News on RawTherapee

RawTherapee 5.12 Released

Wed, 28 May 2025 00:07:00 +0000

RawTherapee 5.12 has been released! Head over to the Downloads page to get it and to read the release notes.

RawTherapee 5.11 Released

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

RawTherapee 5.11 has been released! Head over to the Downloads page to get it and to read the release notes.

New 5.10 macOS Build

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 05:30:00 +0000

We received reports of the macOS build not starting for some users. The problem has been identified, and we have a new build available on the Downloads page. If you encountered an error starting the previous macOS build, please try the updated build.

sha256sum:

7208691efbaa077d5512cc9a54897a6bb80c999e942b77b8fdf8872f519ed5ea RawTherapee_macOS_13.3_Universal_5.10_folder/RawTherapee_macOS_13.3_Universal_5.10.dmg

RawTherapee 5.10 Released

Fri, 16 Feb 2024 06:19:00 +0000

RawTherapee 5.10 has been released! Head over to the Downloads page to get it and to read the release notes.

RawTherapee 5.9 Released

Sun, 27 Nov 2022 22:00:00 +0100

RawTherapee 5.9 has been released! Head over to the Downloads page to get it and to read the release notes.

RawTherapee 5.9 (WIP) and Project Updates

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 18:16:03 -0500

Hi all! This is Pat David from Pixls.us, on behalf of the RawTherapee team with an update.

As you may have noticed, the usual updates of RawTherapee seem to have stalled after version 5.8 was released in February 2020. This feels like ages ago. Normally, the team would release at least two updates per year with new features and many bugfixes. If you have wondered when a new version will arrive, I can tell you: soon! In this post, I will provide a little backstory to the current situation and preview a lot of the upcoming features.

New 5.8 Windows Installer, macOS Build Ready

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 08:00:00 +0100

We found an issue with the original 5.8 Windows installer, it was missing the Profiled Lens Correction (Lensfun) database, so there is now a new installer which includes this database. If you downloaded RawTherapee 5.8 for Windows previously, please download the new build and re-install.

The macOS build is now ready.

Head over to the Downloads page to get the builds.

sha256sum:

c212b15f39d02bd8f8a54358045116cbac757ea155e5378e09d727a513895928 RawTherapee_5.8.AppImage
2d6f127598ef9a3d36a86657ac53c81b1957b6d9ae97fef1fadd8757f82aa915 RawTherapee_5.8.exe (2020-02-06)
6fe7cd08bd59b1ca9135e587be0d600d62487d0b9baaa6157972135fe3018f8a RawTherapee_5.8.dmg

RawTherapee 5.8 Released

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 08:00:00 +0100

RawTherapee 5.8 has been released! Head over to the Downloads page to read the release notes and to get it.

Update from 2020-02-06: We found an issue with the Windows installer which was missing the Profiled Lens Correction database (Lensfun), so there is now a new installer from 2020-02-06 which includes the database. If you downloaded RawTherapee 5.8 for Windows previously, please download the new build and re-install.

sha256sum:

c212b15f39d02bd8f8a54358045116cbac757ea155e5378e09d727a513895928 RawTherapee_5.8.AppImage
2d6f127598ef9a3d36a86657ac53c81b1957b6d9ae97fef1fadd8757f82aa915 RawTherapee_5.8.exe (2020-02-06)

5.7 macOS Build Issues

Mon, 23 Sep 2019 01:28:59 +0200

We are aware that the current macOS build of RawTherapee 5.7 (sha256sum 70f7b7f) crashes when run on some versions of macOS. We are working on the problem.

If you experience this problem, downgrade to RawTherapee 5.6 until a new 5.7 build is ready.

5.7 macOS Build Ready

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 16:09:38 +0200

A RawTherapee 5.7 build for macOS is now available for download.

Caveat: In the latest macOS 10.15 Catalina Developer Beta 8, file access is restricted to ~ and ~/Pictures.

sha256sum:
70f7b7fec75f2799d80b2f960cf98815d5a5b199342d993a6019eeb153332c3d RawTherapee_OSX_10.9_64_5.7.zip

Repackaged 5.7 Windows Build

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 19:15:59 +0200

Please download the Windows 5.7 build again, and re-install it.

The original Windows build of RawTherapee 5.7 contained an error in the way it was compiled and packaged, causing it to behave the way our development builds behave - the default installation folder was of the development build form, and it looked for settings in the location where a development build would store them. The error was corrected, and the build has now been replaced with a new one which behaves the way a stable release should behave.

We Have a New Website!

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 02:48:27 +0200

We have a new website!

Thank you very much Pat David and Mica!

New RawTherapee 5.4 AppImage

Fri, 31 Aug 2018 19:12:00 +0000

Linux users whose distributions do not ship RawTherapee 5.4 can now enjoy our latest stable release by getting the RawTherapee 5.4 AppImage from our Downloads page.

An AppImage is a single file which contains all the components necessary to run a program in any Linux distribution. As some distributions provide old versions of certain programs, the AppImage is a great solution for letting users of those systems run the latest version of a given program.

