Manual

1. Getting started

Fotollection works on the folders of photos you already have. It reads them where they are, and never moves, renames or changes a file (FR-001).

1. Open a folder: click Open folder (the folder icon next to Library in the sidebar), or drop a folder anywhere on the window. Its subfolders come too. JPEG, PNG, HEIC and camera RAW are read (chapter 14).
2. The sidebar lists, under Library:
   • All photos: every photo from every folder;
   • Print basket and Set aside: the two holding areas (chapter 4);
   • each folder, with its count. Click a folder to show only its photos. Ctrl/⌘-click, or the Select folders button, shows several together. The × that appears on a folder removes it from the library; the files stay on disk.
3. Refresh folders (the circling arrows) picks up photos added to these folders since; your edits are kept.
4. The gallery fills the middle. The toolbar above it holds Photos / Groups and Find best shots (chapter 3), the photo count, Select (chapter 4) and the filters (chapter 2).
5. The Print settings panel on the right holds, top to bottom: Print / export size (chapter 5), Date stamp (chapter 8), Info frame (chapter 9), Camera clocks (chapter 11) and Places (chapter 10) once the library has them, then the export controls (chapter 12) and the version number (chapter 17).

Three modes: the buttons at the top of the sidebar switch between Simple (one photo at a time, ↑ keep, ↓ drop, then export: chapter 18), Collage (two photos on one print: chapter 19, or postcards: chapter 20) and Pro, the app this guide describes. Your photos, basket and settings are the same in every mode, and the mode is remembered on this computer. Cmd/Ctrl+1, 2 and 3 switch between them, also from a preview, which closes (not while a crop is being edited) (FR-048).

Language and look: open Settings (the gear beside by @hoangphi01 at the top of the sidebar, or ⌘, / Ctrl+,), then choose English or Tiếng Việt under Language in General (chapter 23); it is the same in every mode. The three buttons at the foot of the sidebar set the look: Follow the system, Light or Dark (FR-020, FR-052).

2. Stars, flags and filters

Mark photos as you look through them, then show only the ones you want (FR-022). Stars and flags never change the photo file; they are saved in the project.

1. Select a photo in the gallery, or open it in the preview.
2. Press 1–5 to give it stars, 0 to clear them.
3. Press P to pick it, X to reject it, U to clear its flag. A rejected photo stays in the gallery, faded, until you filter it out; nothing is deleted.
4. In the preview, the Rating & flag card does the same with the mouse: click a star (click it again to clear), Pick (P) or Reject (X).
5. Filter the gallery with Filters at the right of the toolbar. It opens three choices:
   • flags: All, Picks, Unflagged, Rejects or Unusual files;
   • stars: Any rating, or ≥ 1 to ≥ 5;
   • file kind: All files, RAW only or No RAW. RAW photos carry a RAW badge in the theme colour in the gallery.

   While a filter is on, the button is outlined in the theme colour and says how many are on (“2 filters”), and the count shows how many photos are shown out of how many. Clear the filters in the same place, or Show all photos when nothing matches, brings everything back.

   Unusual files (FR-071) are the ones outside the common path, marked with an ⓘ in the gallery: a CMYK or 16-bit JPEG, an Adobe RGB photo, a Fujifilm X-Trans RAW, a DNG kind the app does not develop itself yet. The preview’s This photo card says what each file is, under its size: for example JPEG · 4:2:0 · Baseline · 8-bit · Display P3 · read by zune-jpeg or ARW · Bayer RGGB · 14-bit · read by ImageIO. A camera RAW other than DNG shows its sensor once it has been opened in the preview. Give this line in a bug report.

What the filters show is also what Export writes (chapter 12). Stars and rejects from Lightroom and other apps come in by themselves (§10.1).

3. Best shot

Bursts and near-identical shots are grouped, and the best of each is suggested with its reasons (FR-041). Nothing is rejected until you choose, and nothing is ever deleted.

