A modern, fast, and intuitive RAW photo editor for photographers who value speed and simplicity.
Get the most out of your photos with a powerful, non-destructive editing suite.
- Instant Previews — See your changes in real-time as you adjust sliders.
- Live Histogram — High-precision histogram with Luminance, RGB, and YUV modes.
- Fine-Tuned Control — Precision adjustments for exposure, contrast, shadows, highlights, white balance, and more.
- Smart Dehaze, Sharpening & Denoise — Professional-grade Numba-accelerated algorithms to bring out detail and clarity without the noise.
- Geometry Tools — Crop, rotate, and flip your images with constrained aspect ratios.
- Lens Correction — Auto-correct distortion, vignetting, and chromatic aberration using a built-in lens database.
- Manual Defringe — Targeted desaturation of purple and green fringes on high-contrast edges.
- Before/After Comparison — Drag the split-view handle to compare your edits with the original.
- EXIF Metadata — View camera settings (ISO, shutter speed, aperture, lens, etc.) in a dedicated panel.
- Undo/Redo — Full undo/redo history for all your adjustments.
- Safe Editing — Your original files are never touched. Edits are saved in tiny JSON sidecar files alongside your images.
Cull and rate your photos faster than ever.
- Fluid Gallery — Browse hundreds of photos in a responsive, resizable grid.
- Large Preview Mode — Toggle between grid and a full-size, zoomable preview with a double-click.
- Quick Rating — Rate your best shots from 1–5 stars with a click or keyboard shortcut.
- Gallery Sorting — Sort by filename, date taken, rating, or last edited, in ascending or descending order.
- Smart Filtering — Filter your gallery by star rating with match, less-than, or greater-than modes.
- Fast Loading — Thumbnails are cached to disk so returning to a folder is nearly instant.
Get your photos ready for the world with a streamlined export pipeline.
- Batch Processing — Export your entire filtered selection in one go.
- Smart Destinations — Suggested save locations based on your folder structure.
- Flexible Formats — High-quality JPEG, HEIF/HEIC, and more.
- Custom Renaming — Automatic renaming using EXIF dates and sequence numbers, with a live rename preview.
- Export Presets — Save and recall your favorite export configurations.
- RAW Formats: CR2, CR3, DNG, ARW, NEF, NRW, RAF, ORF, RW2, PEF
- Standard Formats: JPEG, PNG, WebP, TIFF, HEIC/HEIF
Windows: Download install-pynegative.bat and double-click it.
macOS / Linux:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lucashutch/pyNegative/main/scripts/install-pynegative.sh | bashNote: When run non-interactively (for example via curl | bash), the installer will automatically update an existing pyNegative installation and prints concise status or failure messages to help diagnose issues when running in silent mode.
The installer handles all dependencies, generates icons, and creates shortcuts for you automatically. No technical knowledge required! See the installer README for silent mode, troubleshooting, and more.
| Minimum | |
|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10+, macOS 10.12+, or a modern Linux distro |
| Python | 3.10+ (installed automatically by the installer) |
| RAM | 4 GB (8 GB recommended for large RAW files) |
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Undo | Ctrl+Z |
| Redo | Ctrl+Shift+Z |
| Copy Settings | Ctrl+C |
| Paste Settings | Ctrl+V |
| Zoom In | Ctrl++ / Ctrl+= |
| Zoom Out | Ctrl+- |
| Fit to Screen | Ctrl+0 |
| Toggle Comparison | C |
| Rate 1–5 Stars | 1–5 |
| Remove Rating | 0 |
| Next / Previous Image | → / ← |
pyNegative is fully non-destructive. Your original images are never modified. All adjustments are stored in lightweight JSON sidecar files inside a hidden .pyNegative directory next to your images:
/Photos/
├── IMG_0001.CR3
├── IMG_0002.CR3
└── .pyNegative/
├── IMG_0001.CR3.json # Edit settings
├── IMG_0002.CR3.json
└── thumbnails/ # Cached thumbnails for fast loading
├── IMG_0001.CR3.1738000000.400.webp
└── IMG_0001.CR3.1738000000.400.json
We welcome contributions! Check out the Contributing Guide to get started with the source code, development setup, and code standards.
See TODO.md for planned features and areas of improvement.
This project is open source under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.
The lens database used by pyNegative is sourced from the Lensfun Project and is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0. Attribution for individual lens profiles remains with their respective contributors in the database XML files.
UI icons are from Heroicons by Tailwind Labs, licensed under the MIT License. Copyright (c) 2020 Refactoring UI Inc.