DNG to AVIF Converter

DNG to AVIF — Should You Deliver a RAW Photo as AVIF?

If you have a DNG straight off a camera or phone and want one small, sharp file to put on a website or share, AVIF is the most space-efficient modern target available here. But a DNG is a RAW master with full editing latitude, and AVIF is a finished delivery copy — so the honest answer is: convert a copy to AVIF for the web, and keep the .dng as your editable original. This page compares the two formats, shows when AVIF is the right choice, and points you elsewhere when it isn't.

DNG vs AVIF at a Glance

When to Convert DNG to AVIF

• You need a web- or app-ready image and want the smallest file at a given quality — AVIF beats JPEG and WebP on size.
• Your audience is on current browsers (about 93% support AVIF) and you serve a JPEG or WebP fallback for the rest.
• You want to publish a photo without exposing the editable RAW master or its large file size.
• You're optimizing a page for Core Web Vitals and image weight is the bottleneck.

When to Keep DNG or Pick Another Format

• You still plan to edit — recover highlights, reset white balance, push exposure. Keep the .dng; the latitude is lost in any rendered output.
• You need universal compatibility (email, older devices, any image viewer). Convert to DNG to JPG instead — it opens everywhere.
• You're preparing a print or lossless-editing master. Use DNG to TIFF for a high-bit-depth, lossless file.
• You need wide editing-app support with transparency. DNG to PNG is more broadly accepted by editors than AVIF, though far larger.

How to Convert DNG to AVIF

1. Upload Your DNG File: Drag and drop your .dng onto the page or click "+ Add Files" to browse — Lightroom exports, Pixel or iPhone ProRAW captures, and camera-vendor DNGs all work, and you can queue several at once.
2. Pick a Quality Preset: Open Advanced Options and set "Quality Preset" — "Very High (Recommended)" is the default and a good balance of detail and size; step down to "High" or "Medium" for a smaller file.
3. Set Image Resolution (Optional): Leave "Image resolution" on "Keep original," or choose a preset such as 1080p, a percentage, or an exact width/height to downscale for the web.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download your AVIF. No sign-up, no watermark.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are DNG and AVIF the same quality after converting?

Not in the way the question usually means. A DNG holds unprocessed sensor data with wide editing latitude; AVIF holds a rendered, compressed picture. To make the AVIF, the converter first demosaics the RAW and bakes in white balance, exposure, and tone — so the visible result can look excellent, often indistinguishable at normal viewing sizes, but the editing headroom is gone. For a faithful, web-ready copy AVIF is great; for anything you may re-edit, keep the original .dng.

Why convert a RAW photo to AVIF instead of JPEG?

Size at a given quality. At similar perceived quality, AVIF files are typically about 30-50% smaller than JPEG, and AVIF tends to degrade more gracefully — its artifacts look like soft blur rather than JPEG's blocky edges, especially across skies, gradients, and fine texture. The trade-off is encoding speed and reach: AVIF takes longer to encode than JPEG, and a small share of older browsers can't display it. If universal compatibility matters more than file size, DNG to JPG is the safer choice.

Do I lose the RAW editing latitude when I convert DNG to AVIF?

Yes. A DNG stores unprocessed mosaic sensor data — up to 16-bit per channel — which is why you can recover highlights and shadows and reset white balance long after the shot. To write an AVIF, the converter renders that data into ordinary pixels with the current settings baked in. Once it's an AVIF, you're editing a finished image, not the RAW. Adjust white balance and exposure in a RAW editor first if you want control, then convert the result, and keep the .dng as your master.

Does this converter output HDR or 10-bit AVIF?

The AVIF format itself supports 10- and 12-bit color and HDR, which is one of its advantages over JPEG. This converter targets a standard, broadly compatible AVIF suitable for web delivery rather than an HDR-graded master, so treat the output as a standard-dynamic-range delivery copy. If you specifically need a wide-gamut, high-bit-depth file for editing or print, render from the RAW to DNG to TIFF instead, which preserves high bit depth losslessly.

Which browsers and apps can open an AVIF file?

In browsers, AVIF is supported by Chrome 85+, Firefox 93+, Safari 16.4+, and Edge 121+ — roughly 93% of users worldwide can view it natively, per caniuse. Desktop support is more uneven: recent versions of Windows (with the AV1 Video Extension), macOS Ventura and later, and image tools like GIMP and the latest Photoshop can open AVIF, but many older viewers and some editors still can't. If you're handing the file to someone on an unknown setup, JPEG remains the safest bet.

Will the AVIF keep my photo's metadata, like camera and date?

AVIF's HEIF container can carry Exif and XMP metadata, so capture details such as camera model, lens, and date can be preserved through the conversion. Note that DNG also stores RAW-specific data — the original mosaic, per-channel calibration, and adjustable white-balance and exposure tags — and that information does not carry into a rendered AVIF, because the AVIF is a finished picture rather than RAW data. If preserving the full RAW record matters, archive the .dng alongside the AVIF.

How are my files handled during conversion?

Your file is uploaded over an encrypted connection, rendered and encoded into AVIF on our servers, and deleted automatically a few hours after conversion — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public. The main practical limit on a big upload is its size and the time it takes to send, not your device. In our testing, a 24-megapixel DNG converted to AVIF at the "Very High" preset produced a file a fraction of the original's size while staying visually sharp at normal viewing sizes. For privacy-sensitive originals, keep the DNG locally and convert only the copies you need.