1. Click Find best shots in the toolbar. The view switches to Groups while the photos are analysed on this computer; Stop ends it early. Photos already analysed are not looked at again.
2. Each group shows its shots in a row. The suggested one is marked Best, and the group says Best of n with its reasons: n % sharper, Less camera shake, Eyes open, Better exposure, Fewer clipped highlights, Less noise. When the shots score almost the same, it says Too close to call.
3. Compare shows the group’s shots large, side by side, with a bar for each measure (Sharpness, Eyes, Steadiness, Exposure, Highlights, Noise) and how many faces have their eyes closed. Keep this one keeps the shot you prefer.
4. Keep best keeps the suggested shot: it is picked and the others in the group are rejected. In a group that is too close to call, it opens Compare so you choose. Keep best in n clear groups, above the groups, does it for every group that is not too close to call.
5. Back in Photos, show only the Picks (chapter 2). Cmd/Ctrl+Z takes any of this back.

4. Choosing the photos to print

A trip gives hundreds of photos; only a handful go to the lab. Fotollection keeps that choice in two holding areas, next to the gallery (FR-050):

A photo is in the gallery, in the print basket, or set aside, never in two at once. Photos in the basket stay visible in the gallery, with a small basket badge in the top-right corner of their thumbnail; photos set aside do not appear in All photos or in the folders until you bring them back. Stars and pick/reject flags are separate: a pick does not have to be printed, and the basket is not a flag.

Both areas are saved in the project (.fotollection) and in the session, so they are still there after you quit and reopen the app. Every move can be undone with Cmd/Ctrl+Z.

4.1 Workflow A: decide photo by photo in the preview

1. Open a photo: double-click it, or select it and press Enter (or Space).
2. Look at it with the print settings applied.
3. Press ↑ to put it in the print basket: the next photo opens straight away.
4. Press ↓ to set it aside: it leaves the gallery, and the next photo takes its place.
5. Press → to move on without deciding, ← to go back.
6. Repeat until the end of the trip. Esc closes the preview.

The panel on the right has four tabs at its head, as Lightroom’s tools: Edit (E: what the photo is, RAW colour, Basic, Tools), Crop (R: the crop editor), Print and export (print size, date stamp, info frame, export) and Info (I: stars, date, place). One tab is shown at a time, so the panel stays short.

The row above the photo holds its tools, so nothing covers the photo (FR-095): Crop, the turn buttons, Print basket, Before, undo and redo, Export, then the zoom, the filmstrip button, the window button and ⓘ (Crop is now a tab of the panel), which lists every key. Each button’s hint names its key. If you come from Lightroom, its keys work here: R crops, \ shows the photo before its colour and back, Z goes between fit and 1:1, ⌘[ ⌘] rotate, ⇧⌘E exports.

The Print basket button does the same as ↑, and shows In the basket when the photo is already in it; click it again to take the photo out. A photo that was set aside shows Back to the gallery instead.

The filmstrip under the photo shows the photos of the view, in the gallery’s order, under a line that says where you are and the photo’s name (25 / 422 · P1067823.JPG), as Lightroom’s does; with their stars, basket and RAW marks (FR-090): click one to open it, however far it is. The filmstrip button in the row above the photo hides it, keeping only that line, and shows it again; the app remembers your choice.

Fill the app window: press F, or the window button in the row above the photo, to let the preview fill the whole window instead of a dialog; press it again to come back. The app remembers it, and Settings → General → Photo preview sets it too. Filled, a column on the left adds what Lightroom has there (FR-095):

• Navigator: the photo small, with the part on screen outlined while zoomed; click or drag in it to look elsewhere. The buttons in its title, Fit, Fill, 1:1 and 2:1, zoom at once.
• History: this photo’s changes, newest first, each named (Warm / cool +8, Crop, Date stamp). Click one to bring the photo back to how it was then; that is a change too, so Cmd/Ctrl+Z undoes it. Stars, flags and the basket are not part of it and never change when you go back.

Tab, pressed after clicking the photo, hides the side panels for a bigger photo, and brings them back. In a window narrower than 1400 px the left column starts hidden, so the photo keeps its room; Tab then shows it over the photo.

When you open the preview from the Print basket or Set aside view, ↑ and ↓ move the photo to the other area; a photo that stays where it is moves on to the next one.

