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PhilipTobias
Known Participant
January 19, 2012
Open for Voting

P: Support Common Image Formats (EPS, GIF, PDF, BMP etc.)

  • January 19, 2012
  • 275 replies
  • 9772 views

Feature request: Please add Lightroom support for common Adobe publishing and Web image formats, such as EPS, AI, PDF, GIF, and PNG.

Many of us use Lightroom to manage client images in NEF, JPG, PSD and other formats. But the clients' associated images, which are used on their Websites and in their logos and publications, are invisible to Lightroom. If Adobe Bridge can display these other image formats, why can't Lightroom?

Even if Lightroom did not provide direct editing support for these other image formats, it would still be extremely useful if Lightroom could catalog and display them.

It would also elevate Lightroom from being "just" a photo editor into the realm of being a true Digital Asset Manager (DAM). Now that Lightroom includes basic video support - isn't it time to support all the common image formats that our other CS applications use?

Please vote for, as well as reply to, this request if you would also like to see Lightroom support these additional common image formats...

    275 replies

    Rikk Flohr_Photography
    Community Manager
    Rikk Flohr_PhotographyCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    February 3, 2026
    The following idea has been merged into this idea:

    All the votes have been transferred into this idea.
    Rikk Flohr: Adobe Photography Org
    R
    RSquared
    Participating Frequently
    December 13, 2024

    Need to be able to store more file types.  Illustrator, PDF, possibly more.

    Phtographers have projects and need to keep assets together.

    Think.  You are also renting storage space. Let us store more.

    E
    E33WW2DTDN
    Participant
    August 9, 2023

    This is a feature request.  Lightroom Classic is a great photo editor.  But many people love it for its capabilities as a digital asset manager.

     

    It would be a valuable addition if Lightroom could import a more generous variety of file types.  Beyond images, photographers often have a diverse collection of files associated with a photo shoot - related PDF files, DOC files, and other non-traditional files that are not images.  Furthermore, there are files in the visual arts that Lightroom does not currently recognize, such as 360 camera files, Apple iPhone Cinematic videos and portraits, EPS, SVG, and the like. 

     

    Other digital asset managers, such as ACDSEE, already recognize diverse file types such as PDF, DOCX, PPT, XLS, RTF, etc.

     

    It would be super helpful in order to collect, organize, rate, and and add metadata to non-editable files along with the images that Lightroom already manages.

     

    No preview of the new file is needed - just a stub or icon to represet the file for management, movement, organization, creating metadata, etc.

     

    Lightroom already imports files that it cannot edit - namely, video files.  It would be a short additoinal stretch to import other non-editable file types.

     

    Windows users waited for 2+ years before Lightroom Classic was able to import H.265 videos, but with an immediate import function, users could manage files such as these before the Lightroom code is updated to recognize the files.

     

    Please add this feature!

    T
    TacoZuidema.com
    Participant
    March 24, 2023

    Yes I would love this!! really needed!

    PhilBurton
    PhilBurton
    Inspiring
    August 13, 2019
    I think the bigger issue is that Lightroom is single-user only.  If somehow (I'm not holding my breath) Lightroom became multi-user, then a full-on DAM would make more sense as part of a workgroup or enterprise solution. 

    As i said, i'm not holding my breath.  The rest of what used to be Creative Suite is multi-user, with enterprise pricing.  Why not Lightroom? 

    there is a "techical reason," which is that the SQLite database used by Lightroom is inherently single-user.  But that's just an excuse.  Adobe could easily replace that database.
    T
    Thany2
    Known Participant
    August 13, 2019
    It is a small babystep (more like a crawl, really) in the right direction. But I think the broad topic here is about imports, not exports.

    Exports are way easier. Anyone can export to any lossless format and use some batch process to turn them into PNG. Importing file formats is where LR needs to add support, because preprocessing them makes duplicate files to keep track of, and cannot ever work for animated files.
    ProDesignTools
    Community Expert
    ProDesignToolsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 13, 2019
    With today's software updates and new releases of the apps, you can now export your photos as PNGs in both Lightroom Classic and in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR):

    https://theblog.adobe.com/august-photography-releases/

    "With this release, we have added a new file format for your export needs. You can now export images in the PNG file format. Importing PNG files have been supported in previous Lightroom versions."

    P
    PhilipTobiasAuthor
    Known Participant
    March 28, 2019
    Yes, dbur, you nicely summarized this feature request. And you're also right that no one "wants to fool around with two separate image management programs."
    D
    dbur971
    Inspiring
    March 28, 2019
    LR Library module should at least support all formats that PS supports.  Who wants to fool around with two separate image management programs?  Even if no edit feature is provided for certain formats it still get's all your image database in one place.
    G
    gnits999
    Known Participant
    March 28, 2019
    1. Mixing Lightroom and Bridge (in my view) is a recipe for disaster.  The most obvious is moving files outside of Lr. There is also potential for side car issues, messages that metadata has been updated by 3rd party apps, etc. 

    2. The minimum Adobe should do is cater for their own eco-system. There is no excuse for Adobe to ignore images in their own Creative Suite family.  Adobe have the resources to do this if they wanted to. Catering for non Adobe file formats would be nice to have. Catering for pdf's would be a super fist step.

    3. They really only have to cater for the Library module. 



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