Overview
A non-destructive photo developer that runs in your browser. Import a batch of JPG, PNG, WebP or AVIF photos, rate and flag them in a filmstrip, then adjust exposure, white balance, tone curve, HSL colour bands, split toning, crop and grain. Every edit is non-destructive and the originals are never uploaded or changed.
How It Works
Drop photos onto the page or click Import photos; each one becomes a thumbnail in the filmstrip. The Develop tab holds Basic, Presence, Tone curve, HSL, Split toning, Detail, Effects and Crop sections, and each slider has a numeric box and resets on double-click. Masks add linear, radial, brush, luminance, colour and sky selections with their own sliders, and Heal, Clone and Red eye fix spots. Apply one of 16 built-in looks or save your own preset, copy settings from one photo and paste or sync them to others, and step back through the History tab or with Ctrl+Z. The Export tab writes JPG, PNG, WebP or TIFF at full resolution with optional watermark, sharpening and keywords, one file or a ZIP.
Step-by-Step Usage Guide
- Click Import photos or drop a folder's worth of images onto the viewer.
- Rate photos with the 1 to 5 keys, flag picks with P and rejects with X, and filter the filmstrip.
- Adjust the Develop sliders, tone curve and HSL bands while watching the live histogram.
- Press backslash or use the split slider to compare the edit with the original.
- Copy or sync the settings to other selected photos, or save them as a preset.
- Open Export, choose format, quality, long edge and a file name template, then export.
Technical Specifications & Standards
Each photo stores a list of settings, not altered pixels, so the original file is always the starting point. The preview is drawn by a WebGL2 fragment shader that applies white balance and exposure in linear light, then whites and blacks, masked highlights and shadows, clarity from a coarse local average, contrast, the tone curve, eight HSL bands, vibrance, split toning, vignette and grain. When WebGL2 is missing, a CPU path runs the same steps on a Canvas2D image, so the result matches. The tone curve uses monotone cubic interpolation, which never overshoots between points, so a rising curve cannot invert tones. HSL weights blend linearly between neighbouring band centres, so a hue between orange and yellow takes part of each adjustment. Export re-renders the original at full size, in a Web Worker with OffscreenCanvas where the browser supports it, and batches are zipped with jszip with a progress bar and a Cancel button. Photos and settings are kept in IndexedDB, so a reload offers to restore the session. HEIC files open only in browsers that can decode them, such as Safari.
Targeted Use Cases
- Colour grading a set of travel photos with one consistent look before posting them.
- Culling a photo shoot by star rating and exporting only the 4-star picks as a ZIP.
- Fixing white balance and exposure on product photos without installing desktop software.
- Converting portraits to black and white with a custom tone curve and film grain.
- Resizing and renaming a batch of images to a 2048 px long edge for a website.
Notes & Gotchas
- Set white balance and exposure first, then contrast and the tone curve, then colour.
- Watch the clipping percentages under the histogram when pushing whites or highlights.
- Edit one representative photo, then sync its settings to the rest and fine-tune each.
- Export settings sidecars with your photos so the same edit can be reapplied later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are my photos uploaded to a server?
No. Decoding, editing and export all happen in your browser tab. Photos and settings are saved only to this browser's IndexedDB so you can restore the session, and Clear all removes them.
Does editing change my original photo files?
No. The studio stores your adjustments as settings and renders a new file when you export. The original stays untouched, and Reset or the History list returns any photo to an earlier state.
Can I open RAW or HEIC files?
DNG files are decoded from their sensor data (uncompressed and lossless-JPEG DNGs, with the camera colour matrix and as-shot white balance). Other RAW formats such as CR2, NEF or ARW open through the JPEG preview embedded in the file, so they edit like a full-size JPG rather than true RAW. HEIC opens only where the browser can decode it, mainly Safari.
How do I apply the same edit to many photos?
Edit one photo, Ctrl+click or Shift+click other thumbnails to select them, then click Sync. Copy and Paste settings works too. Crop and rotation are left alone unless you tick incl. crop.
What is in the exported settings sidecar?
A small .crux.json file with the photo name, rating, flag and every develop setting. Import it later, or drop it on the studio, to reapply the exact edit to the same photo.
Why does the preview say Canvas2D instead of WebGL2?
Your browser or graphics driver did not provide a WebGL2 context, so the studio fell back to a CPU renderer. The look is the same, but the preview is drawn at a lower resolution to stay responsive.
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