Free webp to jpg
EN
Image MIME Reference
Canon-CRW

Canon Raw Format

image/x-canon-crw
VS

DjVu Document

image/vnd.djvu
DjVu

A complete technical comparison of Canon Raw Format and DjVu Document — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature Canon-CRW DjVu
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No Yes
HDR Support Yes ✕ No
EXIF Metadata Yes ✕ No
ICC Color Profile ✕ No ✕ No
Canon Raw Format
image/x-canon-crw
Extension
.crw
Container CIFF (Camera Image File Format)
Compression Lossless JPEG (ITU-T81)
Algorithm
Lossless JPEG
Color Depth 10-bit (Per Channel), 12-bit (Per Channel)
Developed by Canon Inc.
Released 1998
Magic Bytes
49 49 1A 00 00 00 (Header) / 48 45 41 50 43 43 44 52 (HEAPCCDR signature near end)
Full Canon-CRW reference →
DjVu Document
image/vnd.djvu
Extension
.djvu.djv
Container Interchange File Format (IFF)
Compression JB2 (Bi-tonal Text) / IW44 (Wavelet Background) / BZZ (General Data/Text)
Algorithm
JB2IW44BZZ
Color Depth 1-bit (Foreground Text), 24-bit (Background)
Developed by AT&T Labs (Yann LeCun, Léon Bottou, Patrick Haffner, Paul G. Howard)
Released 1996
Magic Bytes
41 54 26 54 46 4F 52 4D
Full DjVu reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser Canon-CRW DjVu
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
Canon-CRW

Canon-CRW Strengths

  • Preserves original raw sensor data from foundational early digital SLR cameras, allowing for modern noise reduction and demosaicing algorithms to extract better images than software could in 2003
  • Files are remarkably small (often 6-8 MB) compared to modern 40MB+ raw files due to the lower megapixel count of early sensors
Limitations
  • Completely obsolete and utilizes the idiosyncratic CIFF structure rather than the modern, standardized TIFF/EP structure
  • Cannot be natively viewed in web browsers or standard operating system image viewers without specialized codecs
  • Less robust metadata support compared to modern CR2 or CR3 formats
DjVu

DjVu Strengths

  • Unmatched compression ratios for high-resolution scanned documents (often 5 to 10 times smaller than equivalent JPEG/TIFF-based PDFs)
  • Separates text layers cleanly from backgrounds, allowing for highly legible text even at low file sizes
  • Embedded OCR (Optical Character Recognition) text layers allow for fast searching
Limitations
  • Lacks native support in modern operating systems and web browsers, requiring third-party software
  • Largely superseded by PDF/A and modern PDF compression standards in standard corporate workflows
  • Not suitable for vector graphics or born-digital documents (like Word exports), where standard PDF is far superior

When to choose which format

Canon-CRW
Use Canon-CRW when…
  • Historical Digital Photography (2000-2004)
  • Non-destructive Image Post-Processing
  • Raw Imaging Archival
DjVu
Use DjVu when…
  • Scanned Books and Manuals
  • Digital Libraries (e.g., Internet Archive)
  • Historical Document Archiving

More comparisons

Canon-CRW vs ACES → DjVu vs ACES → Canon-CRW vs APNG → DjVu vs APNG → Canon-CRW vs AVCI → DjVu vs AVCI → Canon-CRW vs AVCS → DjVu vs AVCS → Canon-CRW vs AVIF → DjVu vs AVIF → All comparisons →
Share this comparison