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Image MIME Reference
Canon-CR2

Canon Raw Version 2

image/x-canon-cr2
VS

DirectDraw Surface

image/vnd.ms-dds
DDS

A complete technical comparison of Canon Raw Version 2 and DirectDraw Surface — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature Canon-CR2 DDS
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support Yes Yes
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile Yes ✕ No
Canon Raw Version 2
image/x-canon-cr2
Extension
.cr2
Container TIFF
Compression Lossless JPEG (ITU-T81)
Algorithm
Lossless JPEG (ITU-T81)
Color Depth 12-bit (Per Channel), 14-bit (Per Channel)
Developed by Canon Inc.
Released 2004
Magic Bytes
49 49 2A 00 10 00 00 00 43 52 02 00
Full Canon-CR2 reference →
DirectDraw Surface
image/vnd.ms-dds
Extension
.dds
Container DirectDraw Surface
Compression Block Compression (BC1-BC7) / DXTC / S3TC / Uncompressed (RGBA, Floating-Point)
Algorithm
DXT1-DXT5BC1-BC7ASTC / ETC2 (Extended)
Color Depth 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, 32-bit (RGBA), 16-bit/32-bit Floating Point (HDR)
Developed by Microsoft Corporation
Released 1999
Magic Bytes
44 44 53 20
Full DDS reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser Canon-CR2 DDS
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
Canon-CR2

Canon-CR2 Strengths

  • Retains maximum sensor data, allowing extreme recovery of highlights and shadows that would be permanently lost in a JPEG
  • White balance and color profiling are not 'baked in', meaning they can be completely altered in post-production without degrading the image
  • Lossless compression ensures perfect pixel accuracy while reducing file size compared to fully uncompressed formats
Limitations
  • Proprietary format means it requires constant updates to raw processing engines (like Adobe Camera Raw) every time Canon releases a new camera model
  • Produces very large file sizes (often 20MB to 40MB per image depending on sensor resolution)
  • Cannot be directly embedded into web pages or used in standard HTML/CSS contexts
DDS

DDS Strengths

  • Massively reduces VRAM footprint and memory bandwidth usage because the GPU decodes the block compression in hardware
  • Encapsulates complex texture arrays, volume textures, cubemaps, and entire mipmap chains within a single, highly structured file
  • Supports high-dynamic-range (HDR) floating-point data for modern physically based rendering (PBR)
Limitations
  • Block compression algorithms (like DXT) are lossy and can introduce ugly blocky artifacts, especially in smooth gradients or normal maps if not tuned properly
  • Files are generally larger on the physical hard drive than highly compressed formats like PNG or WebP
  • Zero support in web browsers or standard consumer image viewers

When to choose which format

Canon-CR2
Use Canon-CR2 when…
  • Professional Digital Photography
  • Non-destructive Image Post-Processing
  • High Dynamic Range (HDR) Imaging Archival
DDS
Use DDS when…
  • Real-Time 3D Game Textures
  • DirectX and Vulkan Rendering Pipelines
  • Skyboxes and Environment Cubemaps
  • Volume Textures (3D Textures)

More comparisons

Canon-CR2 vs ACES → DDS vs ACES → Canon-CR2 vs APNG → DDS vs APNG → Canon-CR2 vs AVCI → DDS vs AVCI → Canon-CR2 vs AVCS → DDS vs AVCS → Canon-CR2 vs AVIF → DDS vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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