In my previous article about RapidRAW, I had already clearly expressed my enthusiasm for this relatively new photo editing platform for RAW photo files. In an incredibly short time and with very limited resources, a promising photo editing application was created with already wonderful features. If this were possible in such a short time, what would the future hold? As a lover of photography and photo editing tools, I’m very curious about the developments, so I’m keeping an eye on the RapidRAW release page on GitHub. In this article, I’ll look at the changes and improvements in RapidRAW compared to the previous version I reviewed.

Content of the article

1. Introduction
2. About RAW
3. Key features of RapidRaw
4. Installation and setup of RapidRaw
5. A first look at RapidRaw
6. Bugs and missing features
7. Final words

Introduction

In my previous article about RapidRAW, “First Look at RapidRAW: A Promising RAW Photo Editor for Linux“, I already expressed my surprise about this brand new RAW editing photo product, which is already so beautiful in such a short time. RapidRAW is a new RAW photo editor built for Linux, but also for Windows and macOS. The developer, Timon Käch, started this project as a personal challenge at the age of 18. RapidRAW is clean, modern, and surprisingly capable for such a young project. I think RapidRAW is truly promising, modern, user-friendly, and easy to use, yet powerful at the same time. RapidRAW, in my opinion, finds the middle ground between simplicity and complexity, yet is simultaneously powerful due to its modern editing capabilities, offering a user-friendly combination that has been missing in the Linux photo editing space.

In my previous article, I used RapidRAW 1.3.2. For this article, I use RapidRaw 1.3.9. So, let’s take a look at what RapidRAW has to offer at this moment, what is new, and what has been improved. Just a little sneak peek, it seems like the developer literally looked at my previous findings.

Bugs and missing features – solved now!

In my previous review of RapidRAW, I mentioned several findings that could be improved or addressed. I don’t know if the developer read my previous article, but it seems like all the points I mentioned were immediately addressed, solved, and implemented. I feel very privileged 🙂 So, what was it I said last time based on version 1.3.2?

“When I switch between the various sections, such as Adjustments, Crop & Transform, and Masking, I often find that the normally selectable tools are no longer selectable but grayed out. I have to close the application completely to make the functionality usable again.“

This issue seems to be completely resolved. I have no problems switching between the different sections. Everything works stably and is always available.

“The library image overview looks rather nice with the square, rounded corners thumbnails of your images, but I prefer to see the full image instead of a square crop of my images, because I want to know if the image is, for example, portrait-oriented or horizontal-oriented.“

Yes, this has also been addressed. It’s now possible, using the “Original Ratio” setting, to display the original ratio of your photos as thumbnails, with a nice blur of the same image in the background to fill up the empty space. Nice touch.

“Just a personal preference, but I am missing the standard aspect ratio based on the classic and legendary XPan aspect ratio, which is a 65:24 aspect ratio to capture panoramic pictures. Please add it to RapidRAW.“

And indeed, my wish seems to have been fulfilled here too. There’s now a dedicated button to directly select the beautiful XPan 65:24 aspect ratio, converting your images to this lovely panoramic format. It’s great that this has been added.

“Because there is no XPan preset, I wanted to set this aspect ratio via the custom setting. Not sure if it is a bug, or if there is something wrong with my installation, but I was not able to manually type 65 x 24, or whatever other combination. The values immediately change while typing to for example, 3248 x 100. I was not able to choose my preferred values.“

In my previous findings, I indicated that it was impossible (on my machine) to manually enter different aspect ratios. This part of the RapdRAW application kept crashing. But this has been resolved. Manually entering different aspect ratios works smoothly and without issues.

These are just a few initial improvements I wanted to mention because they make me feel like my wishes have been listened to directly. This is probably a coincidence, and probably not inspired by my previous article, but I still think it is great.

New stuff and improvements

Besides the improvements described above, there are more things to note between versions 1.3.2 and 1.3.9. Let’s take a look.

Image Importer

It’s now possible to import photo files within RapidRAW itself. This new functionality allows you to select files or folders, specify where the photos should be saved in the existing library, specify the import naming convention, indicate whether subfolders should be created based on date for further organization, and select whether the original files should be deleted from the source after importing.

Batch Renaming

It is now possible to select multiple photo files and rename them in batches according to conditions and structures of your choosing.

Image Straighten Tool

This is also a new, highly desirable functionality. With the new straighten tool, you just draw a line, for example, by exactly following the horizon or the edge of a building, and it straightens your image automatically.

Seamless Panorama Stitcher

Also, a new functionality is the built-in panorama stitcher. Just select some images as part of a panoramic sequence, and the pano will be created for you.

Note: Sadly, at this moment, RapiRAW crashes every time I choose to stitch the images. Hopefully, this problem will be solved in a future release.

Grow / Shrink & Feather AI Masks

RapidRAW now offers the option to grow, shrink, and feather AI-generated masks. 

Local & Quick Eraser

RapidRAW offers a non-destructive eraser tool (which is similar to a “generative replace” function). For this non-destructive eraser, no diffusion models or ComfyUI are required. 

Note by the developer: “Keep in mind that the inpainting quality won’t match what you get from diffusion-based models in ComfyUI. But for quick cleanup (removing dust, small blemishes, or annoying background objects), it’s still fantastic.“

Thumbnail Aspect Ratio

This was already mentioned in this article. When activated in the settings, your thumbnails can now be shown in the original image’s aspect ratio. In the filmstrip in the editing module, the thumbnails use all available space. In the main image library, the thumbnails are presented with a blurred background to fill the horizontal or vertical gaps. Also, the image canvas now correctly shows the preview if just the rotation or the aspect ratio has changed.

AI Sky Masks

It is now possible in RapidRAW to select the sky and make it a mask in just one simple click. Very important functionality for us landscape enthusiasts who sometimes have problems with masking non-straight horizons, like mountains.

Optimised Image Editing

RapidRAW is much faster now, and zooming your images to full screen now shows the images in full resolution. 

Final words

As you may have read in my previous article and this one, I’m very enthusiastic about RapidRAW, about what’s been accomplished so far, how much is being done in new releases, and how the application works as a whole. It all feels very intuitive and rekindles my enthusiasm for photo editing. I’m looking forward to future developments. Hopefully, the developer maintains his enthusiasm, and RapidRAW grows into a tool that helps further establish Linux as a photography platform.

If you want to download and install rapidRAW, read my previous article, “First Look at RapidRAW: A Promising RAW Photo Editor for Linux“, for more information.

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