A file that contains data that have not been compressed, encrypted or processed in any manner. It often refers to digital camera files, but can refer to any type of data file (see raw data).

Digital Camera RAW Format
High-end digital cameras generally offer a proprietary RAW format as an output option, which contains all the pixel information captured by the camera's sensors. The RAW file has not been compressed or processed in any way to conform to standard file formats such as JPEG. Camera vendors provide stand-alone software converters and/or Photoshop plug-ins for importing their proprietary RAW formats. See DNG file. See also raw data.