greycard
0.11.0 Early release · What's new

True to the scene, sensor to screen.

A free, open-source raw editor that works on light as the camera caught it. No subscription, no account, no cloud.

Download Why greycard

Scene-referred · linear Rec.2020 · color managed · GPL-3.0

The editor's Loupe on a mountain landscape: the Library and Loupe switch at the top left over the navigator, presets and snapshots, the picture in the middle, and on the right the histogram, the panel's row of Cull, Develop, Crop, Masks, and Retouch, and the Develop tab's Light sliders, and display curve switch, with the folder in a filmstrip along the bottom.
5M0A1023.CR3 · Canon EOS R6 Mark II · 46 mm · f/8 · 1/640 s · ISO 100

  • 1 EV = 2× the light

    Real stops, real color

    Edits work on light as the camera caught it, in linear Rec.2020. Exposure is a true stop, highlights keep their color, and the path to your monitor is color managed, with soft proofing.

  • .xmp beside every raw

    Your folders, not a catalog

    No database to back up or repair. Ratings, labels and keywords sit in XMP sidecars beside each raw, where Lightroom and darktable read them too.

  • $0 · GPL-3.0

    No subscription, no cloud

    GPL-3.0 open source. The denoiser, the masks and the generative remove run on your own GPU, or a Mac's Neural Engine. Built on the best of darktable and RawTherapee, credited in the source.

From card to finished frame

Import and export

Off the card safely, out as a set.

  • Import a card, a folder, or a whole Lightroom Classic catalog.
  • From a card, each file is renamed, backed up and read back. Nothing is written to the card.
  • Sync one frame's settings across a set, then export them with a preset, a watermark and a border.
The Import sheet over the editor, set to Copy rather than Add in place: ten frames from a card's DCIM folder, going to Pictures in a folder per year and day, each named for its date, camera and number, with a backup copy to a second drive and a switch to verify against the card.
Import · 10 frames from a card · a backup to a second drive

Culling

Get through a shoot fast.

  • Frames open instantly from the camera's own JPEG.
  • Compare near-duplicates side by side.
  • Rate, flag and reject from the keyboard.
  • Lay out your picks, as edited, in the lightbox.
The Loupe in Cull, comparing two frames of the same aerial display side by side, with the Culling section on the right: its Picture switch between the camera's JPEG and the developed picture, the culling keys, and filter chips.
4Z4A2023.dng · Canon EOS R5 II · 500 mm · f/7.1 · 1/1250 s · ISO 200

Library

Find any frame.

  • Your folders as a tree, filtered by camera, lens, ISO, focal length, day or keyword.
  • Collections from anywhere, and smart collections from a saved filter.
  • An unplugged drive stays browsable, and an archive drive gets a checked backup.
The grid of a library root named Pictures: in the left pane the Import button, the folder tree with a count on each folder, collections, the export queue, and Title and Keywords fields; two shoot folders as tiles at the top of the grid, six frames below them, and filter chips above for rating, flag, label, camera, lens, picture style, ISO, focal length, and day, each with a count.
Library · the root Pictures · 2 shoots, 6 frames

Masks

Masks that know what they're looking at.

  • Subject, object, sky and landscape, following edges through hair and branches.
  • People: a whole person, or just the eyes, lips or hair, found again across a set.
  • Gradients, radials, brushes, and masks by lightness or color.
  • Each with its own light, color, white balance and detail.
A sea stack under a clear sky, with the sky painted red where the Sky mask found it, and the Masks tab open on the right.
6U3A7205.CR3 · Canon EOS R5 Mark II · 24 mm · f/8 · 1/80 s · ISO 100

Camera match

Your camera's own color, learned from your files.

  • Fit this camera's look learns the maker's rendering from about forty of your raws and the JPEGs inside them.
  • Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Sony and Panasonic picture styles. No license, no reverse engineering.
  • Within a just-visible difference of the camera's JPEG (how it was measured).
Three jets of an aerial display trailing smoke across a blue sky, split down the middle: the left half is greycard's develop with no look, the right half the same develop through the look fitted from the Canon EOS R5 Mark II's Faithful JPEGs, its sky a little cleaner, and bluer.
4Z4A1919.dng · Canon EOS R5 II · left, no look · right, Faithful, fitted

Finishing

Scopes, grading, and film looks.

