'extra' lossless compression for camera raw images

I just finished adding support for almost all the raw formats in my raw
compression tool.

Nikon, Canon, Kodak, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Leaf, Pentax, Panasonic, Phase
one, Minolta, you name it.

Results are still the same, usually extra savings of between 20% to 60% on
all raw formats, even if they were already compressed in camera. And its all
lossless.

And it now has a new name (drumroll...), Rawzor. Along with its own
website...

http://www.rawzor.com

The exact space savings depend on the raw format, and the image content
etc... Its totally lossless, you can decompress the file to get back the
exact same raw file you started with.

This is similar to how zip or rar etc work, but as this tool understands the
raw formats and uses algorithms especially suited for raw image data,
results are significantly better (there, I just spilled my secret sauce ;-).

My apologies that its still a command-line tool (and windows only, I am
working on a nice GUI for it and then will get it up and running on mac and
linux too).

Sachin Garg [India]
www.sachingarg.com | www.imagecompression.info

Interesting, that might have some fairly useful applications in
archiving. How are you going to provide this - closed source freeware?

Sachin Garg wrote:
> I just finished adding support for almost all the raw formats in my raw
> compression tool.
>
> Nikon, Canon, Kodak, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Leaf, Pentax, Panasonic, Phase
> one, Minolta, you name it.
>
> Results are still the same, usually extra savings of between 20% to 60% on
> all raw formats, even if they were already compressed in camera. And its all
> lossless.
>
> And it now has a new name (drumroll...), Rawzor. Along with its own
> website...
>
> http://www.rawzor.com
>
> The exact space savings depend on the raw format, and the image content
> etc... Its totally lossless, you can decompress the file to get back the
> exact same raw file you started with.
>
> This is similar to how zip or rar etc work, but as this tool understands the
> raw formats and uses algorithms especially suited for raw image data,
> results are significantly better (there, I just spilled my secret sauce ;-).
>
> My apologies that its still a command-line tool (and windows only, I am
> working on a nice GUI for it and then will get it up and running on mac and
> linux too).
>
> Sachin Garg [India]
> www.sachingarg.com | www.imagecompression.info
>
>

"Phoenix Enigma" <atomichael@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:P3Nbk.54429$kx.51718@pd7urf3no...
> Sachin Garg wrote:
>> I just finished adding support for almost all the raw formats in my raw
>> compression tool.
>>
>> Nikon, Canon, Kodak, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Leaf, Pentax, Panasonic, Phase
>> one, Minolta, you name it.
>>
>> Results are still the same, usually extra savings of between 20% to 60%
>> on all raw formats, even if they were already compressed in camera. And
>> its all lossless.
>>
>> And it now has a new name (drumroll...), Rawzor. Along with its own
>> website...
>>
>> http://www.rawzor.com
>>
>> The exact space savings depend on the raw format, and the image content
>> etc... Its totally lossless, you can decompress the file to get back the
>> exact same raw file you started with.
>>
>> This is similar to how zip or rar etc work, but as this tool understands
>> the raw formats and uses algorithms especially suited for raw image data,
>> results are significantly better (there, I just spilled my secret sauce
>> ;-).
>>
>> My apologies that its still a command-line tool (and windows only, I am
>> working on a nice GUI for it and then will get it up and running on mac
>> and linux too).
>
> Interesting, that might have some fairly useful applications in archiving.

Thanks :-)

> How are you going to provide this - closed source freeware?

I don't know yet, it was hard enough to get the technical stuff working.
There are a ton of options, free/paid/opensource/free+premium versions
etc.... and I am sure I don't fully understand how all of them work.

I am open to any suggestions.

Sachin Garg [India]
www.sachingarg.com | www.imagecompression.info

ps. My favorite choice would be to get really really REALLY lucky and sell
it to a big fish who would then make it opensource ;-)

On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:21:36 +0530, Sachin Garg wrote:

> I just finished adding support for almost all the raw formats in my raw
> compression tool.
>
> Nikon, Canon, Kodak, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Leaf, Pentax, Panasonic, Phase
> one, Minolta, you name it.
>
> Results are still the same, usually extra savings of between 20% to 60%
> on all raw formats, even if they were already compressed in camera. And
> its all lossless.
>
> And it now has a new name (drumroll...), Rawzor. Along with its own
> website...
>
> http://www.rawzor.com
>
> The exact space savings depend on the raw format, and the image content
> etc... Its totally lossless, you can decompress the file to get back the
> exact same raw file you started with.
>
> This is similar to how zip or rar etc work, but as this tool understands
> the raw formats and uses algorithms especially suited for raw image
> data, results are significantly better (there, I just spilled my secret
> sauce ;-).
>
> My apologies that its still a command-line tool (and windows only, I am
> working on a nice GUI for it and then will get it up and running on mac
> and linux too).
>
> Sachin Garg [India]
> www.sachingarg.com | www.imagecompression.info

Might be interesting. If you ever have a version for a real OS, let me
know.

"Sachin Garg" <sachingarg@c10n.info> wrote:
>"Phoenix Enigma" <atomichael@gmail.com> wrote:
>> How are you going to provide this - closed source freeware?
>
>I don't know yet, it was hard enough to get the technical stuff working.
>There are a ton of options, free/paid/opensource/free+premium versions
>etc.... and I am sure I don't fully understand how all of them work.
>
>I am open to any suggestions.
>
>Sachin Garg [India]
>www.sachingarg.com | www.imagecompression.info
>
>ps. My favorite choice would be to get really really REALLY lucky and sell
>it to a big fish who would then make it opensource ;-)

If you want to win really big:

1) Release it as Open Source.
2) Continue to maintain it.
3) Move on to other projects, and do the same.

