DCR to PPM Converter
FileFlip converts DCR to PPM entirely inside your browser, using ImageMagick compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert a DCR file to PPM?#
- Drop your DCR file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to PPM and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 14.1 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs ImageMagick on your own machine.
- Save the PPM file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting DCR to PPM lose quality?#
No. Converting DCR to PPM writes the data out again without discarding any of it, so nothing that was in the DCR file is lost on the way. What changes is the size of the file, not what is inside it.
Is it safe to convert DCR files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts DCR files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What DCR to PPM actually does to the file#
Converting DCR to PPM runs on ImageMagick, downloads 14.1 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, writes the data out again without discarding any of it.
| Engine | ImageMagick |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | One step: DCR → PPM |
| Downloaded to your browser | 14.1 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Lossless |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
Worth knowing before you start:
- camera raw is demosaiced with ImageMagick's defaults, which will not match the camera's own rendering
- some cameras write lossily compressed raw, so the source is not always a complete sensor record
What is a DCR file?#
A DCR file stores raw, TIFF-based sensor data from Kodak's professional DCS-series digital SLRs, the raw format Kodak wrote on cameras from the original 1991 DCS 100 through models like the DCS 760 and DCS Pro Back Plus.
There's no reason to shoot DCR today; it only matters when opening or archiving images captured on a Kodak DCS-series camera.
Convert DCR to DNG or TIFF for long-term storage, since Kodak's DCS bodies are long discontinued and fewer raw converters keep testing against the format.
What is a PPM file?#
A PPM file stores a full-colour raster image as a sequence of red, green and blue values, written either as plain ASCII digits or as raw binary bytes, in the Netpbm project's Portable Pixmap format.
Use PPM when piping images between command-line tools or test scripts that need a format simple enough to generate or inspect without an image library.
Convert PPM to PNG or JPEG once an image needs to be stored or shared outside a local pipeline, since PPM's lack of compression makes it impractical for that.
DCR to PPM questions people ask#
What camera made this DCR file?
A DCR file was written by a Kodak DCS-series professional digital SLR, the line Kodak built on Nikon and Canon film bodies from 1991 to 2005. The exact model, such as a DCS 760 or DCS Pro Back Plus, is recorded in the file's TIFF metadata.
What still opens a DCR file today?
DCR files open in raw converters built on the LibRaw library, such as RawTherapee and darktable, which keep support for Kodak's DCS-series cameras. Kodak's own DCS software, which originally handled the format, is no longer maintained.
What should I convert a DCR file to for long-term storage?
Convert DCR to DNG or TIFF, since both are widely supported archival formats and DCR support in current software depends on a shrinking set of raw converters that still recognize a discontinued camera line.
How do I open a PPM file?
A PPM file opens in GIMP, IrfanView, XnView or any tool built on ImageMagick or Python's Pillow library, since all of them read the format natively. Because a PPM file is uncompressed, it also opens correctly if you rename it and inspect it in a plain text editor when it's the ASCII P3 variant.