Mac, iPad, and iPhone photo and video editing app Darkroom is celebrating its ninth birthday this week, and its developers have introduced new features to mark the occasion.
“Nine years ago, we launched Darkroom. We are grateful to the hundreds of thousands of photographers who have been using Darkroom to edit their photos on the go,” Darkroom says. “Thank you to those who have been with us for almost a decade and to all those who have supported our business. It’s inspiring to see the millions of installs, shared photos, and installed presets every month. ”
Launched in 2015 on iPhone, Darkroom made its way to iPad in 2018, won an Apple Design Award in 2020, and launched natively on Mac in 2021. Over the years, the app has received many upgrades and is now at version 6.7.
Improvements included presets and a new color tool in 2015, RAW and batch editing in 2017, masks in 2022, and Leica FOTOS integration last year, among many other changes and new functionality.
As of two weeks ago, Darkroom made its way to Apple Vision Pro, building upon the iPad version. “It’s amazing to see Darkroom running at room-scale,” the company says, while promising that the Vision Pro version will continue to see improvement.
In the background, the Darkroom team has been feverishly working on a brand-new rendering engine, built from the ground up. This is the third time the team has done this, with the last new rendering engine launching in 2020. The work on the latest engine has been ongoing for more than a year, and the team recently reached a major milestone: bringing a fully functional app built on the new rendering technology to life.
The team is now working on integrating its new engine back into the main Darkroom app. The engine addresses various issues and promises improved performance and image quality. It also enables swifter updates and will power brand-new features.
While the timeline for the new engine reaching users isn’t set in stone, another improvement will arrive very soon in the form of Preset Sync. This will join existing Flag and Reject syncing across devices and pave the way for a highly requested editing sync feature down the road.
Another feature coming soon is Brushed Masks. It will enable improved photo retouching, but it is straining the current rendering engine, so its release will have to wait until the new engine is ready to go.
“We are committed to delivering new features and staying in touch with you. We value your thoughts and feedback on our plans. Together, let’s make 2024 a year of growth and creativity in Darkroom,” the company says.
Darkroom is available for free on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. Darkroom+ is $4.99 per month and unlocks all of the app’s editing features.
Image credits: Darkroom
