cristibaluta/Imagin-Raw: A lightweight but powerful alternative to Adobe Bridge for Mac · GitHub

A lightweight, native macOS application for browsing, culling, and organizing RAW photos – built as a more efficient alternative to Adobe Bridge for read/rate/organize workflows.

An iOS companion app is in development, focused on a simple way to browse your library, cleanup, in field backup of your shots, and scouting.

• UI: SwiftUI (macOS 14.6+). AppKit/UIKit for the thumbnails list where SwiftUI performance was poor
• RAW decoding: LibRaw (C++), wrapped via Objective-C++ bridge. CoreImage also used for other formats and as a fallback
• Metadata: EXIF parsed directly from RAW/JPEG binary structures; XMP sidecars read/written for Lightroom/Bridge compatibility
• File system monitoring: FSEvents for real-time folder change detection
• Search: NSMetadataQuery (Spotlight) for indexed file/folder search
• Concurrency: A mix of Tasks and OperationQueue

• Multi-root folder browsing – add any number of folders from local disks, external drives, or SD cards; no import step, no managed library
• Real-time file system monitoring – new photos, deletions, and folder structure changes are detected and reflected immediately
• RAW format support – via LibRaw, covering a broad range of camera manufacturers and formats
• Rating and color labeling – written to XMP sidecars (RAW) or embedded directly without re-encoding (JPEG/HEIC), compatible with Adobe Bridge and Lightroom
• Rejection workflow – a session-scoped label (not persisted across folder changes) for marking photos to delete; batch-delete via right-click
• JPG/RAW pair deduplication – when a RAW+JPEG pair exists, only the RAW is shown in the browser
• Two grid layouts – compact grid (more room for preview) and large grid (more room for browsing)
• Spotlight-backed search – search across files and folder names using the macOS indexing engine
• SD card ingest – copy photos into date-based folder structures, with optional simultaneous backup to a second destination
• Duplicate/similar photo detection – Review mode for quickly resolving near-duplicate burst shots
• Instagram frame export – fits 2:3 RAW images into a 3:4 canvas, exported as PNG to avoid re-encoding loss (useful for Camera Raw edits because it doesn’t support framing)

• Camera Raw–processed previews – Bridge renders thumbnails with ACR adjustments applied. Imagin RAW currently shows unprocessed previews; replicating the ACR pipeline isn’t feasible, though basic exposure/crop preview adjustments may be explored.

See the open Issues

• Arrow Keys – Navigate between photos
• CMD A – Select all photos
• CMD Click / Shift+Click – Multi-select photos
• CMD Del – Move photos to trash
• CMD Z – Undo photos moved to trash
• 1-5 – Set Star Rating
• 6-0 – Apply Labels
• – – Remove label
• A – Approve photos (same as the 8 key)
• X / Del – Reject photos
• OPT 1-5 – Filter by Star Rating
• OPT 6-0 – Filter by Labels
• OPT X – Filter by Rejected
• C – Toggle Sidebar
• G – Toggle Grid Type
• Return – Open selected photo(s) in external editor

• macOS 14.6 or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel processor

• Buy from the AppStore if you want to support the project and receive updates automatically
• Download the latest release from Releases. Updates might not be on par with the AppStore and there’s no update notification in app
• Compile from source code

Small straightforward fixes and issue/ideas reportings are welcome.