How do I open a .dng file?

On Windows use Photos (with the free Raw Image Extension); on macOS use Photos (built in); on Linux use darktable. Adobe's open raw format, meant as an archival standard every editor can read.

Can I convert a .dng file?

Yes. It is usually converted to .jpg, .tiff, .png or .psd, either by exporting from one of the programs listed above or with a format converter.

.dng files

.dng file

Digital Negative

Adobe's open raw format, meant as an archival standard every editor can read.

What opens a .dng file

Windows: Photos (with the free Raw Image Extension), Adobe Lightroom, RawTherapee, darktable
macOS: Photos (built in), Preview (built in), Adobe Lightroom, darktable
Linux: darktable, RawTherapee, GIMP (via darktable plugin)

What a .dng file is

Adobe published DNG in 2004 to stop camera raw files becoming unreadable as vendors abandon old formats. It is documented, openly licensed, and read by essentially every raw editor. Some cameras — Leica, Ricoh, Pentax, most phone raw modes — shoot DNG directly; for everything else Adobe's free DNG Converter turns proprietary raw files into it.

Converting it

A .dng file is commonly converted to .jpg, .tiff, .png or .psd. It is a binary format, so a text editor will show unreadable characters rather than its contents.

Details

Extension: .dng
Full name: Digital Negative
Category: Images
MIME type: image/x-adobe-dng
Created by: Adobe
Format: Binary

Common questions

How do I open a .dng file?: On Windows use Photos (with the free Raw Image Extension); on macOS use Photos (built in); on Linux use darktable. Adobe's open raw format, meant as an archival standard every editor can read.
What is a .dng file?: Digital Negative. Adobe published DNG in 2004 to stop camera raw files becoming unreadable as vendors abandon old formats. It is documented, openly licensed, and read by essentially every raw editor.
Can I convert a .dng file?: Yes. It is usually converted to .jpg, .tiff, .png or .psd, either by exporting from one of the programs listed above or with a format converter.

.jpg — JPEG Image The lossy photo format that every camera, phone and website has used since the 1
.png — Portable Network Graphics Lossless image format with transparency, made for screenshots, logos and web gra
.jpeg — JPEG Image (four-letter form) The same format as .jpg — the longer spelling, kept alive by Macs and Unix syste
.heic — High Efficiency Image Container The format an iPhone saves photos in — about half the size of a JPEG at the same
.webp — WebP Image Google's web image format — smaller than JPEG or PNG, and now supported everywhe
.gif — Graphics Interchange Format The 256-colour animation format from 1987 that refuses to die.
.psd — Adobe Photoshop Document Photoshop's working file, keeping layers, masks and text editable.
.svg — Scalable Vector Graphics An XML text format describing shapes rather than pixels, so it stays sharp at an
.ai — Adobe Illustrator Artwork Illustrator's vector working file, used for logos, icons and print artwork.
.avif — AV1 Image File Format A royalty-free image format built on the AV1 video codec, smaller than JPEG or W
.tiff — Tagged Image File Format The lossless, multi-page image format used in printing, scanning and archiving.
.raw — Camera Raw Image Unprocessed sensor data from a camera — and, confusingly, a literal extension us

Sources

Media Types Registry — IANA
Official vendor product documentation — At One Place

How these figures are compiled and checked