LibRaw-Lite is licensed under LGPL terms and is available for download and use.

This version is slightly lighter than GPL-licensed LibRaw:

• With LGPL License, you may use unmodified library in non-opensource applications.
• (Sorry) Foveon support is absent due to dcraw license restrictions.
• Minor enhancements found in full LibRaw are absent in Lite version:
  • Black (masked) pixels are not extracted from RAW data.
  • It is not possible to control black level subtraction, raw curve processing, zero pixels removal.
  • Color data source (i.e. from camera/from hardcoded constant etc.) is not saved for application use.
  • There is no OpenMP support.

Anyway, if you use LibRaw postprocessing routines inherited from dcraw, there is no difference between Lite and full versions (except for Foveon support). Processing results should be the same.

You can see more details on differences between LibRaw versions in documentation. Also, version differences are marked in documentation where it is appropriate.

You may download LibRaw-Lite from separate download page.