Support Freedom, Donate a Kidney!

Thu, 23 Nov 2017 15:47:00 +0000

You can help not only RawTherapee, but the open-source photographic community as a whole, and it won’t cost you a dime nor a kidney. You don’t even need to know how to code. Here’s how.

RawTherapee is open-source software, which means we value liberty, and it’s thanks to this principle of liberty that our project exists. We are not alone. There are other libre projects out there, related to photography and imaging, and we are friends, and we share our skills for mutual benefit. Sometimes we even share a beer.

Linux repositories updated

Fri, 03 Mar 2017 17:46:00 +0000

All Linux repositories have been updated and the naming of the RawTherapee packages has changed. Check the information for your distribution on our Downloads page to make sure you’re using the correct package.

5.0-r1 Downloads Ready

Sun, 05 Feb 2017 22:14:00 +0000

You can now download RawTherapee 5.0-r1 for Windows and macOS from our Downloads page. Linux users can get it from the usual place - their package manager; instructions available on our Downloads page.

Windows users: If you ran into the “There is no disk in the drive” error, we just updated the installer with a version which uses GTK+ 3.18 which does not exhibit this problem. It’s a fast “release” type build and it also includes a “debug” executable. Get it now from our Downloads page.

RawPedia Back Up and Running

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 23:48:00 +0000

With the fine help of Pat David we have managed to get RawPedia back up and running! It is and will remain accessible through the same sub-domain as always - rawpedia.rawtherapee.com

For now the domain will change to pixls.us once you go there (the same domain where we have our shared forum), but in the near future the whole RawPedia will remain available under the rawtherapee.com domain.

Update 2016-12-31: It is done, the whole RawPedia now resolves to rawpedia.rawtherapee.com !

RawPedia temporarily down

Wed, 21 Dec 2016 00:24:00 +0000

We are aware that our RawPedia server stopped accepting connections within the last few hours and are busy working to restore service. The cause of the problem lies outside our control and may take a few days to work around. Follow progress in issue #3550. In the meanwhile you are welcome to use our shared forum at discuss.pixls.us

Forum migration

Fri, 22 Jan 2016 00:02:00 +0000

We have moved forums!

In the loving and collaborative spirit of open-source, we decided to migrate from our old phpBB forum to our new home:

http://rawtherapee.com/forum

This brings you and us closer to the users and developers of other libre graphics software.

Newcomers will settle right in, just be sure to first read this introductory post.

Users of the old forum will want to start by reading this post which explains how you can access the old forum and what will happen with it.

We moved our code to GitHub

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 16:31:00 +0000

As of today, we have stopped using Google Code as our source code host and issue tracker, and now use GitHub.

https://github.com/Beep6581/RawTherapee

Package maintainers please take notice and update your sources.

The buildRT script for Linux will be updated within the next few days.

Issue discussions are being moved right now, and will be done within a few hours.

Documentation

Mon, 09 Mar 2015 16:21:00 +0000

RawPedia

RawPedia is the only official source of documentation for users.
Read RawPedia here: rawpedia.rawtherapee.com

Developing raw images is a breeze when you know what it is you want to achieve, and when you know the tools you have at your disposal. The RawPedia wiki contains articles which describe every tool and topic related to RawTherapee, and more. Reading it will answer most of your questions, it will give you greater power and maneuverability in getting the most out of RawTherapee’s tools, and it will save you time!

PLAY RAW 46 Competition Started

Wed, 25 Feb 2015 15:57:00 +0000

Try your hand at developing a raw image by taking part in the latest edition of our competition, PLAY RAW 46! This round’s image is from DrSlony and it is a high dynamic range DNG of a sunrise near Söderåsen National Park in the south of Sweden.

This is what the image looks like with the “Neutral” processing profile.

Take part in PLAY RAW 46 now!

4.2 Pre-Release Announcement

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 17:46:00 +0000

Dear package maintainers! We will be releasing RawTherapee-4.2 this Friday, 2014-10-24. Please take a minute to read this announcement.

Please make your builds use cache and config folders called just “RawTherapee” without any version suffix. This can be done by setting the following option:

\-DCACHE\_NAME\_SUFFIX=""

In the past we requested that a clean cache and config folder is created by appending the RawTherapee version. We hope that that move has accomplished its purpose, and now strive to offer a seamless and stable upgrade process to users by re-using these files.

PLAY RAW 44 Competition Started

Thu, 02 Oct 2014 11:42:00 +0000

Try your hand at developing a raw image by taking part in the latest edition of our competition, PLAY RAW 44! This round’s image is from siganmelostontos and it is an in-camera double exposure.

This is what the image looks like with the “Neutral” processing profile.

Take part in PLAY RAW 44 now!

PLAY RAW 43 Competition Started

Sat, 16 Aug 2014 14:03:00 +0000

Try your hand at developing a raw image by taking part in the latest edition of our competition, PLAY RAW 43! This round’s image is from TooWaBoo.

