RawCull

Security & Privacy

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull is designed to keep your photos and culling data on your Mac.

Sandbox

RawCull runs in the macOS App Sandbox. The app entitlement file enables only the app sandbox entitlement.

This means RawCull can access folders only after you choose them through macOS file selection or through saved security-scoped access.

Offline Use

RawCull has no network entitlement. It does not use analytics, telemetry, cloud sync, update tracking, or third-party network SDKs.

Memory Cache

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull uses memory and disk caches to keep browsing fast.

Cache Layers

When RawCull needs a thumbnail or preview, it tries these locations in order:

Memory cache
Disk cache
Original source file

If RawCull has to decode from the original file, it stores the result in cache so the next request is faster.

Grid Cache

Grid browsing uses a separate small-thumbnail memory cache. This keeps scrolling responsive without pushing larger preview images out of the main cache too quickly.

Culling Photos

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull helps you review a temporary photo catalog, mark the frames you want to keep, and copy only selected RAW files to a final folder.

RawCull does not delete images from the source catalog.

Basic Workflow

Copy photos from your camera card to a temporary folder.
Open that folder in RawCull.
Wait for scanning and thumbnail generation to finish.
Review images in the grid, list, or zoom view.
Mark rejects, keepers, and final star ratings.
Copy rated images to your final editing folder.

Ratings and marks are saved automatically. Reopen the same folder later to continue where you stopped.

Sharpness Scoring

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull can score a catalog by estimated sharpness and sort the grid with the sharpest images first.

Sharpness scores are automatic estimates. Always inspect important or borderline images yourself before rejecting them.

Run Scoring

Open a catalog and wait for thumbnails to finish.
Open the grid.
Select Score Sharpness.
Wait for scoring to finish.
Use the Sharpness sort toggle to show sharpest images first.

After scores exist, the button changes to Re-score. Use it after changing scoring parameters or focus mask settings.

Similarity

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Similarity helps you find images that look like a selected reference image. It is useful for bursts, near-duplicates, and sessions with many similar frames.

Similarity data is kept in memory for the current catalog session. If you close or reload the catalog, run indexing again.

Find Similar Images

Open a catalog.
Select Index Similarity.
Select an image to use as the reference.
Select Find Similar.
Turn on the Similarity sort to place the closest matches first.

RawCull uses Apple Vision feature prints to compare visual content. If sharpness scoring has already run, subject information can slightly improve the ranking.

Focus Peaking

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Focus Peaking highlights sharp edge detail in the current image. It is a visual aid for checking whether the important part of the photo is in focus.

How to Use It

Open an image in zoom view.
Turn on the focus mask or focus peaking overlay in the image controls.
Inspect the highlighted areas.
Adjust Focus settings if the overlay is too weak or too busy.

For best results, use extracted JPG previews or RAW-based zoom previews instead of small thumbnails.

Settings

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Open settings from RawCull -> Settings.

Cache

The Cache tab shows memory and disk cache usage and lets you clear caches.

Setting	Use
Memory cache	Keeps larger previews in memory
Grid cache	Keeps small grid thumbnails in memory
Clear Disk Cache	Removes cached thumbnails
Clear JPG Cache	Removes cached full-size JPG previews

Larger caches make browsing faster but use more memory.

Thumbnails

The Thumbnails tab controls preview sizes and zoom preview sharpening.

Focus Points

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Focus Points show the autofocus point information RawCull can read from supported RAW files.

How to Use It

Open an image and turn on the Focus Points overlay in the image controls. RawCull shows the focus point location when the metadata is available.

Focus point support depends on the camera and RAW metadata. Sony ARW support is the primary target. Nikon NEF focus point extraction is currently experimental and may not show focus points.

Version 2.1.8

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull Changelog — v2.0.5 → 2.1.8

Submitted for update on Apple App Store.

🔍 Actual-Pixels Inspection

Added Z as a fast inspection shortcut from grid, loupe, and comparison views.
Opens the zoom overlay directly on the embedded JPEG at an actual-pixels zoom level.
Centers the view around the AF focus point when one is available.
Shows the focus-point marker on open for faster sharpness checking.