The photo at a glance: the first card on the right, This photo, says what you are looking at (FR-078): the camera and lens (with the names you gave them for the info frame, chapter 9), the exposure as the frame prints it (20mm · F1.7 · 1/60s · ISO800), where and when it was taken, its size in pixels, megapixels and megabytes, and what the file is (chapter 2). Click its title to fold it away, and again to open it; it stays as you left it for the next photos. The cards further down change the date and the place.

4.2 Workflow B: tick photos in the gallery (select mode)

1. Click Select in the toolbar, above the photos. It becomes Done, and a bar appears under the toolbar.
2. Click photos to tick them: a tick circle appears in the bottom-right corner, and the photo is outlined in the theme colour. Click again to untick.
   • Shift+click ticks every photo between the last one ticked and this one.
   • Cmd/Ctrl+A or Select all ticks every photo shown.
   • Enter ticks or unticks the selected photo.
3. In the bar, choose what to do with the ticked photos:
   • Print basket: put them in the basket.
   • Set aside: take them out of the gallery.
   • Back to the gallery: only in the Print basket and Set aside views; brings them back.
   • Clear: untick everything.
   • Export: while photos are ticked, the export button at the foot of the panel says Export 3 selected photos and writes only those; untick them all and it exports the whole view again.
4. Click Done, or press Esc, to leave select mode. Ticks are temporary: what counts is the area each photo is in.

Several folders: ticks follow you from one folder tab to another (FR-056). Tick a few photos in one folder, click another folder in the sidebar and keep ticking; the bar shows the total and how many are in other folders, and Print basket moves them all at once.

Reorder the folders as browser tabs (FR-107): press a folder and drag it up or down (or hold it a moment, then drag); the others make room, and Esc puts it back. With a folder focused, Alt+↑ and Alt+↓ move it one place. The order is saved with the project.

In select mode, a double-click does not open the preview, and Space works differently (§4.3).

4.3 Quick-preview: look without opening (select mode only)

In select mode, hold Space over a photo to see it large, as it will print, with the gallery’s print size, date stamp and info frame applied (FR-059). Release Space to close it, like Quick Look on a Mac.

• It shows the photo under the mouse pointer; if the pointer is not over a photo, the last photo you ticked.
• The thumbnail appears at once and the full render replaces it a moment later.
• While Space is held: ← → show the neighbouring photos, Enter ticks or unticks the photo shown, Esc closes.
• Nothing can be edited here. To change the crop, stamp or frame of one photo, open the normal preview (double-click, or Enter outside select mode).

Outside select mode, Space keeps opening the normal preview.

4.4 Looking again and exporting

• Click Print basket or Set aside in the sidebar to see only those photos. Change your mind with ↑ ↓ in the preview, or with select mode and Back to the gallery.
• Click All photos, or a folder, to return to the gallery.
• Export follows the view (chapter 12), unless photos are ticked: then only they go out (§4.2). From Print basket, Export writes exactly the basket, with the size estimate above the button (FR-053). From All photos or a folder, photos set aside are never exported.

5. Print size and sharpness

Choose the size you will print at, and Fotollection crops every photo to it and tells you whether each one is sharp enough (FR-026, FR-043, FR-045, FR-067).

1. In the Print / export size card, keep Print selected (for Share online, see chapter 12).
2. Open the size list:
   • Standard (CEWE / EU): the sizes of the photo kiosks at dm and Rossmann, like 10 × 15 cm · 2:3;
   • Original: the photo’s own ratio, with no crop;
   • Custom: sizes you added.

   Each size carries a badge for the photo selected in the gallery: Sharp (300 DPI or more), Acceptable (150–299 DPI, fine at arm’s length) or Pixelated (under 150 DPI). Hover over it to see the DPI.

3. Under the list, a line says how large the selected photo prints sharp, and how large it is still acceptable.
4. Every photo is cropped to the size’s ratio, centred by default. Choose what stays per photo in the preview (chapter 6).
5. 3 mm border leaves a border 3 mm wide on every side, White or Black as you choose under the switch, cut into the photo: the print keeps the exact size of the shop’s kiosk. With Original, no pixel is lost: the border goes round the whole photo, the short edge stays 10 cm and the long edge grows by 6 mm. Photos for social media never get it. With the info frame on, the border takes the frame’s colour (chapter 9).

