How does the DRAFT format affect IPF files?

The short answer is that it doesn’t - they are completely separate things. DRAFT actually just replace the RAW files that are output by our Amiga-based dumping solution CT and submitted by contributors in the past.

The long answer:

If you have an IPF file, you have something that represents the meaningful data of a factory new disk, fresh out of duplication and guaranteed to be: correct, from an authentic source disk not modified after originally duplicated, and to provide the data as it was intended to be read by the target platform(s).

DRAFT files are different, they are not meant to replace IPFs. They simply store the signals read from a disk. In a DRAFT file, the data has no real meaning, and there are no guarantees that it is correct, unmodified, and any copy protection usable.

All data is preserved at forensic quality in DRAFT, but it is a transient storage format. How to interpret the signals is up to the application processing the file. The most common use case will likely be to produce IPF/ADF/ST/etc. files from them.

The only pratical difference between DRAFT and RAW is that DRAFT is designed for high-resolution images, and intended to be open for everyone to use.