# Computer help: RAW image editor

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-raw-image-editor/281705>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 26, 2004, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-raw-image-editor/281705 "2004-12-26T20:55:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-raw-image-editor/281705/1 "2004-12-26T20:55:15Z")

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\<approaches the fountain of wisdom and kneels\>

```
  Oh, great oracle of knowledge, I beseech thee: Tell me of a program that will allow me to edit raw greyscale by setting the pixels to an integer value of 0 - 255. I cannot find one that is up to the task.

```

\<stands and backs away three steps before turning and slowly walking away\>

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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-raw-image-editor/281705/2 "2004-12-26T21:17:04Z")

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- 
  - 
    - Photoshop 7 and Paint Shop Pro 7 both say they do, though I admit I can’t ever remember working with a raw image. If you need something free, then I would _bet_ that GIMP can do it to, as RAW is essentially an unencoded format. GIMP instructions are only online really (none included with the program!), and notoriously poor and unorganized. Aside from that I can’t help you.  
~

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**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-help-raw-image-editor/281705/3 "2004-12-27T00:16:51Z")

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In Paint Shop Pro, you can open a file making sure to specify RAW format in the drop down list, and then it will prompt you for width, height, color depth, etc. One of the options is single channel grayscale.

If you don’t specify a format, PSP will try to figure it out itself and return an error if it doesn’t find a header.