It’s that time again when RapidRaw gets an update, and this time we have hit Version 1.6.8. This time we have a great selection of new tools and reworked modules.
Timon and the small team of helper coders listen to it’s users. Over at our Facebook group we talk about RapidRaw and other Free and Open Source software, and throw ideas of what works, what doesn’t work, and what could be added or improved on.
We must remember that this is a free program, and it is taking on the big boys of Adobe, Luminar, DXO and much more. I feel that we should not think of it as “beating” Adobe at their game, but listening to users and writing editing software for photographers which they are doing, and with RapidRaw 1.6.8 they’ve addressed areas which make RapidRaw a feasible option for photographers from beginner to professional.
Highlighted New Features
Black And White Module – The long awaited black and white module is here, and it’s great to have a dedicated section in RapidRaw to target B&W images.
Speed edit – Quick latch with W, HUD, and keyboard slider controls
Direct canvas dragging to adjust colours in the HSL / colour mixer, which is an excellent time saving addition to RapidRaw.
Heal And Clone Tools – Reworked heal and clone tools with auto source matching, which is much
faster now and something we have all been asking for.
Depth-based motion blur simulation
Lens Correction – Completely reworked lens correction algorithm
Second viewer window support (for multi monitor useful)
New preloading system so jumping between images is a lot smoother
Core Improvements
- Interface Scale: Make the interface smaller or larger in the General settings, independent of your system display scaling.
- Hide Collapsed Panels: Collapsed side panels can now be hidden completely.
- Readable History: Every step in the edit history now shows a clear name with its value, like the slider or mask that changed.
- Export the Original: Export the original next to your edited photo, with options to apply the crop and keep the exposure. This also works in the CLI.
- Correct Colors for JPEGs: Images with an embedded color profile, like Adobe RGB or Display P3 photos from phones, are now converted correctly and no longer look washed out.
- Crop Shortcuts: Press Enter to apply a crop and Escape to cancel it.
- Select All: Ctrl+A now toggles select & deselect all.
- Better TIFF Exports: TIFF files now include EXIF metadata and the sRGB color profile.
- JPEG XL Exports: Lossless JPEG XL exports use far less memory and finish much faster.
- Export DPI: The default export resolution is now 96 DPI.
- Safer Saves: Presets, albums and settings are now saved safely, so they can’t get lost if a save is interrupted. HDR, panorama, focus stack and collage results no longer overwrite earlier results.
- Network Drive Fixes: Saving edits no longer fails on drives that don’t support a full flush.
- macOS Fixes: Fixed right-click and Ctrl+click context menus and local network access, for example to an Immich server at home.
- Android: Fixed connecting to servers with Let’s Encrypt certificates.
- New Languages: Added Ukrainian and Lithuanian.
- Updated Lens & Camera Support: Updated the Lensfun database and RAW decoder.
- Stability & Bug Fixes: Resolved various issues and refined overall application performance.
Conclusion
Every release of RapidRaw brings something useful to the table for photographers. There is a proliferation of free and open source editing packages at the moment, but I think RapidRaw stands out above the rest. The developer listens, and the software just works as you’d expect.
I recently released a video asking if RapidRaw could take on paid software, and put it up against Luminar and ON1 Photo Raw MAX 2027. Look at the results for yourself, it faired extremely well!
I would suggest anyone looking to move away from paid software, or looking for professional quality software for Linux (which has been lacking a range is decent editing software for many years) check out RapidRaw and display it from here.
Don’t forget to visit The RapidRaw Resource Centre where you can learn and see this software in action!
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