Software-update: RapidRAW 1.5.9

RapidRAW is een modern, krachtig opensource alternatief voor Adobe Lightroom. Het levert een eenvoudige en mooie bewerkingservaring in een lichtgewicht pakket van ongeveer 20MB voor Windows, macOS en Linux. Het wordt ontwikkeld door een 18-jarige Zwitser, die hier juli 2025 mee is begonnen als een persoonlijke uitdaging met als doel om een krachtig programma te creëren voor zijn eigen fotografieworkflow. RapidRAW is gebouwd met een Rust-backend en een React/TypeScript-frontend, verpakt met Tauri om hem licht te houden. In versie 1.5.9 zijn de volgende veranderingen en verbeteringen aangebracht:

RapidRAW 1.5.9 - Clone & Heal Tools, Improved Shader & Much More!

I am excited to bring you a new update that significantly expands your retouching toolkit and refines how your images are processed under the hood. This release focuses heavily on local adjustments and HDR merging, introducing highly requested manual clone and heal tools for precise control, alongside major updates to AI inpainting, shadow shaders, and HDR alignment.

Manual Clone & Heal Inpainting

While AI is fantastic for many tasks, there are specific scenarios where you just need pixel-perfect, algorithmic manual control that operates at your image's full resolution. To give you that control, I have implemented dedicated Clone and Heal tools. They work beautifully: simply set your source point, and you can seamlessly heal blemishes or copy exact pixels over to your target area.

Refined AI Inpainting

While building out the manual clone and heal tools, I took the opportunity to improve the AI inpainting engine. I spent time optimizing its performance, resolving color space issues, and ensuring the generated patches blend much more coherently with the surrounding pixels. I'm very happy with the new results.

Improved Shadows & Blacks Shader

I noticed that the previous approach for lifting shadows and blacks could sometimes result in a plastic, unrealistic, or overbaked look. To fix this, I have rewritten and optimized the underlying shader algorithm, resulting in a much more natural and pleasing roll-off in the darker areas of your images.

HDR Merge Improvements

This version introduces robust deghosting and auto-alignment capabilities for merging HDR brackets. This means that even if your handheld source images aren't perfectly aligned, the final merged result will remain sharp and free of distracting ghost edges. Additionally, this update resolves several color space issues during the HDR merge process that were previously causing merged files to appear drastically underexposed.

Core Improvements

• Performance: Improved thumbnail loading speeds by utilizing native file transfers and updating the core rendering engines for better overall performance and stability.
• Workflow: Added "Open With" external editor support, allowing you to easily hand off images to other applications.
• RAW Handling: Implemented a smart fallback mechanism that loads embedded JPEG previews for undecodable or currently unsupported RAW files.
• Local Contrast Tweaking: Clarity & Structure's intensity is now stronger.
• Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where copying adjustments directly from the filmstrip wasn't behaving correctly.
  • Resolved AI model and LUT download issues affecting Android users.
  • Inpainting now also works on rotated or flipped images.
  • Squashed several Windows-specific bugs, including an issue with offscreen windows and folder export errors.
• Under the Hood: Bumped various system dependencies to keep everything secure and up-to-date

Versienummer	1.5.9
Releasestatus	Final
Besturingssystemen	Android, Linux, macOS, Windows 10, Windows 11
Website	RapidRAW
Download	https://github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW/releases/tag/v1.5.9
Licentietype	GPL