Camera raw image files contain minimally processed data from a digital image sensor. There are perhaps hundreds of competing raw image formats. Frequently, updated plugins are made available to users of professional prepress applications like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture, that serve as conduits and lightboxes for raw images. The purpose of these formats is to save as much image data as possible. It is not uncommon for a raw file to contain a wider color gamut than the final-output image.
A raw image is comparable to a legacy film negative and is sometimes referred to as a digital negative. In both cases, the negative has the required information to create a positive image. However, the negative itself, is not suitable for viewing. Exposure, white balancing and color grading is established on the computer before saving results in a viewable file format such as TIFF or JPEG.
Using different analogy, a raw file is like a page of music. For the final melody, is subject to the skill and instrument selection a musician. Because of wide range of variables possible, Reactive Imaging does not accept raw image files for output.