“This picture was taken in Bisbee, Arizona, near the Mexican border. Bisbee was founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town. Today many dropouts and artist live there. It has its own brewery, old houses and nice little bars with live music every day. The atmosphere feels like 70 years ago. The people are friendly and very open minded.”

PLAY RAW 42 Competition Started

Fri, 04 Jul 2014 13:44:00 +0000

Try your hand at developing a raw image by taking part in the latest edition of our competition, PLAY RAW 42! This round’s image is from myself, DrSlony, and it’s a macro of a tiny flower which, hanging upside-down from the plant together with 18 other flowers just like it in a bunch, produces a drop of sticky liquid every morning to, I presume, lure pollinating insects in. Can you identify the genus or species?

PLAY RAW 41

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 10:52:00 +0000

It’s been four years and counting that we’ve been doing a ~monthly competition where the winner of the previous round gets to send in an interesting raw file and everyone is invited to stretch their creative ligaments and do anything possible, as long as it’s with RawTherapee, to develop it. This round’s image is from FredDec, and it’s a great scene of the Bardenas Reales Desert in Spain, taken at dawn.

4.1 Pre-Release Announcement

Sun, 23 Mar 2014 16:26:00 +0000

Dear photographers, hobbyists and package maintainers,

Soon we will be releasing RawTherapee version 4.1-stable. This is a big deal. Everyone should read this.

Much has changed since version 3.0 of RawTherapee was released back in July 2011. There are many new tools, the way existing tools work has been improved, calculations are more precise, everything is faster, the user interface had a complete make-over, everything is documented in RawPedia, and there are hundreds of other improvements which make up the bulk of our work. As such, it was impossible to avoid breaking backwards-compatibility of certain things.

Links fixed

Mon, 20 Jan 2014 06:52:00 +0000

The download link for the 4.0.12 build of RawTherapee for Windows and the 4.0.12 PDF have been fixed.

Downtime - Moving Servers

Tue, 19 Nov 2013 16:23:00 +0000

We will shortly be moving to a new server which may result in temporary downtime. If the website and forum do not work, simply come back a few hours later, by when the migration should be completed.

Can you help?

Mon, 19 Aug 2013 21:55:00 +0000

RawTherapee flourishes thanks to the hard work of the people who continue to push their boundaries and to spend their free time creatively and actively contributing to a wonderful global effort. You too can join us and help make RawTherapee better while gaining experience and learning from others. Please take a look at the list below which details areas where we need help, and see if you could lend a hand!

Features

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 22:05:00 +0000

For a complete and up-to-date list of features, see the RawPedia Features page.

High Image Quality

96-bit (floating point) processing engine.
Non-destructive editing.
Get the most details and least artifacts from your raw photos thanks to modern and traditional demosaicing algorithms: AMaZE, DCB, AHD, EAHD, HPHD, IGV, LMMSE, VNG4, Mono and Fast.
Advanced color handling from white balance to HSV (Hue-Saturation-Value) curves, color toning and color management including wide-gamut and soft-proofing support.
Powerful CIE Color Appearance Model 2002 (CIECAM02) module.
Enhanced exposure and tonality tools: tone and Lab curves, highlights and shadows tools, tone mapping (HDR-like effect), etc.
Multiple denoising methods: luminance, chrominance (both rewritten in 2012), impulse (for salt and pepper noise) noise reduction.
Several tools to enhance details: unsharp mask, RL deconvolution, contrast by detail levels.

Efficiency

Multi-threaded algorithms for high performance (RawTherapee can utilize modern processor features, like SSE).
Quick thumbnails load lightning fast and are replaced later with live thumbnails.
Batch processing: convert all the developed images at once without loading the processor while you work.
Copy/paste editing parameters from one file to many other. Partially copying and/or pasting is also possible.**
**
Basic tools immediately at your hands.
Parallel editing of multiple images in separate editor tabs, and/or all at once from the file browser.
An optional secondary display can be used.

Versatility

Wide variety of supported cameras: almost all DSLRs and even some medium format bodies are supported.
Can load most raw files including 16-, 24- and 32-bit raw HDR DNG images, as well as standard JPEG, PNG (8- and 16-bit) and **TIFF **(8-, 16- and 32-bit logluv) images.
Can save JPEG, PNG (8- and 16-bit) and TIFF (8- and 16-bit) images.
Advanced control over the algorithms with many fine-tuning parameters and curves.
Can send to GIMP or the editing tool of your choice in one click (16-bit TIFF file).
Command line usage besides the normal graphical interface.**
**
Various layouts: multiple tabs, single tab with filmstrip, vertical tab with filmstrip, dual monitor.

Freedom for Free

RawTherapee is free and open source software, meaning you can use it free of charge, wherever you like on whatever hardware you like, as long as you abide by the copyleft GPLv3 license. Download the source code, modify it, feel free to do what comes to mind. We believe in open software.
It is cross-platform - you can use it on Linux, macOS or Windows.
International: it is available in 25 languages!

Quick update

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 01:50:00 +0000

After many months of hard work, we will be releasing RawTherapee 4.0.10 in a few days - it is faster, more stable, has a bunch of new features, and is generally better than any other version, so stay tuned! We have also updated the Documentation and Screenshots pages, with further updates coming to the other sections soon.

