Open .ARW files online
An .arw file is a Sony Alpha RAW photograph — the unprocessed sensor capture from Sony's DSLRs (the 2006 A100 onward) and every Alpha mirrorless since the 2010 NEX line. Sony bodies spent much of that history defaulting to lossy-compressed RAW as a space saver — hotly debated among photographers — which makes pixel-level inspection of exactly what a file preserved genuinely useful.
ZipTool develops .arw files entirely in your browser: LibRaw compiled to WebAssembly demosaics the sensor data with the camera's as-shot white balance and renders an sRGB image at full resolution — zoom in and judge what the compression actually did. The engine (~1.1 MB) downloads once from this site's own domain; the photograph never leaves your device.
What is a `.arw` file?
ARW is a TIFF-based container (TIFF/EP plus Sony makernotes). It opens with the II* byte-order mark like CR2, NEF and DNG; inside are the EXIF block, an embedded preview, and the sensor strip.
Sony's compression story runs in three eras: cRAW lossy compression (quantized, roughly half size) as the long-time default, true uncompressed on some bodies, and lossless compressed arriving with the newer models and firmware updates. Zooming to 100% on a developed render is exactly how you tell what your camera's setting preserved.
There is Minolta blood in the line: Sony inherited Konica Minolta's mount, and the earlier .srf/.sr2 (Sony) and .mrw (Minolta) spellings develop here too — same TIFF family, no dedicated pages because their search volume lives under ARW.
- Opening ARWs from any Alpha — A-mount DSLR, NEX, or full-frame E-mount — without installing Imaging Edge
- Zooming to 100% to judge what lossy cRAW compression actually did to a shot
- Checking long astro exposures for the 'star-eater' effect at pixel level
- Reviewing a shoot straight out of the zip it arrived in
How to open a `.arw` online
Open ZipTool in a new tab, then drop your .arw onto the page — or click to browse for it, or paste a URL. The file opens in the RAW develop viewer, which runs LibRaw compiled to WebAssembly inside your browser tab — a full demosaic with camera white balance, not the embedded JPEG preview, read entirely on your device.
- Drag your
.arwonto the page — or click to browse, or paste a URL. - It opens immediately in the RAW develop viewer, which runs LibRaw compiled to WebAssembly inside your browser tab — a full demosaic with camera white balance, not the embedded JPEG preview. No install, no sign-up.
- Read, search, or copy it. Your file never leaves your browser.
Open `.arw` without uploading
Most "open arw online" sites work by uploading your file to a server and processing it there. ZipTool does the opposite: it loads its parser once, then reads your .arw locally in the browser tab. The contents stay on your device.
You can prove that in seconds. Open the page, press F12 for DevTools, switch to the Network tab, and open your file — no request carrying the file's contents is sent. You can also turn off Wi-Fi after the page loads and the file still opens. See security and privacy for the full picture.
Frequently asked questions
Can I tell whether my ARW is lossy-compressed by looking at it?
Zoom to 100% and look at fine texture and star points. The viewer renders the actual sensor data, so what the camera preserved is what you see: cRAW's quantization smears the very finest detail, while uncompressed and lossless files keep it. The camera menu (Compressed / Uncompressed / Lossless) tells you the setting; your eyes at full zoom tell you the consequence.
How do I open a .arw file online?
Drop the .arw on this page — or click to browse, or paste a URL. The developed image appears with its camera model and dimensions; the status bar offers a Download .png of the full-resolution render. The first open fetches the LibRaw engine (~1.1 MB) once from this site's own domain, then it is cached.
What was the 'star-eater' issue?
A spatial filtering step Sony applied to long exposures that smoothed pinpoint stars into blobs, infamous among astrophotographers. It varied by body and firmware. Viewing the developed file at 100% — which is exactly what this viewer does — is the direct way to check whether a particular exposure shows it.
Do older Sony .srf/.sr2 or Minolta .mrw files work too?
Yes — they are the same TIFF-family containers from earlier in the mount's history, and the engine develops them. They never had ARW's search volume, so they ride along silently rather than getting their own pages. The online RAW viewer is the umbrella.
Does viewing my ARW here upload the photo?
No. The develop engine is WebAssembly running in the page; your file is read locally and rendered in the tab. The only fetch is the engine itself (~1.1 MB, once, from ziptool.app — not a third-party CDN). Press F12 → Network and watch: no request carries your photo.
Do Nikon or Canon RAW files work here as well?
Yes — the same engine develops Nikon NEF, Canon CR2/CR3 and Adobe DNG, plus the vendor tail. See the online RAW viewer for the whole family.