Cameraraw is independent after startup.

ACR is a plug-in In the past, the old version needed to be installed separately, but now it is built-in, because the plug-in must be accompanied by PS, and there is no independent version, because ACR is first of all a general SLR file decoder, which supports the file formats of most mainstream SLR brand manufacturers in the market, and can directly decode and immediately carry out optical/photographic retouching work. When all the work is finished, you can open it and return to the PS workspace. Of course, as a plug-in, you can call ACR to adjust at any time, and it is very convenient to connect seamlessly.

There is no need for an independent version, because ACR has no conventional retouching tools (PS already has them), such as color scale tools, and we need to complete all the adjustment work related to photographic optics before controlling the color scale or other work.

PS has been promoted to a multifunctional image center, involving 2D images in 3D, WEB, GIF, art and photography. Therefore, the positioning of PS is to provide the working environment and process of image processing, while ACR faces the optical color matching concepts in SLR photography, such as color temperature, calibration, lens correction, etc. These concepts are only available to ACR.