Ideally, you are indeed a great programmer and because
that greatness is on display it will be noticed. That
will *only* happen if it is indeed actually on display,
and Open Source is the only way you can accomplish that.

When it is noticed, they don't buy your project, they
just take it under their wing... and find a way to
support your efforts. That might be to employ you at
a respectable salary and put you to work... maintaining
your Open Source code.

You can also keep it closed, and sell your projects. I
would suggest you find a really good day job though,
because the world will never know if you are a good
programmer or not! And if you are, we will *all* lose.

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) floyd@apaflo.com

"Floyd L. Davidson" <floyd@apaflo.com> wrote in message
news:87d4lrlseb.fld@apaflo.com...
> "Sachin Garg" <sachingarg@c10n.info> wrote:
>>ps. My favorite choice would be to get really really REALLY lucky and sell
>>it to a big fish who would then make it opensource ;-)
>
> If you want to win really big:
>
> 1) Release it as Open Source.
> 2) Continue to maintain it.
> 3) Move on to other projects, and do the same.

I know of a few projects which went that way and are doing good, and a few
which went that way and are lost. I don't know factors mattered there and
what would be best in this case. But yes, it is atleast an option to
consider.

Thanks,
Sachin Garg [India]
www.sachingarg.com | www.imagecompression.info

"ray" <ray@zianet.com> wrote in message
news:6dah4eF1hdm8U3@mid.individual.net...
> On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:21:36 +0530, Sachin Garg wrote:
>>
>> I just finished adding support for almost all the raw formats in my raw
>> compression tool.
>>
>> Nikon, Canon, Kodak, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Leaf, Pentax, Panasonic, Phase
>> one, Minolta, you name it.
>>
>> Results are still the same, usually extra savings of between 20% to 60%
>> on all raw formats, even if they were already compressed in camera. And
>> its all lossless.
>>
>> And it now has a new name (drumroll...), Rawzor. Along with its own
>> website...
>>
>> http://www.rawzor.com
>>
>> The exact space savings depend on the raw format, and the image content
>> etc... Its totally lossless, you can decompress the file to get back the
>> exact same raw file you started with.
>>
>> This is similar to how zip or rar etc work, but as this tool understands
>> the raw formats and uses algorithms especially suited for raw image
>> data, results are significantly better (there, I just spilled my secret
>> sauce ;-).
>>
>> My apologies that its still a command-line tool (and windows only, I am
>> working on a nice GUI for it and then will get it up and running on mac
>> and linux too).
>
> Might be interesting.

Thanks.

> If you ever have a version for a real OS, let me
> know.

It will definitely be available for other OSs. But I don't know how soon
that will happen, things tend to take more time and effort than I estimate.

Sachin Garg [India]
www.sachingarg.com | www.imagecompression.info

Floyd L. Davidson <floyd@apaflo.com> wrote:

> If you want to win really big:

> 1) Release it as Open Source.
> 2) Continue to maintain it.
> 3) Move on to other projects, and do the same.

Or do something along the lines of the street busker
protocol.

Release part of the code under a free enough licence --- working,
but not everything. Maybe everything for one compression method
and one file format. That should be enough for those who care
to evaluate your code quality (and advise you).

If you get told that your code's ... not so good (see there and
there and that part over there is suboptimal), well, you learn
how to be a better coder.

If you are told the code's great, fine, feel free to say "I will
release the part containing X/everything/... under $license once
Y money has arrived."

-Wolfgang

Sachin Garg wrote:

> things tend to take more time and effort than I
> estimate.

Looks like you're learning the first rule of software engineering!

Rawzor looks interesting - the RAW files from my Fuji S3 are around 25
MB, and I suspect there's a lot of redundancy. When the Linux version
is ready, I'll probably give it a try.

I think that for a tool like this, which potentially could control my
access to my images, I'd really like to see as open source. Then, if
you're unable to continue supporting Rawzor for any reason, I can still
port it to a new operating platform if required, and maintain access to
my images.

Could do with a little more detail on the website, e.g. list of
supported formats / cameras.
--
Alex Monro
Exeter, UK
Running on Linux (Kubuntu 7.1)

"Wolfgang Weisselberg" <ozcvgtt02@sneakemail.com> wrote in message
news:ajg7k5-e73.ln1@ID-52418.user.berlin.de...
> Floyd L. Davidson <floyd@apaflo.com> wrote:
>
>> If you want to win really big:
>
>> 1) Release it as Open Source.
>> 2) Continue to maintain it.
>> 3) Move on to other projects, and do the same.
>
> Or do something along the lines of the street busker
> protocol.
>
> Release part of the code under a free enough licence --- working,
> but not everything. Maybe everything for one compression method
> and one file format. That should be enough for those who care
> to evaluate your code quality (and advise you).
>
> If you get told that your code's ... not so good (see there and
> there and that part over there is suboptimal), well, you learn
> how to be a better coder.
>
> If you are told the code's great, fine, feel free to say "I will
> release the part containing X/everything/... under $license once
> Y money has arrived."

That makes sense. This is something that can definitely be done, maybe
release code for one raw format for example. Hmmm, needs some more pondering
:-)

Thanks a ton,
Sachin Garg [India]
www.sachingarg.com | www.imagecompression.info