Getting Started

Installation

From Source

rawtoaces requires the following dependencies:

  • CMake 3.12 or later

  • C++17 compatible compiler

  • OpenImageIO (with RAW support via LibRaw)

  • Ceres Solver

  • Eigen3

  • nlohmann-json

Build steps:

git clone https://github.com/AcademySoftwareFoundation/rawtoaces.git
cd rawtoaces
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make
make install

Environment Setup

rawtoaces needs access to camera spectral sensitivity data and other reference data. The data is automatically fetched during the build process and installed to <CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX>/share/rawtoaces/data on macOS and Linux.

Note

On Windows, the data files are not installed automatically. You will need to manually specify the data location.

You can override the data location using:

  • The --data-dir command line parameter

  • RAWTOACES_DATA_PATH environment variable: Primary path to search for data files

  • AMPAS_DATA_PATH environment variable: Alternative path (for compatibility)

Basic Usage

The simplest way to convert a RAW file:

rawtoaces input.dng

This will:

  1. Read the RAW file

  2. Apply white balance using metadata from the file

  3. Calculate the color transformation matrix (using spectral data if available)

  4. Write an ACES-compliant EXR file

For more options, see the User Guide.