A size of your own: choose Custom size…, type a name (for example Instax wide), the width and height, and the unit (in or cm), then Save size. Each edge must be between 2 and 100 cm. The bin button next to the list deletes the custom size selected.

6. Crop and straighten

Each photo is cropped to the print size’s ratio, centred. Choose what stays, level a horizon or turn a photo, one photo at a time (FR-006, FR-044).

1. Quickly: in the preview, drag the photo to move it inside the print.
2. Precisely: click Crop above the photo, or press C. In the crop editor:
   • drag to move the crop, and double-click to centre it again;
   • zoom with the slider, a pinch, the scroll wheel or + / −, up to 8×;
   • Straighten levels the horizon, ±15°: the slider, or ← → by 1° (⌥ ← → by 0.1°). Double-click the slider to go back to 0°;
   • the labels show the printed size and the DPI, which turns orange or red when zooming in leaves too few pixels.
3. Done (or Enter) keeps it, Cancel (or Esc) leaves it as it was, and Reset centres the crop and sets the angle back to 0°.
4. Turn a photo a quarter with Rotate left and Rotate right above the photo, or [ and ], in the gallery too.

In the preview’s size card, Crop says Centred, with Adjust, or Custom · zoom n×, with Reset. When the info frame is set to Fit whole photo (chapter 9) the whole photo is printed, so there is nothing to crop.

7. Looking closely: zoom

In the preview, the zoom buttons in the row above the photo show the zoom between − and + in the photo’s own pixels, 100 % being 1:1 (at fit it reads how much of the photo’s size you see, say 23 %); click the percentage to go between fit and 1:1; one pixel of the photo on one pixel of the screen (FR-057, FR-095); the last button goes back to fit. The same with the keyboard and the trackpad:

• Click the photo, or press Z, to go between fit and 1:1, where you clicked, as in Lightroom.
• Scroll up or down with two fingers (or the mouse wheel), pinch on the trackpad, or press Cmd/Ctrl + and Cmd/Ctrl −: the photo zooms about the pointer, up to 2:1. Fingers up zoom in.
• Zoomed in, drag the photo, or scroll sideways with two fingers, to move around it.
• Cmd/Ctrl 0 or the fit button goes back to the whole photo.

The preview is first shown at a light size that any computer draws quickly. When you zoom past what it holds, a small spinner appears beside the zoom level, and a moment after you stop moving the part on screen is replaced by the full-resolution pixels, exactly as the exported file will have them. Only the visible part is loaded, so even a 32 MP photo stays light.

8. Date stamp

A date in the corner of the print, like a film camera’s, taken from when the photo was shot (FR-004, FR-033). It is on by default.

1. In the Date stamp card, the switch turns it on or off for every photo. The card is the same in Simple, Collage and Professional mode, with every choice below.
2. Choose:
   • the format: 2026-07-14, 14.07.2026 or '26 07 14, the film-camera style;
   • the corner: Bottom right, Bottom left, Top right or Top left;
   • the colour: White or Retro orange;
   • the size: Small, Medium or Large, the same three in every mode. The size follows the print: larger on a larger print, and on a collage sheet each photo’s stamp is half the sheet’s, as two share it.
3. Place on the date line adds the town where the photo was taken, from its GPS, offline: as City, + code (with the country code, Prague, CZ) or + country (Prague, Czechia). A photo without GPS can get a place by hand (chapter 10).
4. Line under the date: a short text across the photo, up to 80 characters, printed in capitals without accents (for example KY NIEM BUDAPEST).

One photo differently: in the preview, the Date stamp card holds the same controls for that photo alone; it is then marked This photo. Apply to all photos makes this photo’s stamp the one for every photo. In the panel, Reset n photos with their own stamp makes every photo follow the panel again. Both can be undone.

The date is the one from the camera, corrected by the camera clock (chapter 11) or set by hand (chapter 10).

9. Info frame “Shot on”

A white or black bar under the photo with the camera’s logo and settings, like the photos shared from phones (FR-040, FR-065, FR-067). It is off by default, and it is the same for every photo.

