•
JPEG or JPG or jpeg or jpg or…
TIFF or TIF or tiff or tif…
So, RAW or raw?
---
RAW is the acronym for… nothing. It is an adjective.
---
…but then why RAW?
Well...
I would assume that it helps to clear up on a matter of if you are talking about unprocessed image or file format.
Let's say as an example:
A friend who knows nothing about photography and computers asked you: "Hey, how come your photos look dull? They look lifeless."
You as a photographer, knowing your friend is not savvy, try to explain in easy way: "That's because they're raw, fresh out of the camera, I have to process them to make them look right. It's like you and your beef, you buy it raw from the shop, then you cook it to your liking."
But when it comes to those who do have some photography and computer understanding, you would just say: "It's still in raw format." or written/typed as
It's still in RAW format.
Who knows? Maybe half of us would know that RAW means nothing, and it just really means "raw" as in uncooked/unprocessed, but the other half, still struggling to understand, just accept it to imply a file type.
As for JPEG, TIFF, BMP, DOC, etc., or jpeg, tiff, bmp, doc, etc...
I suppose it depends on how you like your filenames to look. For example, some may like the neat look as follows...
C:\User\Train book project
My book project about trains.doc
Train photo, Flying Scotsman.jpeg
Rather than feeling like My book project about trains.
DOC and Train photo, Flying Scotsman.
JPEG
Kinda feeling like computer is shouting at you, trying to point out to you what kind of file they are, as if computer thinks you're still stupid enough to try to open a doc file in Photoshop, in addition to the usual warning box
This program cannon open this type of file.
Or for others, some may like it to look right, like for example...
A001.JPG
A002.JPG
B001.JPG
Rather than funny looking A001.jpg or a001.jpg.
It's just my option, let those who think RAW means a file format, assume it means a file format until they have picked up enough experience and understanding to know it means nothing, and they start using the correct format, like saying
it's a NEF file, and knows you should write it as
it's a raw [unprocessed] file, not as
it's a RAW [format] file.
It's also my option, everyone should use either upper or lower case letters depending on how they like their filename's text to look.