The Unidentified Flying Raw (UFRaw) is a utility to read and manipulate raw images from digital cameras. It can be used on its own or as a Gimp plug-in. It reads raw images using Dave Coffin's raw conversion utility - DCRaw. UFRaw supports color management workflow based on Little CMS, allowing the user to apply ICC color profiles. For Nikon users UFRaw has the advantage that it can read the camera's tone curves. Even if you don't own a Nikon, you can still apply a Nikon curve to your images.

My guiding concept in the development of UFRaw is to give all the essential (and some non-essential) information and control over the raw conversion, with the hope that one could resolve all the exposure and white balance issues during the raw conversion. The obvious advantage is that one can make full use of the raw data. The provisional advantage is that this way we circumvent the current 8-bit limitation of the Gimp, as UFRaw does all manipulations in 16-bits.

There are some important features which are still missing in UFRaw:

Sharpening.
Embed EXIF data - UFRaw can save the EXIF data to JPEG output for a few supported formats. These formats include Canon (CRW, CR2), Nikon (NEF), Pentax (PEF), Samsung (PEF), Sony (SR2, ARW), Fuji (RAF) and Adobe's DNG. For information on how to save EXIF data for other formats you should use ExifTool by Phil Harvey as is explained here.

UFRaw was originally based on Dave Coffin's plug-in and Pawel Jochym's plug-in with live preview. Joseph Heled's RougePhoto is another Gimp plug-in with some interesting features.

UFRaw is licensed under the GNU General Public License. This means that it is free both as in free speech and as in free beer.

You are welcome to participate in UFRaw's Open Discussion Forum, browse and update the wiki page, file bug reports, or request new features (you should read UFRaw's MANIFEST before requesting new features). If you want to know when the next version of UFRaw will be released, you should subscribe to the ufraw-announce mailing list (very low volume). Release annoncements are also made at FreshMeat. And if you wish to experiment with UFRaw's latest source you can check it out from the CVS.

UFRaw is covered in Klaus Gölker's book GIMP 2 for Photographers: Image Editing with Open Source Software (or in the German version Fotobearbeitung und Bildgestaltung mit dem GIMP 2).

French speakers might want to check out the book Développer ses fichiers RAW by Volker Gilbert. The book has a chapter on the different raw processing software and UFRaw gets its own section.

There is also a French version of UFRaw's user manual here.

Spanish speakers might be interested in this UFRaw tutorial in Spanish, a tutorial on getting better results from Ufraw and Gimp or this comperhensive book.

For Chinese speaker there is also a user guide.

I would like to thank all the UFRaw users that contributed to its development by sending patches, finding bugs and making insightful suggestions. Special thanks go to Vlado Potisk for many valuable suggestions, Shawn Freeman for adding support for Nikon curves and the curve editor and Niels Kristian for active participation in the development. Thanks also go to all the translators.