⭐ Faster Culling Flow

Rating, reject, keep, and tag actions now advance automatically to the next image.
The same advance behavior is available in thumbnail navigation, zoom overlay, and comparison grid workflows.
Catalog loading now preselects the first visible file by name, so keyboard culling can begin immediately.

🧭 Orientation-Correct Previews

Normalized source orientation for thumbnails, embedded previews, sharpened previews, comparison images, and zoom previews.
Improved handling for Sony embedded previews that do not carry their own orientation metadata.
Added corrected transform handling for EXIF orientation values, including rotated and mirrored images.

🧠 Adaptive Memory Handling

Added adaptive preview and grid cache recommendations based on installed memory, current system memory use, and macOS memory pressure.
Reduced cache budgets automatically when memory pressure is warning or critical.
Updated default cache settings for different memory tiers.
Simplified the memory warning banner and added a close button.

🪟 About Window

Added a native About RawCull window.
Replaced the standard app info command with RawCull’s custom About window.
Included app version/build information and a compact keystroke reference.

🗂️ Saved Files View Cleanup

Split saved-files UI into smaller focused components for catalog rows, file rows, detail rows, section headers, and star ratings.
Kept the saved-file detail presentation while making the view easier to maintain.
Added a FileRecord convenience initializer for previews and tests.

🧪 Tests

Added and expanded Swift Testing coverage for culling auto-advance, thumbnail/cache admission, zoom overlay key actions, comparison navigation, and thumbnail provider behavior.
Added coverage for Z actual-pixels inspection in comparison navigation.

🛠️ Maintenance

Aligned project versioning across build settings and release branches.
Added a test-performance Makefile target.
Performed cleanup in scoring parameter UI and cache-related code.

Version 2.0.5

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull Changelog — v2.0.2 → 2.0.5

Submitted for update on Apple App Store.

🖼️ Fixed orientation handling for embedded JPEG previews, sidecar JPEGs, cached previews, comparison view, and zoom previews.
🎯 Improved sharpness scoring and burst analysis so they can run on selected files or active star-rating filters instead of always processing the full catalog.
⚡ Refreshed full-size JPEG cache keys to avoid reusing older non-orientation-normalized previews.
🧹 Fixed empty catalog handling so loading state and security-scoped access are cleaned up correctly.
✨ Added an “Add Catalog” action when a selected folder contains no RAW files.
🧪 Added regression tests for orientation decoding, scoped sharpness/burst analysis, cache behavior, and empty catalog cleanup.

Version 2.0.2

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull Changelog — v1.9.6 → 2.0.2

Updated on Apple App Store.

✨ New — Image source toggle in zoom / loupe view

Switch between the embedded JPEG preview and a full-size JPEG created from the RAW file while inspecting an image:

New ImageSourceToggleView with keyboard shortcut support
ZoomPreviewHandler significantly expanded to manage source switching
ZoomOverlayView updated with key-action routing
FullSizeJPGDiskCache extended to support the toggle flow
New DiskCacheAndScanAdmissionTests covering the cache admission logic

✨ New — Burst Review Queue

A structured review-queue workflow for burst groups:

Version 1.9.6

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull Changelog — v1.9.4 → 1.9.6

Released on Apple App Store.

🔄 Comparison view is now a horizontal filmstrip

The burst comparison layout was completely redesigned.

Candidates are now presented in a side-by-side horizontal scroll, one full-width pane per candidate, instead of a vertical grid stack.
Navigation is left/right only — up/down arrow keys are removed. The view snaps one candidate at a time using SwiftUI scrollTargetBehavior(.viewAligned).
Selecting a file in the filmstrip updates the main selection and vice-versa, keeping both views in sync automatically.
The burst header bar is more compact: decision text and action buttons share a single line with tooltips replacing verbose inline descriptions.

🔍 Loupe view can now toggle the extracted JPG

The loupe (single-image zoom) view gains a built-in extracted-JPG mode so you can compare the embedded thumbnail against the full-size sidecar or extracted JPEG without opening a separate window.

Version 1.9.4

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull Changelog — v1.8.5 → 1.9.4

Updated on Apple App Store.

v1.9.1 → v1.9.4

🎯 Sharpness scoring now has intent presets and precision modes

Sharpness scoring is now much more configurable and better tuned for different kinds of photography.

