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Need help?Convert RAF to JPEG: What This Tutorial Covers
RAF is Fujifilm's raw format — the file an X-series or GFX body writes straight off the sensor, which Fujifilm's own specifications describe as "14bit RAW (RAF original format)" alongside compressed and lossless-compressed variants. Almost nothing outside a dedicated raw editor opens it. This tutorial takes you from a .raf off the card to a finished JPEG, and covers the two things that actually decide how the result looks: which Quality Preset you pick (it changes chroma resolution, not just file size) and how much you resize before compressing.
How to Convert RAF to JPEG
- Upload Your RAF File: Drag your
.raffiles onto the page or click "+ Add Files". Only.rafinputs are accepted here, and every queued file converts with the same settings. - Pick a Quality Preset: Open Advanced Options and set Quality Preset. It ships on "Very High (Recommended)"; the seven rungs map to JPEG quality 100, 95, 90, 80, 70, 60 and 50 respectively.
- Resize or Set a Target Size (Optional): Under Image resolution use Resolution Percentage, Preset Resolutions, or Width x Height. Switch to "Specific file size" if you need to land under a hard upload cap, and leave Auto Scale on so the converter can drop pixels instead of only crushing quality.
- Convert and Download: Click Convert and save the JPEG. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.
Walk-through: What Each Quality Preset Actually Does
The presets are not just a size dial. JPEG can either store the two colour (chroma) channels at full resolution or halve them, and the encoder switches behaviour at quality 90. We measured the ladder through the same libvips 8.18.2 build the converter uses, on an 800×600 test frame:
| Quality Preset | JPEG quality | Chroma sampling | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highest | 100 | 4:4:4 (full) | Largest file by a wide margin; visually identical to Very High on photographic content |
| Very High (default) | 95 | 4:4:4 (full) | The sweet spot — full-resolution colour at a fraction of the size of Highest |
| High | 90 | 4:4:4 (full) | Last rung that keeps full colour resolution |
| Medium | 80 | 4:2:0 (halved) | Colour detail halved horizontally and vertically; fine for web and social |
| Low | 70 | 4:2:0 (halved) | Visible softening on fine coloured detail |
| Very Low | 60 | 4:2:0 (halved) | Web thumbnails only |
| Lowest | 50 | 4:2:0 (halved) | Obvious blocking on gradients |
Practical patterns:
- If you are printing or archiving the render: stay on Very High. Going up to Highest multiplies the file size without changing what you can see.
- If red or saturated detail matters — fabric, signage, foliage, fine text on a coloured background — do not drop below High. That is the boundary where chroma gets halved.
- If you need a small file: resize first, then lower the preset. Halving the long edge removes about three quarters of the pixels; dropping two quality rungs on a full-size frame throws away colour resolution across the whole image instead.
- If the Image resolution controls vanish, you have switched to "Specific file size" with Auto Scale on. That is deliberate: Smart Scale takes over sizing so it can trade pixels against quality to hit your target, so the manual resolution fields are hidden while it is active. Turn Auto Scale off to get them back.
RAF vs JPEG: What the Render Changes
| Property | RAF (Fujifilm raw) | JPEG output |
|---|---|---|
| Data type | Unprocessed sensor readout | Rendered, display-ready image |
| Bit depth per channel | 14-bit on current X-series bodies | 8-bit |
| Colour filter handling | Still mosaiced; demosaic happens later | Already demosaiced to RGB |
| Compression | None, compressed, or lossless-compressed | Lossy (quality 50–100 here) |
| Editing latitude | Wide — white balance, exposure, highlight recovery | Narrow — adjustments compound artefacts |
| Opens in browsers, phones, print labs | No | Yes |
| Best for | Keeping the original capture editable | Sharing, uploading, printing |
The conversion is one-way. Keep the .raf masters if there is any chance you will re-edit; the JPEG cannot get the raw headroom back.
Common Errors and How to Fix Them
- "The JPEG is far bigger than I expected" — you are almost certainly on Highest with the original resolution. Quality 100 stores dramatically more data than 95 for no visible gain on photographs. Move to Very High.
