Native Desktop Photo Editor

Most photo editors are either bloated creative suites or flimsy web apps. Neither respects the simple workflow: browse a folder, tweak an image, export the result.

Photograph is a native Rust desktop photo browser and editor built for practical image management and color grading. It opens fast, handles RAW files, and stores non-destructive edits as sidecar JSON so your originals are never touched.

GitHub README • Releases • crates.io • Architecture

Download

Linux

A .deb for Ubuntu and Debian-based distributions (x86-64).

Download .deb (v0.5.0)

Or from a terminal:

wget https://github.com/divanvisagie/Photograph/releases/download/v0.5.0/photograph_0.5.0-1_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./photograph_0.5.0-1_amd64.deb

Upgrading: Ubuntu's App Center shows "Installed" for a newer .deb when any version is already installed, and won't upgrade it (app-center#2190). Install the new version with apt instead, from the folder you downloaded it to:

sudo apt install ./photograph_0.5.0-1_amd64.deb

Requires a Vulkan-capable GPU. Run vulkaninfo --summary to verify.

macOS

A .dmg for macOS 11 or later, on Apple Silicon and Intel.

Download .dmg (v0.5.0)

Open it and drag Photograph to Applications. The app isn't signed by Apple, so macOS blocks it the first time: open it once, then allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. If macOS says it's damaged, clear the download flag instead:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Photograph.app

Photograph is built and used on Linux. The macOS build is produced automatically for each release; the mounted drives and network shares in the sidebar are Linux-only.

Older versions and release notes are on the releases page.

Or install from crates.io (Rust toolchain and, on Linux, the build dependencies required):

cargo install photograph
photograph

What It Does

• Folder browser with thumbnail grid; the sidebar finds mounted drives, ZFS pools, and network shares (NFS/SMB/sshfs)
• Full image viewer/editor windows (egui/eframe)
• EXIF metadata display
• Non-destructive edits stored as sidecar JSON
• Geometry: rotate, flip, crop, straighten, keystone
• Color/tone: exposure, white balance, HSL, selective color, graduated filter, highlight/shadow recovery
• Export as JPG, PNG, or WebP with quality/compression and optional resize
• Background rendering and export progress UI

Supported Formats

RAW decode via rawler: RAF, DNG, NEF, CR2, CR3, ARW. Standard formats via the image crate: JPG, PNG, TIFF, WebP, BMP. The browser also recognizes HEIC and AVIF extensions where decode support is available.

Development

cargo build
cargo run --bin photograph
cargo test

Live-reload dev loop (requires cargo-watch):

cargo install cargo-watch
make dev

Packaging

The Makefile builds a Linux .deb.

make                # list all targets
make build          # build the .deb
make install        # build and install the .deb

Architecture

Pipeline and architecture decisions are documented in detail:

• Pipeline Architecture
• Architecture Decision Records
• RAW Load Latency Notes

License

GPL-2.0-only. See LICENSE.