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Image MIME Reference
ACES

ACES Image Container File

image/aces
VS

Adobe Digital Negative

image/x-adobe-dng
DNG

A complete technical comparison of ACES Image Container File and Adobe Digital Negative — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature ACES DNG
Transparency (Alpha) Yes Yes
Animation Support ✕ No ✕ No
Progressive Loading ✕ No ✕ No
HDR Support Yes Yes
EXIF Metadata ✕ No Yes
ICC Color Profile ✕ No Yes
ACES Image Container File
image/aces
Extension
.exr
Container OpenEXR (SMPTE ST 2065-4)
Compression Lossless / Uncompressed
Algorithm
PIZZIPRLEB44Uncompressed
Color Depth 16-bit (Half-float), 32-bit (Float)
Developed by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) / SMPTE
Released 2013
Magic Bytes
76 2F 31 01
Full ACES reference →
Adobe Digital Negative
image/x-adobe-dng
Extension
.dng
Container TIFF/EP
Compression Lossless JPEG / Deflate / Lossy JPEG (DNG 1.4+)
Algorithm
Lossless JPEG (Standard)Lossy JPEG (Compression option)Uncompressed
Color Depth 12-bit, 14-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit (Floating Point HDR)
Developed by Adobe Systems
Released 2004
Magic Bytes
49 49 2A 00 or 4D 4D 00 2A
Full DNG reference →

Browser Support Comparison

Browser ACES DNG
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
ACES

ACES Strengths

  • Industry standard for high-end visual effects, compositing, and color grading
  • Supports 16-bit half-float data, accurately capturing immense dynamic range without clipping
  • Standardized by SMPTE (ST 2065-4) to guarantee universal color interoperability across different post-production facilities
Limitations
  • Considerably larger file sizes than conventional consumer image formats
  • Completely unsupported in web browsers and most standard desktop viewers
  • Requires specialized compositing or color grading software to interpret and view the scene-linear data correctly
DNG

DNG Strengths

  • Openly documented specification guarantees long-term archival accessibility, freeing photographers from proprietary manufacturer lock-in
  • Lossless compression algorithms often result in files 15-20% smaller than uncompressed proprietary raw formats
  • Natively supported by modern smartphone operating systems (iOS and Android) for high-end mobile photography
Limitations
  • Conversion from proprietary raw to DNG takes processing time and can strip specific, proprietary manufacturer metadata (like active D-Lighting or in-camera lens corrections)
  • File sizes are massive compared to standard JPEGs or HEIC files
  • Cannot be rendered natively in web browsers without server-side processing or WebAssembly decoders

When to choose which format

ACES
Use ACES when…
  • Visual Effects (VFX)
  • Digital Intermediate (DI)
  • Color Grading
  • Archival
DNG
Use DNG when…
  • Digital Photography Archival
  • Mobile Raw Capture (iOS ProRAW / Android Camera2 API)
  • Cross-Platform Raw Editing Workflows

More comparisons

ACES vs APNG → DNG vs APNG → ACES vs AVCI → DNG vs AVCI → ACES vs AVCS → DNG vs AVCS → ACES vs AVIF → DNG vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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