dcraw vs Photomator

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.

Photomator is a photo editor for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro. It supports more than 750 RAW image formats, including Apple ProRAW, and offers nondestructive controls for brightness, contrast, exposure, curves, and color balance. AI selection tools can identify subjects, skies, and backgrounds; users can also use masks and brush selections. The Repair tool removes small imperfections or entire objects. Other listed machine-learning tools include Auto Enhance, Super Resolution, Smart Deband, Denoise, and ML Crop. Photomator works with the Photos library and Apple File System, and can edit files on devices, external drives, and cloud services. Edits sync with Photos or Files, while iCloud Drive supports syncing edits across Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It can import and export LUTs for use with other apps. The App Store describes a free download with in-app purchases. A monthly subscription is listed at $7.99 per month; an exclusive lifetime offer is $79.99 once. Requirements include iOS 17 or later, iPadOS 17 or later, macOS 13 or later, and visionOS 1 or later for Apple Vision.