1. Turn on the Info frame card.
2. Choose how it fits the print:
   • Crop to fill: the print keeps its exact size, and the bar takes its place inside it; drag the photo in the preview to choose what stays. With 3 mm border on (in the print size card, chapter 5), a 3 mm border in the frame colour runs on the top and sides, still inside the print size, like an instant photo;
   • Fit whole photo: the whole photo at the print size, framed like an instax print with a 5 mm border on three sides and the bar below, so the print comes out larger than the size chosen. A note says how large, so you can pick a paper that fits at the shop. With 3 mm border on, the whole photo is fitted inside the size chosen instead, and the print does not grow.
3. Choose White or Black, the date format, and the font: Inter (built-in), or Import OTF/TTF… to use your own (FR-042).
4. Under Show, tick what the bar holds: Logo, Camera, Lens, Focal length, Aperture, Shutter, ISO, Photo style, Date, Place.
5. With the logo shown, choose its Logo colours (Classic, Brand or One colour) and its Logo size (double-click the slider for 100 %).

The camera’s details: in the preview, under the frame card, change what the bar says for this camera: Camera name, Lens (for a manual lens the camera cannot see), Focal (mm), Aperture F and Photo style, and the Logo: the bundled brand logo, Text, an Image (a PNG of your own) or None. A field left empty uses the photo’s EXIF. These are saved for every photo from that camera.

10. Dates and places

Set them by hand (FR-032), for scanned prints, a camera without a clock, or a photo without GPS:

1. One photo: in the preview, click Set the date… in Captured or Set the place… in Location.
2. Many photos: in select mode, tick them and click Date and place… in the selection bar.
3. Type a date and time, and type a town or city to pick it (accents and spaces do not matter: ha noi finds Hà Nội). Fill in only what you want to change, then Apply. The arrow buttons go back to the camera’s time and to the photo’s own GPS.

The photos move in the grid, and the date stamp, the info frame, day folders and the exported copy’s date follow. Everything is offline, every change is one step of Undo, and the photo file is never changed.

Places from your phone (FR-031): a camera without GPS (a Lumix GX9, for example) can take the place of a photo your phone took of the same scene a few minutes apart. Set the camera’s clock first if it is off (chapter 11). In the settings panel’s Places card, click Find places, choose how far apart in time (5, 10 or 30 minutes) and Look for places. Sure matches get their place at once; the others are shown next to the phone photo, ticked, so untick the wrong ones and confirm. Sure matches are also filled in after every best-shot analysis. A borrowed place shows a pin with a tick on the thumbnail and Borrowed in the preview; it never replaces a place you set or the photo’s own GPS, and Undo takes it back.

Rename a place (FR-005): the settings panel’s Places card lists every place on your photos. Type the name you want printed, like Prague for Praha 1 or Grandma's, and every stamp and frame with that place follows; the arrow button brings the original name back.

10.1 Stars from Lightroom and other apps

When a folder you open was culled in Lightroom, Bridge, Capture One or darktable, the stars and rejects they saved in XMP sidecar files (IMG_0416.xmp or P1000123.RW2.xmp next to the photo) come in with the photos (FR-058). The sidebar says how many. Your own stars and flags in a Fotollection project win over the sidecar, and the sidecar is never changed. Lightroom Classic writes sidecars only for RAW files, and only when Automatically write changes into XMP is on (or after Metadata → Save Metadata to File).

11. Camera clocks

A camera set to the wrong time, or still on the time zone of home, puts its photos in the wrong order next to your phone’s, and stamps the wrong date (FR-030).

1. From a photo (easiest): open a photo from that camera, and in Captured click Set this camera’s clock from a photo…. Pick the photo from your phone (or another camera) taken at the same moment, then Correct the clock.
2. By hand: in the settings panel, Camera clocks lists every camera in the library. Type how much to add, like +1:02:00 or −0:45, and press Enter. The arrow button sets it back.

Every photo from that camera moves at once, including photos added later: the grid order, best-shot groups, day folders, the date stamp and the exported copy’s date. The preview still shows what the camera’s clock said, and the photo file is never changed. Two bodies of the same model keep their own clocks when the camera records its serial number. The correction is saved in the project.

12. Exporting

Export writes new files for the lab or for sharing; your originals are never changed (FR-008, FR-009, FR-010, FR-053).