We are looking for Mac builders

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 11:19:00 +0000

We are looking for Mac builders.

RawTherapee is a cross-platform raw development tool, but due to the lack of Mac builders our latest release on this platform is 4.0.6 (compared to the currently planned 4.1).

Requirements:

minimal experience in cmake and compiling C++ source code on Macintosh platform
regular availability (e.g. willing to follow the project and build prior to releases)
access to multiple versions of Mac OS X is a plus, but not a must have

No special skills or knowledge is needed beyond that. It is OK if you are not familiar with RawTherapee’s build background: we will give you all the neccessary information if needed.
You don’t have to do anything special, just announce your intention in Issue 1526!

RawTherapee Tutorials Needed

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 17:41:00 +0000

Tutorials are important to help new users and are an easy yet rewarding way of sharing knowledge.

We opened a dedicated forum section and encourage everyone to submit tutorials. Requirements are described in the instructions, please read them before posting. Finished, high quality tutorials will be announced in the news too.

Happy contribution!

RawTherapee evolution and statistics

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

As of today, it’s been two years that RawTherapee has been free open source software and it has grown tremendously! Here is a video which visualizes progress on RawTherapee during these two years, from the 1st of January 2010 till now, the 1st of January, 2012, and some statistics. Enjoy!

Created using Gource, watch in 720p high quality and read the video description at YouTube

Statistics

Source code

Date of initial import into Mercurial from the previous source code repository: Friday, 1 January 2010, 11:52 a.m.

Progress report for August 2011

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:58:00 +0000

The following changelog details a list of items that have been fixed and/or implemented in the development branch of RawTherapee from the 31st of July till the 31st of August, 2011:

Color probes and clipping indicators were using the working color space values instead of the output color space ones. Also RT would fallback to using the sRGB color space for the processed photos if the chosen output profile not match the working profile. Issue 889.
Fixed a bug where the queue’s output file format would change to the format you used in the direct save dialog if you used it while the queue was populated. Issue 890
Default theme set to 25-Gray-Gray to satisfy presumed standard viewing conditions. Issue 373
Fixed bug with the file browser thumbnail showing an incorrect crop
Fixed Windows bug where if you replaced one raw with another, of the same name, RT would continue showing the old one’s thumbnail. Required clearing your thumbnail cache. Issue 893
Fixed bug where the thumbnails in the file browser would not refresh when the “Show EXIF info” button was toggled. Improved stability. Fixed skewed thumbnails. Issue 898
Performance improvements when adding many files to the queue. Issue 900
Fixed a bug where dotted lines would appear when using a non-zero Green Equilibration value. Issue 904
Fixed the direct save dialog, it would try saving the photo even if no filename was specified to a file with just the extension, e.g. “.tif”
Fixed a bug with the histogram behaving oddly when resized. Also added histogram channel buttons. Issue 909
“Clarity and sharpening” renamed to “Local sharpening” and the tool’s panel was cleaned up. Issue 927
The last used directory will be opened when you use the custom ICC profile file open dialog. Issue 911
Removed oobsolete and duplicate tools from the toolbox.
Added F2 shortcut key for renaming photos. Issue 905
Fixed a bug causing the preview to go black or white when changing to a default profile before the first edit. Issue 925
Added option to have a square detail window (smaller than the rectangle, therefore faster). Issue 918
RT will no longer re-demosaic the photo when you go back in the history panel. It will only do that if you make changes in the Raw tab. Issue 923
Custom white balance value is stored and recalled when the “custom” white balance setting is used again
Fixed RT from crashing when opening a photo with non-linear curves
Fixed RT from crashing when opening photos in a certain way when using auto-white balance. Issue 929
Fixed dcraw color matrices for Fuji X100 and Sony A77. Issue 930
Custom profile builder will generate a baeline postprocessing profile when run manually, but will not run during a partial-paste on photos that already have a postprocessing profile (ie. photos that have been edited). Issue 941
Panning acceleration when panning the preview image, so that high resolution photos can be panned from side to side in one mouse movement, needing only one regeneration of the preview. Issue 945
Chrominance noise reduction multiplier increased, fixing a bug where said noise reduction would work very poorly. Issue 719
Fixed bug where “profile applied gamma” would not toggle a preview refresh
Automatic ICC profile detection. Issue 938
Fixed a bug where RT would only auto-rotate raw files and not the corresponding JPG files if both were shot using the “RAW+JPG” mode with the camera vertically-oriented. Issue 125
New feature to blend LittleCMS highlight values with those of the dcraw/RT simple matrices. Issue 951
Various translation updates
We switched to using Google Docs for the RawTherapee Manual and translations of it. It should make real time collaboration easier without forcing the user to install any extra software. Issue 939

PLAY RAW 16

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:37:00 +0000

The 16th PLAY RAW competition just started, you have until the 13th of September to submit your entry, but better do it now!