Added photo-type presets: Auto, Birds/Wildlife, Portrait, Landscape, and Action.
Added quality modes: Fast, Balanced, and High Precision. Balanced and High Precision decode larger previews and blend more fine detail for better small-subject ranking.
Added a scoring source picker: Embedded Preview for normal culling speed, or RAW Demosaic for slow, final-precision checks.
These scoring choices are now persisted in settings and restored when a catalog is reopened.

🔍 Focus mask evolved into focus evidence

The focus mask is now much closer to an explanation overlay for the sharpness score, instead of a generic edge mask.

Version 1.8.5

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull Changelog — v1.8.1 → 1.8.5

✨ Smarter Burst Culling

RawCull now includes an intelligent burst analysis workflow to help identify the best frames in fast sequences.

Groups visually similar burst shots automatically.
Recommends the best frame using sharpness, subject/saliency, AF evidence, and metadata stability.
Shows confidence levels: High, Medium, or Low.
Adds burst evidence and caution notes so you can understand why a frame was recommended.
Adds quick actions to Keep Best, Keep Top 2, Compare, or Undo.

🔍 Improved Burst Comparison

The comparison view now supports burst-specific review.

Version 1.8.1

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull Changelog — v1.8.0 → 1.8.1

A stability and resource-hygiene release. Focus is on eliminating main-thread hangs in the zoom preview, tightening security-scoped resource lifecycles, and fixing actor-isolation gaps in the rsync copy path.

🔒 Security-Scoped Resource Lifecycle

Catalog access is now scoped to the active catalog, not every catalog ever opened in the sidebar. Long sessions no longer accumulate stale security-scoped accesses.
Added explicit startSecurityScopedAccess(for:), stopSecurityScopedAccess(for:), and stopActiveSecurityScopedAccess() on RawCullViewModel.
Catalog cancellation and app shutdown both route through the same cleanup path; deinit is now a last-resort fallback rather than the primary stop point.
Picker flow simplified — view no longer manually pairs start/stop calls.

⚡ Zoom Preview — No More Main-Thread Hangs

ZoomPreviewHandler sidecar JPG decode moved off the MainActor into a Task.detached(priority: .userInitiated).
Opening the zoom overlay on a large Sony JPEG no longer blocks the UI while ImageIO opens and decodes the file.
Cancellation is now checked between every async step, so dismissing the overlay early stops in-flight work cleanly.
loadCGImage(from:) and the disk-cache accessor are marked nonisolated to make the off-main path explicit.

🛠️ Rsync Copy Path (`ExecuteCopyFiles`)

Security-scoped URLs for source and destination are now paired with a single, idempotent cleanup() call covering: rsync success, launch failure, user close/cancel, sheet dismissal, and deinit.
Progress streaming callback hops to @MainActor before touching progressContinuation, removing a latent actor-isolation race that strict concurrency would flag.
Progress continuations and streaming handler state are finished/cleared exactly once.

🧵 Catalog Loading & Cancellation

startCatalogLoad(for:) short-circuits cleanly when the active catalog already has live security-scoped access — no redundant cancel/restart cycles.
cancelCatalogLoad() now also clears currentselectedSource and stops active security-scoped access, preventing a new load from racing previous cleanup.

🧪 Tests

New RawCullViewModelSecurityScopeTests covering start/stop pairing, re-selection no-op behavior, and cancellation cleanup.
ThumbnailProvider* tests updated for the refreshed memory and cancellation surface.

🧹 Cleanup

Removed legacy documents/ver176.md; added documents/ver181.md capturing the v1.8.0 review findings actually shipped in this release.
Minor follow-ups in RawCullViewModel+Catalog, SharpnessScoringModel, and project settings.

Version 1.8.0

Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull Changelog — v1.7.4 → 1.8.0

RawCull has received improvements to image comparison, zoom review, rating workflow, thumbnail responsiveness, cache reliability, sharpness/similarity behavior, and release/test tooling. Version 1.8.0 is submitted for update on Apple App Store.

🚀 v1.8.0

🖼️ New Comparison View

Added a dedicated comparison view for reviewing selected images side by side.
Supports comparing up to four selected thumbnails.
Added keyboard navigation inside the comparison view.
Added zoom and pan controls for closer inspection.
Added focus mask and focus point overlays while comparing images.
Added support for switching between thumbnail preview and extracted JPEG source.
Added rating controls directly inside comparison mode.

