RapidRAW Logo RapidRAW
by Timon Käch
Verified in v1.5.4
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Installation

RapidRAW ships as a small native app, under 20 MB on every platform. There is no server-side account or licence; download, install, run.

The latest installers are always at github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW/releases/latest.

Choose your platform

Windows 10 / 11
  1. Download the .exe installer.
  2. Double-click to install. Windows SmartScreen may show a "Windows protected your PC" dialog because RapidRAW isn't yet code-signed by a major CA. Click More info → Run anyway.
  3. RapidRAW installs into C:\Program Files\RapidRAW\ and adds a Start menu shortcut.

GPU: any reasonably modern GPU works. Cards from roughly 2016 onwards are fine. Updated drivers from your card vendor (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) are recommended.

If installation or first launch fails, see Troubleshooting → Windows.

macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon)
  1. Download the .dmg disk image.
  2. Open the .dmg and drag RapidRAW into your Applications folder.
  3. The first time you launch it, macOS Gatekeeper may say "RapidRAW is damaged and can't be opened" or "cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified". This is the standard message for unsigned third-party apps. Open Terminal and run:

bash xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/RapidRAW.app

Then launch RapidRAW normally.

GPU: any modern Mac that supports Metal works.

If installation or first launch fails, see Troubleshooting → macOS.

Linux

RapidRAW is shipped as an AppImage for distro-agnostic install.

  1. Download the .AppImage file from the releases page.
  2. Make it executable:

bash chmod +x RapidRAW-*.AppImage

  1. Run it:

bash ./RapidRAW-*.AppImage

You may want to integrate it into your application menu using a tool like AppImageLauncher.

GPU: any reasonably modern GPU with working Vulkan drivers works (Mesa for Intel/AMD, the proprietary driver for NVIDIA).

If the AppImage refuses to start, you may need libfuse2 installed (sudo apt install libfuse2 on Debian/Ubuntu). See Troubleshooting → Linux for more.

Android (experimental)

RapidRAW for Android is an early experimental build distributed as a signed .apk. Sideload only; there's no Play Store listing yet.

  1. Download the .apk from the releases page on your phone or sideload via adb install.
  2. The app uses the Android Storage Access Framework. When you open a folder, Android asks you to grant access.

Touch input, including pinch-zoom and brush masks, works. Performance depends heavily on your device GPU; flagship phones run smoothly.

What gets installed where

RapidRAW stores three things outside the app folder. These paths use Tauri's standard application directories under the identifier io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW:

Purpose Windows macOS Linux
Logs %LOCALAPPDATA%\io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW\logs\app.log ~/Library/Logs/io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW/app.log ~/.local/share/io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW/logs/app.log
Thumbnail cache %LOCALAPPDATA%\io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW\thumbnails\ ~/Library/Caches/io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW/thumbnails/ ~/.cache/io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW/thumbnails/
AI models %APPDATA%\io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW\models\ ~/Library/Application Support/io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW/models/ ~/.local/share/io.github.CyberTimon.RapidRAW/models/

Your photos are never moved. RapidRAW reads them in place and stores edits next to each image as a tiny .rrdata sidecar. See Importing Photos.

Updating

RapidRAW checks GitHub for new releases on the splash screen. When a newer version is available, the version label at the bottom of the splash screen gets a yellow border and changes to "New version available!" on hover. Click it to open the GitHub releases page and download the latest installer.

Your settings, presets, and .rrdata sidecars are preserved across updates.

You can also subscribe to releases on GitHub to be notified by email.