Maximizing memory efficiency

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 01:21:00 +0000

RawTherapee is a modern program, and as such should be run on modern hardware. This is especially true if you use high resolution raw files. It features some memory-intensive filters, which means you need to be aware of a few things in order to avoid having memory issues. These issues, which usually manifest in program crashes, are most evident if you use a 32 bit version of Windows, although they apply to other operating systems as well, and may become evident if you have 2GB of RAM or less. 4GB of RAM is recommended. This is not to say that that is the minimum amount of RAM required for a stable experience, as there are people who regularly use RawTherapee on machines with just 2GB of RAM without any negative side-effects, but you should be aware of the implications.

Progress report for July 2011

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 02:01:00 +0000

The following changelog details a list of items that have been fixed and/or implemented in the development branch of RawTherapee from the 19th of June till the 31st of July, 2011:

Fixed issue when using false color suppression on very overexposed photos where whites turned grey.
Threading improved.
Case-insensitive “find” toolbar in file browser to search by filename. Ability to display said toolbar in two rows.
Stability improvements.
Fixed numerous bugs that made RawTherapee freeze for short periods of time.
The file browser context menu has been rearranged into groups, customizable through the preferences panel.
RawTherapee color themes fixed to work well in Ubuntu 11.04 (GTK3).
Fixed error where large positive Exposure Compensation values along with large negative Black values caused light regions to turn black.
Translation updates: French, German, Catalan, Czech, Russian,
New highlight reconstruction algorithm, faster and better than the old one.
File browser filters: (Not) Saved, (Not) Edited.
The Amaze demosaicing algorithm no longer produces artifacts in white areas.
Windows: mute button for RawTherapee sound notifications, and RT automatically appears in the Windows Mixer.
Further floating point conversions.
Compiler warnings suppressed.
Executable renamed from “rt” to “rawtherapee”.
JPEG images in the CMYK color model are ignored by RT.
New sharpening methods: Gradient Sharpening (border), and Microcontrast (texture). Both available under Detail > Clarity and Sharpening.
Curve histograms no longer show garbage when opening a raw file.
Extended support in various filters for partial profile paste.
New CMAKE “BUNDLE” option, -DBUNDLE=ON
Selecting an aspect ratio in the crop panel automatically enables “use fixed ratio”.
Removed RAWZOR.
Various icons replaced.
PP3 sidecar files were unnecessarily triggering RawTherapee directory monitoring events which caused RT to occasionally freeze.
RT was using the “fast” demosaicing algorithm even when another algorithm was selected as the default one in your PP3 profile. It would only refresh the preview to your chosen demosaicing algorithm when you used certain tools that forced the preview to get re-rendered. This should now be fixed.
Change of mouse cursor from an open hand to a crosshair.
Windows: fixed sorting of disks in “Places”, should now be sorted A-Z.
Windows: Automatic language detection.
Fixed cropping to work properly once more from thumbnail level in the File Browser tab.
Batch queue context menu fixed to not disappear.
New default PP3 profiles (Neutral, default(ISO), BW, Tuned, Natural, Punchy).
Update to dcraw-9.10
Fixed bug where thumnails would appear too dark when “Highlight Recovery” was enabled.
Fixed a bug where the file extension was not appended when saving the image directly, bypassing the queue.
Prevent RT from crashing when encountering a corrupt raw file.
Fixed articfacts when using exposure saturation on dark noisy Canon images.
Fixed RL Deconvolution from causing artifacts to appear when using certain slider values (e.g. 5 iterations) or a negative lightness channel.
RawTherapee tagged 4.0.0 (no we haven’t released RawTherapee 4.0 yet, this is a development version, but we decided to call it 4.0 as so much has changed from 3.0.0).

As always, you can find nightly development builds of RawTherapee in our downloads section, along with the latest stable version, 3.0.

PLAY RAW 14

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:17:00 +0000

The submission period for the 14th PLAY RAW competition starts today folks, come and take part!

RawTherapee PLAY competitions

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:43:00 +0000

Roughly every three to four weeks we run a new PLAY RAW competition. Everyone may enter and there is no registration required. Simply check the “PLAY RAW competitions” forum for an ongoing competition, read the rules, download the raw file, develop it using only RawTherapee and submit the JPG and PP3 files to narvik86 by email. The submission period is two weeks, after which there is a week for casting votes, and everyone may vote. The winner gets to submit a photo for the next round of PLAY RAW.

A quick note on the word 'raw' and LittleCMS version 2

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 23:07:00 +0000

I would like to point two unrelated things out:

The word “raw” is a plain word. It is not an acronym or an initialism. As such, the usual noun capitalization rules apply. Writing RAW is incorrect. If starting a sentence, capitalize the first letter, leave the other two in lowercase. If in the middle of a sentence, all letters should be lowercase.
The unstable RawTherapee-3.1 builds require LittleCMS version 2. Ubuntu users should see the guide in the forum on how to install LCMS2 in Ubuntu. RawTherapee-3.0 builds require LittleCMS version 1.

Progress report

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 03:39:00 +0000

It is our pleasure to inform you of the progress made in RawTherapee since the last report!

