Apple will NOT preview industry standard DNG and Camera RAW files in Finder

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Apple will NOT preview industry standard DNG and Camera RAW files in Finder

In Finder, how can you hit space bar to preview Adobe .DNG photos, and Nikon .NEF photos?

(also wanted to add that these two solutions I keep reading about here for similar issues DO NOT APPLY: I do NOT need to know how to open all these files types as that works fine, and I also do NOT want to boot my computer in safe mode as many other replies have said for some weird reason lol ;) - just need to know how to PREVIEW these images in Finder which works for nearly every other file format)

To expand on this issue: in Finder you're supposed to be able to hit space bar on ANY file format and it'll give you a preview of that image via Preview / Quick Look. Apple's Quick Look page literally says "Quick Look offers a fast, full-size preview of nearly any kind of file without opening the file"...

...yet INDUSTRY STANDARD file formats like Adobe's .DNG photo files (Adobe is the biggest software company for creatives in the ENTIRE WORLD, bar none, fyi) can NOT be previewed in Finder. Nikon, arguably one of THE largest camera companies in the entire world – their .NEF format can't be previewed on a Mac. These Camera RAW files can be previewed correctly: Leica DNG's are ok. Sony's ARW's are ok. Canon's .CR2's are ok.

How can we add the ability to preview all these file types which creatives world-wide use on a daily basis?

I've tried a 2018 MacBook Pro 15" (Big Sur, Monterey, and Ventura), 2x 2023 Mac Mini's (Ventura), 2017 Macbook 12-inch (Big Sur, Monterey, and Ventura) and I can NOT preview the above file types on any of those systems. Tried my old Mac Pro on High Sierra and Mojave -circa 2017- and same issue persists...

Posted on Feb 21, 2023 12:11 PM

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Answer 1

JDocJ Author

Level 1

11 points

Feb 21, 2023 12:56 PM in response to VikingOSX

Hi. Can you please let me know how "Apple will NOT preview industry standard DNG and Camera RAW files in Finder" is false in any way? I'm on an Apple/Mac computer. It will NOT preview industry standard file formats by companies like Adobe (DNG) and Nikon (NEF/Camera RAW) in its Finder program...

I'm also not even looking to be able to open these files in any Apple program - I have Adobe Lightroom Classic, Bridge, and Photoshop for that. JUST want to be able to PREVIEW them easily -even a crappy thumbnail will do. I can do that with probably 1,000 other file formats (just again, NOT these super widely used formats)...

Also if you happened to miss it, I've tried this in High Sierra, Mojave, Big Sur, Monterey, and Ventura (and honestly, everything in-between and WAY before). The time stamp of that Nikon .NEF file shown in my above screenshot is from 2001 for example... I've literally not been able to preview that for 22 years... even though the Nikon D1 IS on Apple's supported list...

The problem still persists that if Apple, verbatim, says Finder can preview "nearly any kind of file", I would say that by simple logic, if it CAN'T open files from the worlds largest creative software company AND one of the world's largest/premier camera companies... (and that's just the ones I've experienced lately), then they have NO cause to use the word "nearly" - that's blatantly false advertising (especially for a company that caters hard to the creative crowd).

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Answer 2

Feb 21, 2023 12:28 PM in response to JDocJ

The subject of your post is false.

Apple periodically updates their Camera RAW support for the current operating system. If a particular camera model is not supported, then only default opening application icons appear in Finder or Quick Look, and Preview simply will toss a dialog telling you the image is not supported.

Apple is entirely dependent upon the camera vendor providing the unique camera data to enable that camera RAW support, and it may take several months after a new camera is introduced before it is supported in the operating system via Finder, Quick Look, and Preview. It may appear earlier in new releases of Adobe or third-party products.

If you convert a TIFF image to a DNG (someone just did this last week) in an Adobe application, it will never be supported by Apple's camera raw and unviewable in the Finder or Preview.

Note: I would have posted a link to the Ventura camera RAW page, but Apple is experiencing gateway timeouts preventing it.

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Apple will NOT preview industry standard DNG and Camera RAW files in Finder

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