[Commons-l] Allow Digital Negative (DNG) RAW format on Commons? (and increase filesize limit)

[Brianna Laugher]

- Commons currently doesn't accept any RAW formats for uncompressed
original digital photography files.
- DNG is a RAW format developed by Adobe, intended to be an open
format. http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/index.html
- ImageMagick supports DNG. http://www.imagemagick.org/script/formats.php
- Format "patent license":
http://www.adobe.com/products/dng/license.html Is this acceptable?

If the terms of the DNG format are acceptable, is there any reason we
shouldn't request MW support for this format to be enabled and begin
encouraging photographers to start using it?
(I presume thumbnails would be generated as JPGs)

If we do this, are we likely to require an increase in the maximum
filesize limit? (currently 20mb)

I emailed with a magazine publisher recently and he made this comment
about Commons:

"There are indeed, some amazing images. I definitely believe that
publishers could use this resource if they're in need of (one more
image) to complete an existing project. But I'm uncertain about how
publishable much of the content is, especially in the absence of
higher resolution files (which disqualifies printing). "

So although our works are usually sufficient for web use, it seems
clear that we cannot present ourselves as a serious kind of archivist,
culture-recording project, without introducing a RAW format and
encouraging people to use it.


regards,
Brianna

-- 
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/