  • Auto tones and Auto level, one click each.
  • Heal, clone, or remove an object, with the frame's grain put back.
  • Waveform, parade and vectorscope; color grading wheels.
  • Presets, Lightroom's too, .cube and HaldCLUT looks, and Blender's AgX.
  • A bracket merged to HDR, frames to a panorama, or a stack to one focus, handheld too, each a DNG that edits as a raw.
  • A second edit as a version beside the first.
A hillside at dusk with the parade scope above the panel and the color grading wheels below it, set by the Warm Negative preset.
5M0A8082.CR3 · Canon EOS R6 Mark II · 28 mm · f/8 · 1/320 s · ISO 100 · Warm Negative

Switching

Coming from Lightroom?

Bring your catalog. Your hands already know the way.

  • Your catalog comes across

    Folders, edits, ratings, labels, flags, collections, versions and stacks. The catalog is only read, and no raw is changed.

  • Your presets open

    Lightroom and Camera Raw presets come in as a starting point.

  • Your hands know the way

    The library, the filmstrip, the culling keys and the Develop panel's order follow Lightroom's.

  • Your ratings travel back

    Ratings and labels are written to XMP, where Lightroom reads them.

Moving a catalog, step by step

How it compares

Lightroom ClassicCapture Onedarktablegreycard
PriceSubscriptionSubscription or perpetualFreeFree
PipelineDisplay-referredDisplay-referredScene-referredScene-referred
LibraryThe catalog is the truthSessions and catalogsDatabase plus sidecarsYour folders are the truth
Camera colorAdobe'sIn-houseMatrixLearned from your camera's JPEGs
LinuxNoNoYesYes, first

The full comparison, with DxO and RawTherapee

Early, and honest about it

Releases in 0.x are test builds: some things are missing, and some are wrong. If a picture looks off, Report a problem in the editor opens a bug report with your version, OS and GPU filled in. Next: tethering.

New in 0.11.0 · 2026-11-09 What's new Handheld HDR and focus stacks, the demosaic on the GPU, the window ready for translation, and a round of tester fixes. Sidecars from this build are refused by 0.10.x. 15 releases since September 22, 2026

Version 0.11.0 · 2026-11-09

Download greycard

Free, for Linux, macOS and Windows. Tested with Canon, Fujifilm GFX and X-Trans, Sony, Panasonic, and Nikon raws. Needs a GPU with Vulkan, or Metal on a Mac.

Installing, step by step · All releases and their notes

The Import sheet over the editor, set to Copy rather than Add in place: ten frames from a card's DCIM folder, going to Pictures in a folder per year and day, each named for its date, camera and number, with a backup copy to a second drive and a switch to verify against the card. Close The editor's Loupe on a mountain landscape: the Library and Loupe switch at the top left over the navigator, presets and snapshots, the picture in the middle, and on the right the histogram, the panel's row of Cull, Develop, Crop, Masks, and Retouch, and the Develop tab's Light sliders, and display curve switch, with the folder in a filmstrip along the bottom. Close The grid of a library root named Pictures: in the left pane the Import button, the folder tree with a count on each folder, collections, the export queue, and Title and Keywords fields; two shoot folders as tiles at the top of the grid, six frames below them, and filter chips above for rating, flag, label, camera, lens, picture style, ISO, focal length, and day, each with a count. Close The Loupe in Cull, comparing two frames of the same aerial display side by side, with the Culling section on the right: its Picture switch between the camera's JPEG and the developed picture, the culling keys, and filter chips. Close A sea stack under a clear sky, with the sky painted red where the Sky mask found it, and the Masks tab open on the right. Close Three jets of an aerial display trailing smoke across a blue sky, split down the middle: the left half is greycard's develop with no look, the right half the same develop through the look fitted from the Canon EOS R5 Mark II's Faithful JPEGs, its sky a little cleaner, and bluer. Close A hillside at dusk with the parade scope above the panel and the color grading wheels below it, set by the Warm Negative preset. Close