We have repeatedly decided to push back the release of the version we would call 3.0 in order to deliver a program that you can expect the best quality and optimal speed from, one you can entrust your photos with and rely upon. During this time many improvements have been made, much code has been refactored, memory leaks plugged and stability improved. A large part of this was possible because of the feedback we received from you, so if you have any good ideas on how to improve RawTherapee or if you experience instability or other bugs, please take the time to first read this short guide and then report your issue either in our forum or in our Google Code page.

RawTherapee.com v3 - The New Homepage!

Sun, 15 May 2011 15:35:00 +0000

Welcome to the new homepage of RawTherapee!

Rawtherapee.com has evolved from a few simple pages through a basic dynamic site to the current, advanced homepage. This new site was carefully planned and designed to be a real home of RawTherapee.

Versions of the homepage from the beginning

Most of the changes are under the hood, but you may have already noticed the blog and hopefully will soon discover the new, powerful download center as well.
The new site provides a much more efficient environment for multiple administrators. It helps the OSMC to inform you better and to provide regular updates and downloads.

Feature Freeze - 3.0 branch

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 13:55:00 +0000

We are happy to announce the feature freeze of RawTherapee 3.0!

A feature freeze is a point in the development process when no more new features are accepted for the current branch. In accordance with the RT 3.0 Roadmap the project arrived to this point.

Branching

We would like to call the attention - especially of the developers - to the changes in the source tree:

‘3.0_branch’ is the new branch for the upcoming stable release; accepts only bug fixes and GUI enhancements. Please do not push new features here!
‘default’ is the continuation of the main branch; new features can be pushed here, although the efforts should be focused on the bugfixes now.

The fixes from the 3.0_branch will be introduced later to the default branch, but noone is restricted in any way to do it regularly and/or per wish.

RawTherapee 3.0 Roadmap

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:39:00 +0000

From now every major release will have a roadmap. Each will be named after the current release, they detail the current trends and draft the future plans. Please note that roadmaps are not laws carved in stone: these are indeed plans which may change with time.

The current one for the 3.0 branch can be found below: this is how RT OSMC (in alphabetical order: DrSlony, dualon, ejmartin, Gabor, Hombre, janrinze, paul.matthijsse, TheBigOne) envisions the next few weeks. The discussion of the roadmap can be found here.

New Developers in RT OSMC

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:33:00 +0000

Based on your feedback and the outstanding activity of Hombre and Emil, both of them were invited into the RT OSMC! We are glad to announce that the current line-up of the team is (in alphabetical order):

DrSlony,
dualon,
ejmartin,
Gabor,
Hombre,
janrinze,
paul.matthijsse,
TheBigOne.

Best wishes to you, guys, and thanks for all your efforts!

Download page revised

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 12:27:00 +0000

The Download section has been revised. It should now fully and comprehendibly explain to a new user where RawTherapee stands, and make clear what the advantages and disadvantages of using the latest stable but outdated version (2.4.1) or the latest bleeding edge builds are. If you feel that something is missing, worded in an unclear way, or you have a suggestion, please tell us about it in the General Discussion forum.

Get The Latest Releases

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 12:09:00 +0000

The latest official release is alpha1 from January. A lot has changed since then. The “release early, release often” model is planned to be followed to satisfy you with new builds and to appreciate and show the efforts of the developers. Therefore some new builds are provided to play with until the bugs (program errors) are ironed out and the next “official” release can be published.

The latest releases are available in this directory and are updated regularly:
http://www.rawtherapee.com/shared/builds/

The RawTherapee Open Source Management Comittee

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 00:06:00 +0000

The brief history and the most active contributors were mentioned in our last article. This time the future of RawTherapee will be discussed.

Opening the source was an excellent step, it has resulted in a lot of new features and involved a bunch of really enthusiastic volunteers already. However, without a pacemaker person or comittee the project seems to just drift, the need for a centralized steering “institute” is stronger with every day. The most successful open source projects all have a “head”, be it one person or a group.

Back In Time - RawTherapee From 2004 Till 2010 Today

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:22:00 +0000

Apart from numerous minor cosmetic, performance, usability and stability improvements, quite a few major new features have been and are being added, but we should start at the beginning - the birth of RawTherapee.

RawTherapee was born in 2004 when Gabor Horvath, from Hungary, bought his first digital camera. He immediately developed an interest in how the final JPEG image was obtained from raw data. Being a PhD student at the time, he had access to several image processing journals where he found information on relevant algorithms. By playing with the dcraw code and adding his own algorithms, he learned that there was much more potential in a raw file than what contemporary software showed. He learned about other important steps of the image developing process and consequently his view of how such an application needs to be implemented evolved over time. The early versions were therefore sets of ugly hacks, which were the main reason for keeping the code closed. Only when a large cleanup of the GUI code was carried out had the code been opened. The second phase involves cleaning up the engine code which should result in the whole application coding logic becoming clearer.

New Language pack: new language files and preparations for 3.0

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:15:00 +0000

Please be informed about the new language pack available for RawTherapee 3.0 alpha1 and earlier (This language packs are also usable on other RT 2.4 version and RT 2.3). There are a few strings in it regarding 3.0alpha1 (but not all strings are translatable yet).

