RAWmakase 0.2.4

RAWmakase 0.2.4 makes the first launch work for people who don't come from Lightroom. A new install opens straight into a Photos catalog, and the empty Library tells you how to add your photos; the Lightroom import screen now appears only when there is something of Lightroom's to bring over. You can also remove folders from a catalog, drop several folders at once, and hide panels from buttons in the top bar. Several Library annoyances are fixed along the way, and Develop no longer renders the photo again when the pointer comes back to it.

Download: Mac Apple Silicon · Mac Intel · Windows · Debian / Ubuntu (x86_64, ARM) · Fedora (x86_64, ARM) · Arch Linux

New

• Start without choosing where to keep a catalog (#387). On a first launch RAWmakase now creates a catalog named Photos in its own data folder and opens it, instead of asking you to save one somewhere. The empty Library shows Add photo folder…, or you can drag a folder onto the window. Your photos stay where they are.
• Bring over a Lightroom library in one place (#387). The setup screen is now only for Lightroom users: your catalog, camera profiles, lens profiles and presets, each with what was found and an Import button. It opens on a first launch only when Lightroom's catalog (in Pictures/Lightroom) or Camera Raw's folders are on the computer; otherwise you go straight to the Library. The catalog found there imports in one click, next to the Photos catalog, without a save dialog. Open it any time from the catalog menu › Import from Lightroom.
• Remove a folder from the catalog (#387). Right-click a folder in the Library's Folders panel and choose Remove from Catalog…. The folder, its subfolders and their photos leave the catalog, with their edits, ratings, keywords and places in collections. The files stay on disk; add the folder again to bring the photos back, without those.
• Add several folders at once (#387). Drop several folders, or photos from several folders, onto the window and each folder is added. A folder that can't be read is named in the status line, and the others are still added. While you drag, the Library shows where the photos will go.
• Panel buttons in the top bar (#387). Buttons beside the window controls and at the right end of the top bar hide and show the left panel, the right panel and the filmstrip, replacing the arrows on the window edges. F7, F8 and F6 still do the same.

Improved

• Tab and Shift+Tab bring back what they hid (#387). If you hid one side panel yourself and then press Tab, pressing it again brings back only the panel Tab hid.
• The Library's Navigator always offers its zoom levels (#387). Choosing Fit, 50%, 100%, 200% or 400% in the grid opens the selected photo at that zoom, and clicking in the Navigator's preview zooms in on that spot.
• A tidier catalog menu (#387). It shows the open catalog and how many photos it holds, then Add Photo Folder…, Open Catalog…, New Catalog… and Import from Lightroom. Folder rows lose their "…" button; Locate and Remove from Catalog are in the right-click menu.

Fixed

• Dropping a folder adds that folder (#387). It used to add the folder above it, with everything else in there.
• The resize cursor shows on the Library's panel edges (#387). Over the photo grid the pointer stayed an arrow, although dragging resized the panel.
• No black strip when narrowing a side panel (#387). Dragging a left panel to its narrowest left a black strip beside it and cut off the Navigator's 400% button.
• No needless render when the pointer returns to the photo (#390). In Develop, moving the pointer from the right panel back onto the photo started a full preview render, with its spinner, although nothing had changed. The RGB readout now keeps the pixels it needs while the pointer is away.

Changed

• Catalog Settings left the catalog menu (#387). It opened Preferences, which the gear in the top bar opens too. Import Lightroom catalog… with a choice of where to save the new catalog is in Preferences › Catalog.

Requirements

Existing catalogs are not affected: the Photos catalog is only created when no catalog has been used before, and a catalog that is temporarily missing (on a disconnected drive) is not replaced. Mac downloads require macOS 15+. Windows downloads are for 64-bit Windows 10 and later (x86_64). Linux packages are for x86_64 and ARM (aarch64): Ubuntu 24.04+ or Debian 13+, or Fedora 43+. The Arch Linux package is x86_64. AUR publication remains paused, so get the Arch package from the link above. Homebrew users update with brew upgrade --cask rawmakase. On Apple Silicon Macs and with the Windows installer, 0.2.3 offers this update in the app.

Full changelog: v0.2.3 → v0.2.4