As a photography enthusiast, I often found existing software to be sluggish and resource-heavy on my machine. I wanted a faster, simpler photo editing experience, so I decided to build my own. The goal was to create a tool that was not only fast but also helped me learn the details of digital image processing and camera technology.

I set an ambitious goal to rapidly build a functional, feature-rich application from an empty folder. This personal challenge pushed me to learn quickly and focus intensely on the core architecture and user experience.

The foundation is built on Rust for its safety and performance, and Tauri for its ability to create lightweight, cross-platform desktop apps with a web frontend. The entire image processing pipeline is offloaded to the GPU via WGPU and a custom WGSL shader, ensuring that even on complex edits with multiple masks, the UI remains fluid.

Curious how it works under the hood? The Technical Reference explains the whole pipeline and the math behind it, from RAW decoding, demosaicing and highlight reconstruction to every slider, the AI models and the depth effects, with formulas and example images.

Core Editing Engine

• GPU-Accelerated: Full 32-bit image processing pipeline written in WGSL for instant feedback.
• Layered Masking: AI subject, sky, foreground, depth, text prompt, and face part masks, combined with parametric color and luminance masks.
• Retouching Tools: Clone, Heal, Retouch, and Liquify tools for dust removal, skin smoothing, and reshaping.
• Noise Reduction: Non-destructive AI Denoise, classic BM3D denoise, and manual luma and color noise reduction.
• Generative Edits: Remove or add elements using text prompts, powered by an optional AI backend.
• Full RAW Support: Supports a wide range of RAW camera formats through rawler, with JPEG support included.
• Non-Destructive Workflow: All edits are stored in a .rrdata sidecar file, leaving your original images untouched.
• Lens Correction: Automatic distortion, TCA, and vignette correction powered by Lensfun.

Library & Workflow

• Image Library: Effortlessly manage your photo collection for a streamlined workflow.
• Immich Integration: Browse, edit, and export photos on your Immich server, with edits synced across all your computers.
• Culling View: Compare images side-by-side with star ratings, pick/reject flags, color labels, and metadata.
• Organization: Recursive folder view, virtual copies, color labels, star ratings, and custom tags.
• File Operations: Import, copy, move, rename, and duplicate images/folders.
• Filmstrip View: Quickly navigate between images in your current folder while editing.
• Batch Operations: Apply adjustments or export entire batches of images simultaneously, tracked in a background job queue.
• EXIF Data & CLI: Full metadata viewer and headless CLI batch exporter for scripting/terminal use.
• Camera Tethering: Shoot directly into RapidRAW with real-time Live View, remote camera controls and more.

Professional Grade Adjustments

• Tonal Controls: Exposure, Tone Mapping (including AgX!), Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks.
• Tone Curves: Full control over Luma/RGB and parametric curves.
• Color Grading: Temperature, Tint, Vibrance, Saturation, color wheels, and a full HSL color mixer.
• Detail Enhancement: Sharpening, Clarity, Structure, and Dehaze.
• Creative Effects: Film emulations, LUTs, Vignette, Glow, Halation, Flares, and Film Grain.
• Spatial Effects: Depth-based Lens Blur, Relight with point, spot, and directional lights, and Fog.
• Transform Tools: Perspective correction, auto straighten, rotation, crop, and warping tools.

Productivity & UI

• Preset System: Create, save, import, share, and adjust preset intensity.
• Image Analytics: Real-time Vectorscope, Waveform, RGB Parade, and Histogram displays.
• Copy & Paste Settings: Quickly transfer adjustments and masks between images. AI masks are generated again for every image.
• Before / After Compare: Full original, split, and side-by-side compare modes.
• Undo/Redo History: Robust history tracking for every edit step.
• Compositions & Merging: Bracketed HDR merging, Focus Stacking, seamless Panorama Stitcher, and Collage Maker.
• Film Negatives: Non-destructive negative conversion with color balance and print controls.
• Flexible Exporting: Export to JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, TIFF, JXL, or LUT formats with custom watermarking and EXIF retention.