What is IMatch?
IMatch is one of the leading Digital Asset Management Systems (DAM) for Windows.
Manage, catalog and organize all your RAW files, digital images, videos, audio recordings, PDF and Office documents etc. in one software.
See what IMatch can do for you.
What is WIC?
IMatch supports the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) framework supported in Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11 and later versions of Windows.
Windows WIC enables applications like IMatch to work with image formats (including RAW files) via so-called codecs provided by camera vendors, Microsoft or 3rd parties. Without the need to know the internal details of a file format, IMatch can handle the files as long as a working codec is installed.
Windows Built-in WIC Codecs
Current Windows versions include a set of WIC codecs which support a wide range of common RAW formats. Note that not all camera format variants are supported, though. Microsoft seems not to update the WIC codecs in Windows 11 regularly. Modern RAW formats or DNG variants are often not supported, or not supported for a long time.
Over the years, camera vendors introduced dozens of incompatible format variants which all use the same file extension. This complicates the process of providing a WIC codec for all camera models.
Contact your camera vendor for assistance if you need more information or a good laugh.
HEIC/HEIF Support on Windows 10 and Windows 11
HEIC is a modern still image / video format mostly used on the Mac platform. In order to process HEIC files in IMatch you need to install a WIC codec. The standard WIC codecs included in Windows 10 don’t support HEIC/HEIF by default.
Microsoft provides a free WIC codec for Windows which adds support for HEIC to the operating system. To find this WIC codec, search for HEIF Image Extensions on the Microsoft web site or use your favorite search engine. Make sure you install the original codec created by Microsoft.
photools.com RAW Processing and LibRAW Support
At the time of writing (May 2025) no major camera vendor provides WIC codecs for their cameras anymore. They all seem to prefer their customers use whatever “software” the camera vendor provides. Or become dependent on companies like Adobe, Serif, DxO, or Capture One for developing and viewing the RAW files produced with the cameras they paid for. Which is a shame, really.
Since 2021, IMatch used its built-in RAW processing pipeline based on LibRaw to create thumbnails and cache images if no WIC codec was available or the user had configured photools.com RAW processing as the default.
LibRaw is an awesome OpenSource project which is actively maintained and supports hundreds of RAW format variants.
The author of the LibRaw library also offers an excellent and affordable software called FastRawViewer, for viewing Raw files on Mac and Windows. Check it out.
Since version 2025, IMatch defaults to photools.com RAW processing and LibRaw, because of the sad state of WIC support by Microsoft, Canon, Nikon, Olympus and other camera vendors.