Why RAW75 exists

I'm Cosmin Crețu, the developer behind RAW75.

A few years ago, I gave up on Windows and switched to Linux. Coding and day-to-day work generally go a lot smoother here, but photo editing is a bit of a pain. I tried many apps and ultimately settled on Darktable. It’s a great editor, but despite all its features, you get tired of the lag. It adds up to a lot of wasted time. Iterating through sliders to dial in the right look is an essential part of the process, and when apps slow down that workflow, it takes all the fun out of editing.

This project exists to solve that problem. If you find it useful, I hope it saves you time and frustration. If you have ideas for improvements, please leave feedback on GitHub.

The name

I named it RAW75 after Steven Sasson who invented the first digital camera in 1975.

Linux photo editing

You can edit RAW files on Linux. Most people end up in darktable or RawTherapee. Those apps are capable and they have a lot of features, but they're often slow.

The paid tools from other desktops aren't really here:

Adobe Lightroom — The default paid workflow on Windows and macOS. Not really on Linux.
Capture One — The other paid RAW editor people actually use. Windows and macOS.
DxO PhotoLab — Optics-heavy RAW editor. Windows and macOS.

Other free alternatives

darktable — The usual Lightroom-shaped option on Linux. Lots of modules, a lighttable and a darkroom.
RawTherapee — Very deep RAW processing. Slow to learn, slow to move around in, excellent when you need the extra control.
ART — A fork of RawTherapee with a simpler layout and some extra local-edit tools.
Ansel — A fork of darktable that tries to cut the clutter.
RapidRAW — Newer GPU-accelerated editor. Faster than the old Linux staples, still growing.
digiKam — Photo library first, with a RAW editor attached. Heavy, but good if you live in a catalog.
LightZone — Old commercial darkroom app, now open source. Zone-system style editing.
Filmulator — RAW editor built around a film-development model.
vkdt — GPU-only graph editor from the original darktable author. Fast if you have Vulkan and patience for the UI.

Influences

Lightroom — Years ago I used Windows, and I used Lightroom, and I liked it. If you're reading this you probably know what it is: a way to extort money from photographers.
darktable — A great open-source RAW editor, and I use it too. It's a bit slow, but it has a lot of features.

Speed

For photo editing, speed matters more than a long feature list. If the app is slow, every slider move is a pause, and a slow app with lots of tools is still painful to use. I'd rather have a faster app and add features as I need them. RAW files are decoded with LibRaw, then edited on the GPU. What you see in the preview is what you export.

Graphical interface

The UI is Blossom, an in-house library I wrote. It uses Silk.NET and Skia to create and draw elements, and to run GPU shaders. Panels, sliders, and the window come from Blossom. The photograph is drawn on the GPU through the same stack.

I'll keep working on Blossom on its own, separate from RAW75. This app is the main testing ground.

Libraries

RAW75 is built on the hard work of other people. Decode, develop, and export live in this app.

Silk.NET — Window, input, and the graphics bindings.
Skia — GPU drawing. Panels, sliders, and the photograph itself go through Skia. Develop runs as SkSL.
SkiaSharp — .NET bindings for Skia.
GLFW — The native window Silk.NET talks to.
LibRaw — Reads NEF, CR2, CR3, ARW, DNG. Demosaic happens here, once.
Sdcb.LibRaw — .NET wrapper around LibRaw.
ImageSharp — Writes JPEG, PNG, WebP, and TIFF after the GPU is done.
.NET — The runtime. RAW75 is a .NET app.

Use of AI

AI is used in making RAW75, but not in the app itself. I might use machine learning for masking or noise reduction later. The app will not use AI to generate, alter the photos. It's a tool for photographers, not their replacement.