes, "RAW" itself isn't a format like TXT or an acronym like JPEG, but in practice RAW appears alongside other all-caps names like JPG, DNG, TIFF, etc. in menus and documentation and so the industry has mostly converged on writing it RAW for consistency.
Fujifilm writes "RAW":
https://fujifilm-dsc.com/en/manual/x100vi/connections/raw/
Nikon writes "RAW":
https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/zf/en/raw_processing_59...
Canon writes "RAW":
https://www.usa.canon.com/learning/training-articles/trainin...
Leica writes "RAW":
https://leica-camera.com/sites/default/files/pm-73002-Leica-...
Even Adobe writes "RAW":
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/file-types/image/raw.htm...
Descriptively yours,
by gyomu
3/22/2026
at
8:51:55 AM
In practice raw means raw (scene-referred) image data; the days when it meant filename extension are long gone.However many examples you point out, there is no limit on poor editorial standards and lack of literacy, and I have no issue with that. That doesn’t mean we should stop calling out misspellings in official documentation.
by strogonoff
3/21/2026
at
8:08:14 AM
Never thought about that. Always wrote it all uppercase because that’s what camera maker Canon consistently does from what I’ve seen.If I search for Canon raw on Google the Canon owned websites that I see writes it all uppercase; RAW.
One of their pages that I find even makes note of that:
> The letters RAW do not stand for anything – it's just a convention that RAW is usually written in capital letters – and the names of RAW files from Canon cameras do not end in .RAW.
https://www.canon-europe.com/pro/infobank/image-file-types/
by QuantumNomad_
3/21/2026
at
8:13:09 AM
I'd expect a cause is that most camera makers are Japanese, and it's not uncommon in Japan to uppercase words written in Latin alphabet for aesthetic reasons
by jcelerier
3/21/2026
at
9:37:47 AM
Very plausible, I haven’t considered it.Perhaps the combination of that and the old .raw filename extensions on old filesystem implementations where everything appears uppercase (since camera firmware is slower to catch up, this persisted for years even though contemporary OS already had no such limitation) made it stick.
by strogonoff
3/21/2026
at
9:53:31 AM
I can only recommend to consult more trustworthy sources.
by strogonoff
3/21/2026
at
2:33:51 PM
I appreciate the breakdown.But practically speaking, does it really matter? The goal of language is to communicate, and in this case we all understand what the author is referring to when they reference "RAW".
It's like chastisting someone for saying "Band-Aid" instead of "bandage". One refers to a specific company that makes small adhesive bandages and the other is the thing itself. But we all understand what you mean when you say "band-aid".
And isn't that the point?
by giwook
3/22/2026
at
8:54:40 AM
I would not chastise anyone for saying anything, especially in a casual setting, but I will point out a misspelling in written documentatation.“Band-aid” or even “bondage” is fine, as long as you’re understood, but would you be happy to see that written in some medical guidelines? Would you feel confident that whoever wrote it even knows what they are talking about?
by strogonoff