The following things changed since the last language pack:

new language: Brasilian Portuguese
updated languages: latvian, english, russian
added new available strings to all files (not all available yet)

Many thanks to all contributors for their efforts.

RawTherapee 3.0 alpha 1 and license changes

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:05:00 +0000

The first alpha version of RawTherapee 3.0 is available for download. Note that this is not a feature complete version. In V3.0 both major
GUI/workflow and algorithm changes are planned. This alpha version demonstrates the new, much more efficient GUI, but it does not contain
any algorithmic changes yet.

The most significant changes in the GUI are the following:

multi-tab interface
the real batch processing support arrived: select multiple images and adjust them together (the multi-adjust behavior of some parameters is selectable in the preferences dialog: they can be either additive or absolute)
completely re-written editor: preview and detail view are now gone. The main image view can be magnified as required, and only the necessary part of the image will be re-calculated. There is a small navigator, too, and infinitely many detailed views can be opened to investigate fine details.
16 bit thumbnails (an option, takes double disk space)
before/after view in the editor

The only change in the algorithms is:

Documentation for Raw Therapee v2.4

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:40:00 +0000

If you want to understand how to work with Raw Therapee even better, we recommend to read the users manual. You can download it in PDF format:

Users Manual for RT v2.4 (english), last change: 2009-09-04
Manuel pour RT v2.4 (french), last change: 2009-09-20, write errors corrected
Benutzerhandbuch für RT v2.4.1 (german), last change: 2009-10-21
Manuale dell’utente di RT 2.4 (italian), last change 2009-02-08
Japanese Users Manual for RT v.2.4 (japanese), new: 2009-07-27
Handleiding RT 2.4 (netherlands), last change 2009-09-04, updated for 2.4.1

Here are some additonal informations:

RawTherapee v2.4 released

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:37:00 +0000

After a long beta cycle we are proud to announce RawTherapee v2.4!

Changelog (from v2.3):

Exif/IPTC support
Theme switching
Improved GUI layout
Improved filebrowser
Ranking support
Basic file operations possible (delete, remove, rename)
Filtering based on Exif data
Configurable thumbnail caching
Live thumbnails (showing the images in the processed state)
Resizable thumbnails
Configurable thumbnail layout (left - right, top - down)
Basic batch processing
Controllable workqueue
Copy/Paste processing profiles (or only parts of them)
Direct sending of images to the workqueue
Improved auto-exposure and spot white balance
“Send to Editor” feature (Gimp, Photoshop, custom editor)

The long delay in the recent months was partially caused by the lack of time devoted to bug fixing and by the solution of a critical bug in shadow & highlight enhancement method.

Windows installer of the release candidate updated

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:07:00 +0000

I had to withdraw the windows installer since I made a mistake when making the package. I have updated it, so from now you can download the correct installer again.

If you were so fast that you downloaded the RC of RawTherapee in the past few hours please be so kind and do it again.

I apologize,

Gabor

Status report of RawTherapee 2.4 milestone 2

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:32:00 +0000

One important goal of the RT DevTeam is to inform you about what’s going on behind the scenes. This time we can’t offer any downloads, but some information about the progression. Please let us emphasize: no downloads this time, “only” great news!
Milestones are “development snapshots”, parts of longer and greater improvements. However, the second milestone towards RawTherapee 2.4 offers so much that it’s development lasts longer then originally planned.

Documentation for Raw Therapee v2.3

Wed, 28 May 2008 20:49:00 +0000

If you want to understand how to work with Raw Therapee even better, we recommend to read the users manual. You can download it in PDF format:

Here are some additonal informations:

Development snapshot: Download RT v2.4m1

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:05:00 +0000

Explanation about ‘Development snapshot’ Releases:

This release is not a final product, it is something between a ‘Developer Snapshot’, a ‘Milestone Release’, a ‘Beta Version’ and a ‘Release Candidate’. Therefore it could contain features that are not yet completely implemented and could also contain some more bugs as a STABLE release.

The idea behind this Releases is to give users a first idea about the features and get first feedback from the users about still existing bugs in the product.

Towards RawTherapee v2.4 - The First Milestone

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:05:00 +0000

First of all thank you for the feedback and bug reports, RT is improved with every little piece of information. The RT DevTeam would like to encourage everyone: help us this way in the future, too. Our forum is open to all of you!

The development of RawTherapee v2.4 has reached the first milestone. The features below are implemented already:

Full EXIF support: The long-waited feature is here, RawTherapee is able to import EXIF data from RAWs and export to the output image formats, including TIFF. RT supports Makernotes, and standards compliance is improved.
EXIF Browser: Browse, edit, delete the original EXIF tags. The possibility to record additional tags (like author, copyright and comment) is also available.
IPTC tag support
More input ICC profile options
A new highlight recovery method (“CIELab Blending”), that promises better recovery of color information
Histogram now corresponds to cropped area
Runtime theme switching: The look (“skin”) of RT can be changed, and you don’t even need to restart the program. RT will be packed with new themes, too.
Lots of other minor (and not-so-minor) tweaks: bugfixes, eye-candy, some new GUI icons, performance improvements, etc…

Good work needs time, so we don’t want to stick to any deadline, but the next version is released soon. Stay tuned!

