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Image MIME Reference
Generic-RAW

Digital Camera Raw (Generic Linux MIME)

image/x-dcraw
VS

PaintShop Pro Image

image/x-paintshoppro
PaintShop-Pro-PSP

A complete technical comparison of Digital Camera Raw (Generic Linux MIME) and PaintShop Pro Image — covering compression, feature support, browser compatibility, magic bytes, and when to choose each format.

Equal browser support

Feature Support

Feature Generic-RAW 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 Yes Yes
Digital Camera Raw (Generic Linux MIME)
image/x-dcraw
Extension
.raw
Container Varies (Predominantly TIFF/EP)
Compression Lossless / Uncompressed
Algorithm
Varies (Often Lossless JPEG ITU-T81 or uncompressed)
Color Depth 12-bit, 14-bit, 16-bit
Developed by freedesktop.org (MIME mapping) / Dave Coffin (dcraw tool)
Released 1997
Magic Bytes
Varies by vendor format
Full Generic-RAW 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 Generic-RAW PaintShop-Pro-PSP
Chrome Chrome
✕ ✕
Firefox Firefox
✕ ✕
Safari Safari
✕ ✕
Edge Edge
✕ ✕
IE IE (Legacy)
✕ ✕
Generic-RAW

Generic-RAW Strengths

  • Provides a unified, highly useful catch-all MIME type for application developers who just need to know if a file is a raw image, rather than tracking 50+ individual camera extensions
  • Deeply integrated into the Linux desktop ecosystem, ensuring file manager thumbnails work seamlessly via tools like ufraw-thumbnailer
Limitations
  • Not an official IANA standard
  • Can cause conflicts where standard TIFF files are misidentified as raw camera data by over-aggressive MIME sniffers
  • The underlying 'dcraw' tool was abandoned by its creator in 2018 (though its successor, LibRaw, continues to maintain the ecosystem)
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

Generic-RAW
Use Generic-RAW when…
  • Linux Desktop File Associations (GNOME/KDE)
  • Thumbnail Generation for Raw Images (UFRaw/LibRaw)
  • Server-side Image Processing Fallbacks
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

Generic-RAW vs ACES → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs ACES → Generic-RAW vs APNG → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs APNG → Generic-RAW vs AVCI → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVCI → Generic-RAW vs AVCS → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVCS → Generic-RAW vs AVIF → PaintShop-Pro-PSP vs AVIF → All comparisons →
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