Why RAW editing on Linux feels slow
Lightroom and Capture One don't run on Linux, so most photographers end up in darktable or RawTherapee. Both are excellent, open source and very deep. They are also heavy: with a large RAW file and a few modules switched on, moving a slider can mean waiting for the preview to catch up.
Editing is iteration. You nudge exposure, pull the highlights back, lift the shadows, then go back and nudge exposure again. When each move costs a pause, the pauses add up and the fun goes out of it.
What RAW75 does differently
RAW75 was written on Linux, for Linux first. It decodes each RAW file once with LibRaw, then runs the entire develop pipeline (exposure, tone, color, detail) as GPU shaders through Skia. The preview updates while you drag, and the export uses the same pipeline, so what you see is what you get.
- Instant sliders for exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites and blacks.
- Exposure curve in EV, for lifting darks and holding lights point by point.
- Color tools: white balance, a per-hue color editor and three-way color grading.
- HDR merge for bracketed shots, with alignment and de-ghosting.
- Gallery with Ready and Favorite marks, and batch export to JPEG, PNG, WebP or TIFF.
It is deliberately smaller than darktable. If you need masks on every module or a full digital asset manager, darktable is still the better tool. If you want to get through a shoot quickly with the edits most photos need, RAW75 is built for that. See the full feature list.
Linux RAW editors compared
| Editor | Strength | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| RAW75 | Speed and a simple layout. GPU develop, instant sliders. | Fewer modules; no local masks yet. |
| darktable | Huge toolset, masks everywhere, lighttable catalog. | Steep learning curve; can be slow on big files. |
| RawTherapee | Very deep RAW processing and demosaicing options. | Dense interface; slower to move around in. |
| ART | RawTherapee fork with a simpler layout and local edits. | Smaller community. |
| digiKam | Photo library first, with an editor attached. | Heavy if you only want to edit. |
There are more on the about page. Many photographers keep two: one for quick edits and one for the occasional deep job.
Install RAW75 on Linux
RAW75 ships as one self-contained archive for 64-bit Linux. .NET, LibRaw and the windowing library are inside, so it works the same on Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Arch, openSUSE and other glibc-based distributions, with no packages to install.
tar -xzf Raw75-linux-x64.tar.gz
./Raw75-linux-x64/Raw75
Get the archive from the download page, which also shows how to add RAW75 to your application menu. It runs on both Wayland and X11 sessions, under GNOME, KDE Plasma and other desktops, and updates itself when a new version is released.
Which cameras work?
RAW decoding is done by LibRaw, the same library behind many Linux photo tools. It reads Nikon NEF, Canon CR2 and CR3, Sony ARW, Fujifilm RAF, Olympus ORF, Panasonic RW2, Pentax PEF, DNG and more, from over a thousand camera models.
Graphics drivers
RAW75 needs OpenGL 3.2 or OpenGL ES 2.0, which every current Mesa driver (Intel, AMD) and the NVIDIA driver provide.
Integrated graphics are fine. If RAW75 doesn't start, check that glxinfo -B reports hardware
acceleration rather than llvmpipe.
Open source
RAW75 is free software under the GNU AGPL v3. The code is on GitHub, and feedback is welcome in Discussions.