🔍 Improved Zoom Review

Improved the full-window zoom overlay experience.
Added previous/next image navigation in zoom view.
Added visible rating badge for the current image.
Added keyboard shortcuts for zooming and switching image source.
Added tests for zoom overlay navigation and behavior.

⚡ Faster and More Responsive Thumbnail Handling

Improved cancellation of thumbnail and JPEG extraction work.
Switching or cancelling catalogs should now feel more responsive because old ImageIO work is cancelled earlier.
Sony and Nikon thumbnail/JPEG extraction now check for cancellation before expensive decode work.
Improved thumbnail loader slot accounting so cancelled requests do not consume concurrency capacity.
Added regression tests for thumbnail loader cancellation and concurrency behavior.

🎯 Sharpness and Similarity Reliability

Similarity and burst actions now wait for in-progress sharpness scoring when needed.
Prevents similarity/burst workflows from running before required sharpness scores are ready.
Added test coverage for concurrent sharpness scoring behavior.

🧠 Cache and Memory Improvements

Improved cache replacement accounting for memory and grid thumbnail caches.
Improved test isolation around shared cache state.
Added memory diagnostics checklist for validating large-catalog behavior.
Improved cache-related concurrency tests.

⭐ Rating Workflow Improvements

Added reusable rating controls and rating badge UI.
Rating actions are now available in more review contexts, including comparison and zoom workflows.
Ratings support reject, keeper, and 2-5 star values.

🛠️ Build and Test Tooling

Added shared Xcode scheme.
Added dedicated test plans:
- Smoke
- Full test suite
- Performance
Updated Makefile test commands.
Improved documentation for test architecture and release validation.
Pinned Swift Package dependencies to exact versions for more predictable builds.

📷 Camera and Image Extraction Notes

Continued improvements to Sony ARW thumbnail extraction.
Added cancellation-aware extraction paths for Sony and Nikon raw/JPEG preview handling.
Nikon support remains experimental.

📝 Latest Commit After v1.8.0

📚 Documentation

Updated README release information and project description.

Version 1.7.4

Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull Changelog — v1.7.0 → 1.7.4

Version 1.7.4 is submitted for update on Apple App Store. RawCull 1.7.0 focuses on faster zoom previews, better cache management, and more reliable culling-data saving.

✨New

Full-size JPG disk cache. The zoom view now caches the full-resolution embedded JPEG to disk (~/Library/Caches/no.blogspot.RawCull/FullsizeJPGs/), so re-opening a previously zoomed photo is instant instead of re-extracting from the ARW.
“Cache JPGs” button in the catalog sidebar lets you pre-warm the full-size JPG cache for an entire catalog in one go (uses a new ScanAndExtractJPGs actor with progress + ETA).
JPG cache controls in Settings → Cache. A new section shows the on-disk size of the full-size JPG cache and adds a Prune action (with confirmation).

🔄 Changed

Unified culling grid. The standard grid and the Similarity/Burst grid now share one CullingGridView. Selection, scroll-to-selection, rating filter, the “N selected” status, and the three progress overlays now behave identically in both views.
Redesigned Scan Stats sheet — clearer layout for the per-catalog statistics.
Smoother progress ETA. The “Estimated time to completion” label is now “Estimated time left”, and the countdown no longer jitters upward when a slow file briefly inflates the average.
Cleaner toolbar mode switching. Loupe / Grid / Similarity / Rated buttons go through a single selectMainViewMode(...) helper for consistent state reset.
Saved-files persistence moved out of the main view model into a dedicated CullingModel, with debounced JSON writes (350 ms) to avoid hammering disk on rapid rating changes.

📦 Under the hood

New concurrency tests for SharedMemoryCache and FocusMaskModel; revisions to thumbnail-cache eviction (CacheDelegate, CachedThumbnail) for safer cross-actor access.
Catalog load/cancel path reworked — switching catalogs now reliably cancels in-flight scan, thumbnail, JPG-extract, and sharpness/similarity work.
Image extractors (SaveJPGImage, JPGSonyARWExtractor, JPGNikonNEFExtractor) tightened.

