LightZone

August 6, 2026 · View on GitHub

Build status

LightZone is a professional-level digital darkroom and photo editor for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It includes RAW processing and editing. Rather than using layers in the way that other photo editors do, LightZone lets the user build up a stack of tools which can be rearranged, readjusted, turned off and on, and removed from the stack. It's a completely non-destructive editor, where any of the tools can be re-adjusted or modified later — even in a different editing session. A tool stack can even be copied to a batch of photos at one time. LightZone always operates in a 16-bit linear color space with the wide gamut of ProPhoto RGB.

Feature List

LightZone has advanced features including:

  • Ability to read RAW files for a variety of cameras and display the metadata (e.g. exposure, ISO, flash, etc.)
  • Rating of images for one to five stars
  • Batch processing of files
  • Range of available style filters (e.g. Alien Infrared, Skin Glow, Polarizer, etc.)
  • Non-destructive tools including relight, sharpen, gaussian blur, hue/saturation, color balance, white balance, black & white, noise reduction, clone, spot, red eyes
  • Editing modes include crop, rotation, and region
  • Raw tone curve modification

Installing

Install instruction for Windows, macOS and Linux are available on GitHub Release page.

Supported Platforms

Windows

Windows 11 (x64) is supported.

Linux

Packages built for Ubuntu-latest and Fedora 43 are provided. However, providing packages for each distribution (including AppImage and Flatpak) is outside the scope of the LightZone project.

macOS

The three most recent major releases of macOS are supported.

Expanding the range of supported OS versions would significantly increase the burden of testing and maintenance, making it difficult to deliver new features and reliable updates.

If you are using an older OS that is no longer supported by the current version, you can try building it from source yourself.

Resources