RawTherapee v2.3 released

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:45:00 +0000

We are proud to present RawTherapee version 2.3!

Changelog:

Image resizing tool
Vignetting correction tool
Local contrast enhancement tool
Auto Crop and Fill option in the rotation tool
Multi-language support (already included in package: English, German, Hungarian, Latvian, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak)
Channel mixer
Deconvolution based sharpening
VNG-4 interpolation of dcraw to reduce maze on Olympus raw images
Selectable guide lines when cropping
Enhanced auto and spot white balance
Support for new cameras (DCRaw 8.82/1.398)
Windows Vista support

Besides the new release of the RawTherapee there are two more surprises:

Main Features of RT v2.3

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Raw Therapee is a free RAW converter and digital photo processing software.

Main features :

Selectable high performance demosaicing algorithms (EAHD and HPHD and VNG-4).
Compare them on this comparison page.
Using DCRaw 8.82/1.398 for decoding RAW images
Image post processing in 16 bit / channel mode
Exposure control in RGB space
Auto exposure with adjustable clipping point / Exposure compensation / Shadow and highight compression / Contrast adjustment, curve editor
White balance adjustment in RGB space
With in-camera, automatic and spot white balance options / Temperature/Green tint fine tuning
Highlight Recovery
Shadows/Highlights control in RGB space
Basic Luminance curve tool to modify the luminance channel in CIELab color space
Brightness / Contrast adjustment, curve editor
USM sharpening applied on the CIELab luminance channel
Classical USM parameters (Radius, Amount, Threshold) / Option to avoid noise amplification / Sharpening halo control
Optional RL Deconvolution based sharpening for even better sharpening results
Color shift control in CIELab color space
Allows color shift by shifting the CIELab “a” and “b” channels
Color booster applied on the CIELab “a” and “b” channels
Amplifies color channels “a” and “b” together or separately / Avoids color overamplification in high chrominance areas / Option to avoid clipping caused by too high color boosting
Luminance denoising algorithm applied on the CIELab luminance channel
Edge sensitive method to preserve as much details as possible
Color denoising tool applied on the CIELab “a” and “b” channels
Classical gaussian blur or edge sensitive bluring of the color channels
Fast switching between different postprocessing profiles
Image flipping horizontally or vertically, rotation by 90 degrees clockwise or counter clockwise
Arbitrary image rotation (straightening tool) with fill function or automatic crop
Simple lens distortion correction
Crop tool
Chromatic Aberration correction tool
Channel Mixer for Red, Green and Blue channels
C/A Correction
Vignetting Correction
ICC based color management
Change History with bookmarks to support before/after checking
Supported output file formats:
JPEG (8 bit), PNG (8 or 16 bit), TIFF (8 or 16 bit)
Image ouput size could be set
EXIF data is preserved in JPEG output (except crw files)
Output directory and automatic file naming highly customizable
File browsing with thumbnails
Localization supported (utf8 language file):
already included languages are: czech, deutsch, english, espanol, italian, latvian, magyar, nederlands, polish, russian, slovak, swedish

RawTherapee v2.2 released

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Changelog:

ICC based color management (with selectable input/working/output/monitor profiles)
Clipped highlight/shadow indication
Reset button for the adjusters
Browser shows basic exif data
(Last Photo) option in the profile switcher
rt.exe can now be called with an image file in command line argument
New color scheme, splash screen, icon and home page (thanks, bytec)
Fix for the magenta highlights of Olympus cameras
Many bug fixes (including file sorting)

If you tried one of the beta versions please don’t forget to delete the “options” file (there is one in the .RawTherapee folder in your home in the application data directory as well) and the .pp2 files produced by the beta versions.

RawTherapee v2.1

Fri, 04 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000

RawTherapee 2.1 has been released!

The main changes are:

Tone curve and Luminance Curve editors implemented
Sharpening now entails much fewer sharpening halos
Improved response to color boost and luminance curve adjustments
Much better highlight handling
Auto white balance algorithm has been replaced
A new (faster) demosaicing algorithm, HPHD, is available and it is now the default
Hideable history and file browser panels
New cameras are supported: Fuji SuperCCD, D1X and raw files with the Canon hack
Thumbnail size in file browser is now adjustable in the Preferences dialog

More details about some changes:

RawTherapee v2.0

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The long awaited version 2.0 arrived. It is fast, while the image quality is the same as before. It runs on weaker CPUs and it requires less memory that version 1.1. The main changes are the following:

Completely rewritten, blocking-free asynchronous GUI
Multi-core processor support
Background saving
Change history with bookmarks
Dual view: full image preview + 100% crop view
Highlight recovery tool
Chromatic aberration correction tool

Furthermore, we have now a forum and – most importantly – a donation page :-)