ART vs dcraw

ART is a free, open-source RAW image processor for Linux, macOS and Windows. Derived from RawTherapee, it aims for a simpler interface while retaining processing power and quality. Its editing capabilities include layers, batch editing and local adjustments using drawn or parametric masks. It handles metadata and can optionally read and write XMP sidecar files. A plugin system supports custom input and output formats, including true HDR output. For color work, ART supports ACES CLF LUTs through OpenColorIO and CTL scripts through the ACES CTL interpreter. It also includes automatic perspective correction adapted from darktable. User commands can connect external programs; documented AI masking and denoising workflows rely on separate open-source tools, and the project says full AI-tool integration is unlikely in the foreseeable future. ART is licensed under GPL version 3 and comes without a warranty. Stable binaries are linked from GitHub releases, with additional builds listed for Windows, openSUSE, Arch Linux and notarized macOS. Questions and bug reports can be directed to its GitHub issue tracker or discussion board.

dcraw is a free utility for decoding camera RAW photos, displaying metadata, and extracting thumbnails. The maker’s page reports support for 731 cameras, with documented examples of camera-specific formats including CRW, CR2, MRW, NEF, and RAF. Its four interpolation methods are bilinear, VNG, PPG, and AHD. Output color-space choices include sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB, XYZ, and ACES. By default, dcraw writes PGM, PPM, or PAM; the -T option writes TIFF with metadata. The maker provides C source and Linux build instructions, including a gcc command, and says a self-contained DCRAW.EXE can be built for DOS or Windows from a source file in the directory. A basic plugin loads RAW files into GIMP, while the manual lists gphoto2 and Netpbm utilities among related command-line tools. The maker describes using it to process camera images after downloading them to a Linux PC. One important format limit: dcraw cannot decode JPEG files. It is free for all uses and is listed for Linux and Windows.