Version 1.7.0

Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull Changelog — v1.6.9 → 1.7.0

Version 1.7.0 is submitted for update on Apple App Store. RawCull 1.7.0 focuses on faster zoom previews, better cache management, and more reliable culling-data saving.

✨ Highlights

Faster zoom preview loading with a new full-size JPG disk cache.
Better cache controls in Settings, including cache size visibility and manual JPG cache pruning.
More reliable culling persistence when rating, batch-rating, and saving sharpness results.
Improved diagnostics for understanding memory pressure and cache evictions.

✨ What’s new

Full-size JPG disk cache for zoom previews

RawCull now caches extracted full-size JPEG previews on disk. Reopening zoomed images is faster, and the app avoids repeating the same extraction work for files you have already inspected.

Memory Pressure

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

RawCull watches memory use while you browse large catalogs.

What You See

The Memory tab shows:

Value	Meaning
Total memory	Installed unified memory on your Mac
Used memory	Estimated system memory currently in use
App memory usage	RawCull’s own memory footprint
System memory pressure	Current macOS memory pressure state

RawCull also uses an early warning line at about 85 percent of total memory.

Pressure Levels

macOS reports memory pressure as:

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

About RawCull

Hello!

If you have ideas, feedback, or suggestions about RawCull, please reach out to me at thomeven@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Background

I started RsyncOSX in August 2016 as a way to learn Swift, and after eight years of releases, it was archived in August 2024. RsyncUI, built with SwiftUI, began in late 2020 and continues to be actively developed. RawCull represents my latest venture into building specialized macOS applications with modern Swift technologies.

RawCull

Security & Privacy

Sandbox

Offline Use

Memory Cache

Cache Layers

Grid Cache

Culling Photos

Basic Workflow

Sharpness Scoring

Run Scoring

Similarity

Find Similar Images

Focus Peaking

How to Use It

Settings

Cache

Thumbnails

Focus Points

How to Use It

Version 2.1.8

RawCull Changelog — v2.0.5 → 2.1.8

🔍 Actual-Pixels Inspection

⭐ Faster Culling Flow

🧭 Orientation-Correct Previews

🧠 Adaptive Memory Handling

🪟 About Window

🗂️ Saved Files View Cleanup

🧪 Tests

🛠️ Maintenance

Version 2.0.5

RawCull Changelog — v2.0.2 → 2.0.5

Version 2.0.2

RawCull Changelog — v1.9.6 → 2.0.2

✨ New — Image source toggle in zoom / loupe view

✨ New — Burst Review Queue

Version 1.9.6

RawCull Changelog — v1.9.4 → 1.9.6

🔄 Comparison view is now a horizontal filmstrip

🔍 Loupe view can now toggle the extracted JPG

Version 1.9.4

RawCull Changelog — v1.8.5 → 1.9.4

v1.9.1 → v1.9.4

🎯 Sharpness scoring now has intent presets and precision modes

🔍 Focus mask evolved into focus evidence

Version 1.8.5

RawCull Changelog — v1.8.1 → 1.8.5

✨ Smarter Burst Culling

🔍 Improved Burst Comparison

Version 1.8.1

RawCull Changelog — v1.8.0 → 1.8.1

🔒 Security-Scoped Resource Lifecycle

⚡ Zoom Preview — No More Main-Thread Hangs

🛠️ Rsync Copy Path (ExecuteCopyFiles)

🧵 Catalog Loading & Cancellation

🧪 Tests

🧹 Cleanup

Version 1.8.0

RawCull Changelog — v1.7.4 → 1.8.0

🚀 v1.8.0

🖼️ New Comparison View

🔍 Improved Zoom Review

⚡ Faster and More Responsive Thumbnail Handling

🎯 Sharpness and Similarity Reliability

🧠 Cache and Memory Improvements

⭐ Rating Workflow Improvements

🛠️ Build and Test Tooling

📷 Camera and Image Extraction Notes

📝 Latest Commit After v1.8.0

📚 Documentation

Version 1.7.4

RawCull Changelog — v1.7.0 → 1.7.4

✨New

🔄 Changed

📦 Under the hood

Version 1.7.0

RawCull Changelog — v1.6.9 → 1.7.0

✨ Highlights

✨ What’s new

Full-size JPG disk cache for zoom previews

🛠️ Rsync Copy Path (`ExecuteCopyFiles`)