About CIN Files
Kodak Cineon
Cineon is a digital film format developed by Kodak for scanning and recording motion picture film. It uses logarithmic encoding to capture the full density range of film negative, preserving maximum tonal detail for post-production grading.
Family
Raster & Vector Images
Extension
.cin
MIME Type
image/x-cineon
Can Use As
43 49 4E 46 00 01 00 00 4B 41 49 4A
ASCII: CINF....KAIJ
📈 Target Minimum File Size (Guaranteed ≥ KB)
Lossless JPEG Q100 + standard COM segment padding for government & exam portals
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HOW CIN CAME TO BE.
Cineon — .cin — was Kodak’s original 1993 format for scanning film negatives at 10-bit logarithmic color. Kodak built the Cineon digital film scanner at their Rochester, NY facility; the raw output was .cin files that preserved every tonal stop from shadows to highlights as film negative saw them. Cineon was the direct ancestor of DPX — SMPTE took the Cineon format in 1994 and standardized it as SMPTE 268M DPX.
Cineon and DPX files are nearly interchangeable; DPX added metadata blocks Cineon lacked. Most modern film pipelines moved entirely to DPX or OpenEXR, but .cin files still surface in studio archives of 1990s-era scanned negatives.
Technical Specifications
- MIME type
- image/cineon
- Extension
- .cin
- Encoding
- 10-bit logarithmic per channel
- Successor
- SMPTE 268M DPX
Typical Sizes & Weights
2K scanned 35mm frame
~12 MB
4K scan
~50 MB
STRENGTHS & LIMITATIONS.
Strengths
- 10-bit log color preservation.
- Film-scanning archival standard.
- DPX-compatible.
Limitations
- Legacy — DPX is the modern choice.
- No compression.
- Niche tooling.
CURIOSITIES & TRIVIA.
Cineon was Kodak's original 1993 digital film scanner format — DPX is essentially Cineon with better metadata.
SMPTE standardized Cineon as DPX in 1994 — the two formats are nearly byte-compatible.
Cineon's 10-bit logarithmic encoding preserves film tones that 8-bit linear formats clip.
Kodak ran the Cineon film-scanner business until 2002 before exiting — DPX inherited the mantle.
Photoshop's "Cineon" import filter still exists in 2026 — 33 years after the format shipped.
Specialized Utilities for .CIN Files
Compress Image to 20KB
Compress signature scans, stamp images, and ID photos to strictly ≤ 20 KB (20,000 bytes) for strict online exam and government application portals using binary-search JPEG quantization.
Compress Image to 50KB
Compress JPG, PNG, or WebP photos to strictly under 50 KB (50,000 bytes) for passport portals, university admissions, civil service forms, and KYC uploads without changing pixel dimensions.
Compress JPG to 100 KB
Upload a JPG and download a decodable JPG at or below 100,000 bytes. If the limit cannot be reached, no output is offered.
Crop Image & Photo Resizer
Crop and resize JPG, PNG, WEBP, and AVIF images to exact pixel dimensions, social media aspect ratios, or custom print DPI online for free.
Resize Image
Resize images to exact dimensions or scale by percentage. Lock aspect ratio to prevent distortion. Supports all common image formats.
PNG Compressor — Reduce PNG Size Preserving Transparency
Compress PNG images up to 80% while preserving full alpha-channel transparency, or lock exact file size targets (20 KB, 50 KB, 100 KB).
WEBP Compressor — Optimize WebP for Core Web Vitals
Compress WEBP images for ultra-fast page loads and Lighthouse scores with fine-grained quality sliders and exact byte targets.
Favicon Generator — Multi-Resolution .ICO from PNG, SVG or WEBP
Generate a production-ready multi-resolution favicon.ico containing 16x16, 32x32, 48x48, 64x64, 128x128, and 256x256 alpha layers from any logo.
EXIF Metadata Remover
Strip hidden GPS coordinates, camera serial numbers, timestamps, and XMP/IPTC metadata from JPG, PNG, WebP, and TIFF photos before sharing online.
Image to Text (OCR)
Extract text from images using optical character recognition. Supports photos of documents, screenshots, receipts, and handwritten notes in 100+ languages.
JPG to Word Converter (OCR)
Convert scanned JPG, PNG, and WEBP images into editable Microsoft Word (DOCX) documents using 12-language optical character recognition (OCR).
CONVERT FROM CIN
Common Use Cases
Film scanning, motion picture digitization, color grading pipelines
Related Formats
Popular comparisons
CIN vs JPG
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
CIN vs PNG
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
CIN vs WEBP
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
CIN vs AVIF
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
CIN vs GIF
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
CIN vs BMP
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
Popular CIN conversions
The most-requested destinations when starting from CIN.
Frequently Asked Questions
CIN (Kodak Cineon) is an image format used to store raster graphics — a two-dimensional grid of pixels describing a picture. It is part of the raster & vector images family and designed around a specific trade-off between file size, visual fidelity, and feature support (transparency, colour depth, compression type). Photographers, web designers, and content creators choose CIN when its particular strengths match the publishing target.
Most desktop photo viewers (Windows Photos, macOS Preview, GIMP, Photoshop, Affinity Photo) open CIN natively. On mobile, iOS Photos and Google Photos display CIN in the gallery when supported by the OS. If the format is rare or new, convert to JPG or PNG first — both are universally readable — using our CIN to JPG or CIN to PNG converter.
Upload the CIN to KaijuConverter and pick a target format (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, SVG, PDF). The conversion runs in the browser via ImageMagick and returns a download in seconds. No account or installation required; both input and output delete automatically within two hours.
It depends on the task. JPG is the smallest file size for photographs; PNG is lossless with transparency; CIN has its own niche that may favour colour depth, animation, or encoding efficiency over one or both of those. For the final web publish, test all three and measure file size plus visible quality on real content.
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