- "Colours look different from the back of the camera" — the camera's rear preview is a JPEG rendered with a Film Simulation and Fujifilm's own colour pipeline. A generic raw render produces a neutral, accurate baseline instead. If a specific simulation is essential, develop the RAF in Fujifilm's RAW FILE CONVERTER EX first, then bring the exported file here to resize or compress.
- "The output is 8-bit — where did my 14 bits go?" — the raw decoder develops RAF at 8 bits per channel by default and the converter does not override it. JPEG is an 8-bit format anyway, so nothing is lost relative to the target, but do not expect 14-bit latitude to survive into any output from this page.
- "Fine detail looks slightly soft compared to my editor" — every raw converter demosaics Fujifilm's X-Trans colour filter array differently, because it is not the 2×2 Bayer grid most demosaic algorithms were designed around. Expect small differences in micro-detail between renderers; none of them is the single "correct" answer.
- "I need a hard size ceiling, not a quality setting" — use "Specific file size" and type the number in KB or MB rather than guessing at presets.
When This Doesn't Work
If the .raf is truncated — an interrupted card copy, a failed transfer, a card pulled mid-write — no decoder can rebuild the missing sensor rows, and this page will fail rather than produce a partial image. Re-copy the file from the card first. A brand-new camera body can also outrun the decoder: raw support for a new sensor generation lands in LibRaw's camera list some time after release, so a RAF from a body released in the last few weeks may not decode yet. In that case export a JPEG or 16-bit TIFF from Fujifilm's own software and work from that. And if you specifically want an unclipped, non-lossy render, JPEG is the wrong target — use RAF to PNG or RAF to TIFF instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I lose image quality converting RAF to JPEG?
You lose editing latitude rather than visible detail. At the default Very High preset the JPEG keeps full-resolution colour (4:4:4) and is hard to tell from the render at 100% view. What you cannot recover afterwards is raw headroom: blown highlights, deep shadow lifts and large white-balance shifts all become baked in the moment the file is rendered.
What is the difference between the JPEG and JPG output on this page?
Nothing except the filename. The File extension control on this page offers both .jpeg and .jpg, and neither is preselected — the bytes are an identical JFIF/JPEG file either way. Pick .jpg if a Windows tool or an upload form is fussy about three-letter extensions, otherwise it does not matter. The RAF to JPG page is the same converter under the other name.
Does this handle Fujifilm's X-Trans sensor, or only Bayer GFX files?
Both. The raw decoder used here lists .raf among the camera formats it reads natively, and LibRaw's supported-camera list covers the X-Pro, X-T, X-S, X-E, X100 and GFX lines. X-Trans bodies use a non-Bayer colour filter array, which historically tripped up some third-party converters; a modern LibRaw-based decode handles it, though micro-detail can still differ slightly from Fujifilm's own renderer.
Why is the top preset so much larger than the default?
JPEG quality 100 disables most of the quantisation that makes JPEG small, so the file balloons while the visible result stays effectively the same as quality 95 on photographic content. On the test frame we encoded through the converter's own libvips build, Highest came out roughly 2.6× the size of Very High for no visible gain. Use Highest only when a downstream tool specifically demands maximum-quality JPEG input.
Can I keep the Film Simulation look baked into my RAF?
Not exactly. The selected Film Simulation is recorded as a rendering instruction in the RAF's metadata, not as finished pixels, so it is applied when the raw is developed. A general-purpose converter produces a neutral, accurate render rather than reproducing Velvia, Acros or Classic Chrome exactly. To match a simulation, develop the RAF in Fujifilm's own software and convert the export.
How many RAF files can I convert at once?
Queue as many as you like; each .raf becomes its own JPEG using the settings you chose, and they do not get merged. That is different from the animated and video targets on this site, where multiple images are combined into one output file by default.
Should I convert to JPEG or TIFF for archiving?
Neither is a replacement for the raw file, but between the two, TIFF avoids lossy compression. Be aware that our raw path develops RAF at 8 bits per channel, so a TIFF from this site is an 8-bit sRGB file, not a 16-bit archival master. If you need 16-bit, use Fujifilm's in-camera raw conversion or desktop software; if you just need a lossless render for layout work, use RAF to TIFF.
How are my RAF files handled, and are they private?
Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared or made public. If you shoot more than one system, the RAF converter hub lists every target this format can go to, and compress JPEG will shrink the output further once you have it.