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Image MIME Reference
Canon-CRW

Canon Raw Format

image/x-canon-crw
VS

PaintShop Pro Image

image/x-paintshoppro
PaintShop-Pro-PSP

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

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature Canon-CRW PaintShop-Pro-PSP
Transparency (Alpha) ✕ No Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support Yes Yes
EXIF Metadata Yes Yes
ICC Color Profile ✕ No Yes
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 →
PaintShop Pro Image
image/x-paintshoppro
Extension
.psp.pspimage.tub.pat
Container PSP Chunk-based Format
Compression Uncompressed / RLE (Run-Length Encoding) / LZ77
Algorithm
RLELZ77
Color Depth 8-bit (Indexed), 16-bit (Grayscale), 24-bit (RGB), 32-bit (RGBA), 48-bit (High Color)
Developed by Jasc Software / Corel Corporation (Alludo)
Released 1990
Magic Bytes
7E 42 4B 00
Full PaintShop-Pro-PSP reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser Canon-CRW PaintShop-Pro-PSP
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
PaintShop-Pro-PSP

PaintShop-Pro-PSP Strengths

  • Provides robust, non-destructive editing capabilities with full support for vector layers, adjustment layers, and layer blend modes
  • Historically offered a highly capable and affordable alternative to Adobe Photoshop's PSD format for Windows users
  • Features proprietary support for 'Picture Tubes' (.tub), a unique brush technology that paints sequential or random raster objects along a path
Limitations
  • Deeply proprietary format tied exclusively to the Corel/Alludo ecosystem
  • Third-party software support (like GIMP or ImageMagick) is often limited to parsing older .psp files, frequently failing to render complex layers in modern .pspimage files
  • No support in modern web browsers; must be exported to a flattened web format (JPEG/PNG) for online viewing

When to choose which format

Canon-CRW
Use Canon-CRW when…
  • Historical Digital Photography (2000-2004)
  • Non-destructive Image Post-Processing
  • Raw Imaging Archival
PaintShop-Pro-PSP
Use PaintShop-Pro-PSP when…
  • PaintShop Pro Multi-layer Project Archival
  • Digital Art and Photo Retouching
  • Picture Tubes (.tub) and Custom Patterns (.pat)

More comparisons

Canon-CRW vs ACES → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs ACES → Canon-CRW vs APNG → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs APNG → Canon-CRW vs AVCI → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVCI → Canon-CRW vs AVCS → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVCS → Canon-CRW vs AVIF → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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