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 • Snap Store • Architecture

Download

Available on the Snap Store for Ubuntu and other snap-enabled distributions.

Get on Snap Store

sudo snap install photograph

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

Or build from source (Linux, Rust toolchain required):

cargo install --git https://github.com/divanvisagie/Photograph
photograph

Screenshot

What It Does

• Folder browser with thumbnail grid
• 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, 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 build          # build .deb on Linux
make install        # install the built .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.