alt.hn

7/21/2026 at 5:30:01 PM

Show HN: Imagin Raw – A 9MB Open-Source Alternative to Adobe Bridge for Mac

 https://github.com/cristibaluta/Imagin-Raw

by cristi_baluta

7/21/2026 at 8:53:30 PM

These things are such a puzzle because there are so many that pop up and just don’t survive. I loved FileLoupe, for example, but it appears abandoned.

So I am sure to try this. I’d love to see closer integration with Affinity where that is possible.

by dofm

7/21/2026 at 9:07:59 PM

This is a type of software that can be feature complete quickly, so besides maintenance i don't see how long can you innovate. The nice thing though is that if the app disappears you go back to Bridge and you continue where you left off, you don't lose your ratings and labels and stuff. Can you tell me about Affinity, what kind of integration? You can currently open a photo to edit in Affinity

by cristi_baluta

7/21/2026 at 9:19:27 PM

Mainly I would like to see (if you don’t have it already) proper support for /previewing Affinity files (ideally the older .afphoto but I believe they are similar), and also Affinity layered TIFF, which I have used quite a bit.

I will test the app out soon. Best of luck with it!

by dofm

7/21/2026 at 8:53:23 PM

I would argue that the choice to render the embedded JPG is optimal from the UX of a Fuji user. We tend to use the JPG as the creative reference we want to start from using the film sims.

by hankbond

7/21/2026 at 9:12:25 PM

Do you mean to show the jpeg when you have a raw+jpeg pair? I'm planning to add some options here in the next version, you'll be able to chose if to see both at once or only one and toggle between them

by cristi_baluta

7/21/2026 at 9:55:21 PM

RAF files contain (or at least can be configured to contain) a full size JPG embedded in them that will have the film sims baked in (as all JPGs do). You can use EXIFTools to extract them. Immich can be configured to make thumbnails off these embedded images instead of the demosaic'd RAF. I'm not sure if they are progressive JPGs but if they are I imagine it would be pretty efficient to directly read the images at a lower res and not even have to generate thumbnails (although that probably is less generalizable as a pipeline).

This is my current understanding and may be inaccurate.

by hankbond

7/21/2026 at 8:22:27 PM

This looks so promising as a lightweight replacement for Bridge or Photo Mechanic and the interface is great.

Has a lot of opportunity on the actual image rendering and performance side, but will definitely keep up with updates on how it evolves!

by cgomez

7/21/2026 at 8:11:57 PM

Wow, nice implementation, very smooth.

I’m building photopipe.app, a paid cloud-based culling tool, so I’m taking the opposite approach. Curious what made local-first important for you.

by jonaias

7/21/2026 at 9:31:55 PM

That's some serious commitment there, i don't want to be responsible for people's files and i don't want to lock them into my software either. It seems to me highly inefficient to upload raws to a server then browse and edit online

by cristi_baluta

7/21/2026 at 6:56:33 PM

I’ll check this out. The macOS photo library situation is really embarrassing. I actually migrated from Affinity to DxO Photolab (expensive!) a few years ago just for that.

by Toutouxc

7/21/2026 at 7:33:48 PM

Hope it's to your liking

by cristi_baluta

7/21/2026 at 6:47:30 PM

Just make sure to release it on Windows, There are more installed copies of Win 10 amd Win 11 than all iOS, MacOS, OSx systems combined

by sirjaz

7/21/2026 at 7:02:10 PM

Unfortunately I have time to build only the software that I need, and I'm a Mac user. If I'd do a cross platform version it will end up like the other crappy cross platform apps out there.

by cristi_baluta

7/21/2026 at 8:10:16 PM

not being used by photographers

by gilesvangruisen

7/21/2026 at 6:51:07 PM

It’s written in Swift and uses SwiftUI and UIKit and AppKit.

Seriously, what the hell are you talking about and why.

by Toutouxc

7/21/2026 at 6:51:34 PM

I encourage you to take a crack at it!

by mplewis

7/21/2026 at 6:36:31 PM

Dope. I'm gonna have to check this out.

by imagetic

7/21/2026 at 7:47:14 PM

As someone who has had to use Creative Cashcow tools in the past... dare I ask what the hell was Bridge even for? Just an Adobe-developed file manager?

by kmeisthax

7/21/2026 at 8:55:27 PM

Yes, but comparing to Finder you could actually have a useful preview of your files, with caching and stuff

by cristi_baluta

7/21/2026 at 6:51:18 PM

Thank you for building high-quality alternatives to Adobe software!

by mplewis