EXR is a deep raster image file format created by Industrial Light and Magic. The company was founded by George Lucas in 1975 when he began production of the first Star Wars movie. ILM is one of the most prolific visual effects companies with 15 Academy Awards and over 20 additional nominations.

The EXR file format was developed for storing High Dynamic Range (HDR) images which can accurately capture the entire range of light intensity levels found in a real scene. The format offers support for multi-layer images.

EXR files can be compressed to lower their size but this will also reduce the quality of the image. However, lossless compression is also possible through multiple compression algorithms. EXR files can have a color depth of 16 or 32 bits per pixel and benefit from the highest dynamic range and color precision currently available.