OpenEXR
.exr · image/x-exr · 2003 · Industrial Light & Magic
OpenEXR came out of Industrial Light & Magic in 2003 and is the standard for VFX and 3D render output: 16/32-bit floating point per channel, unlimited dynamic range, arbitrary channels (depth, normals, motion vectors). To preview or share an EXR outside a compositing app, convert it to PNG or JPEG — EditItAll decodes the image and produces a viewable 8-bit version in your browser.
Compression
Lossless
Transparency
Yes
Animation
No
Browser display
None
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- Float HDR — no clipped highlights ever
- The VFX industry standard
- Multi-channel (depth, AOVs)
Limitations
- Meaningless to browsers and normal apps
- Large files
- Needs tone-mapping for display
Best used for
- 3D render output
- VFX compositing
- HDR panoramas