1. What is exported is what the gallery shows: the folder or folders selected, the filters (chapter 2), never the photos set aside. From the Print basket view, exactly the basket (chapter 4).
2. For print or for sharing: at the top of the Print / export size card, choose Print (full resolution, with the crop, stamp and frame of each photo) or Share online, then a share size:
   • Original size, lighter file: the same pixels, about half the file size or less;
   • Facebook · 2048 px or Instagram · 1080 px: the size each site keeps, so it is not shrunk again;
   • Custom size: 640–6000 px on the long edge.

   Shared files are in sRGB, so they look the same on every screen.

   Whole photo in a frame, under the share size, keeps every photo whole for a feed of one shape (FR-075): pick a ratio (Square · 1:1, Portrait · 4:5, 3:4 or 2:3, Landscape · 3:2 or 16:9, Story · 9:16, or Custom ratio… with its two numbers), then the fill: White, Black or Custom, with a colour picker and its code. Each photo sits in the middle and nothing is cut off; on Instagram the frame is 1080 px wide. Prints never get it: they keep their print size.

3. The export dialog (FR-093): click Export n photos at the foot of the panel. A dialog opens, laid out as Lightroom’s: presets on the left (Prints · original size, Facebook, Instagram, Share · original size, Share · custom size), and every choice on the right:
   • Where: the folder (Choose…), One folder (every file straight into it) or By day (a folder for each day, such as 2026-07-14), and, with several folders shown, Together or Separately (each in a subfolder with its name); Turn on Put in a subfolder and type its name to keep this export apart inside the folder, before the day folders. If a file of that name is there chooses what happens on a second export: Add a number (_1, _2, the default), Skip the photo, or Replace the file, with a red warning, since the old file cannot be brought back.
   • File: the Quality, from 60 to 100 (FR-092). The size estimate follows the slider, and a badge says what the quality is good for, measured on real prints: Prints beautifully from 90, Prints well from 75, Screens only below. A preset sets its own quality (90 for prints, 88 for Facebook and Instagram); Limit the file size (for a lab’s upload or an email) writes each file at the chosen quality if it fits, else at the highest quality that does, never below 60; the result says how many are still over it (FR-105).
   • File name (FR-104): Original name (the default), Date - original name, Custom text - number, Custom text - date - number or Date - number, with the custom text and the first number when the name uses them. Example shows the first name the export will write.
   • Size, as above.
   • Metadata: what the files keep: Camera (camera, lens, exposure and date, the default), Date only, or Nothing. The GPS position is always removed.
4. Click Export n photos in the dialog. A bar in the panel shows the progress, and Cancel stops it; when it is done, a green box says how many photos went where, with Open folder. Cancelling: the photos already exported stay, and a file half written is removed. A photo that cannot be exported is skipped, and the summary says how many failed.
5. Don’t ask again: tick it in the dialog, and from then on Export exports at once with the same choices; the panel says them in one line (for example Print · by day · quality 90), and a click on that line opens the dialog. Settings → Export holds the same choices and Ask every time, to bring the dialog back. The folder, the quality and the rest are kept on this computer; if the folder is gone (a card or drive taken out), the export stops and says so.

With By day, the files go into one folder per day, named by the date (2026-07-14), and undated for photos without a date. Shared files go into a Share folder either way. Unless you chose otherwise above, a file never overwrites another: a second copy gets _1, _2. The GPS position is always removed, whatever the metadata choice, so a shared photo does not give away where you live.

One photo: in the preview, Export above the photo (⇧⌘E) opens the same dialog for that photo, and the Print and export tab shows the progress.

13. Projects, autosave and undo

Everything you do (stars, flags, the basket, crops, stamps, dates and places, camera clocks) is saved by itself as you go, and comes back when you open the app again (FR-023). A project keeps one piece of work under a name, to open again later or on another computer.

1. The Project block at the top of the sidebar shows the project’s name; a dot means Edited. Double-click the name to rename it.
2. Its four buttons: New project, Open project…, Save and Save as…. The same are in the File menu on a Mac, and on Cmd/Ctrl+N, Cmd/Ctrl+O, Cmd/Ctrl+S and Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+S.
3. A project is a .fotollection file. It holds your edits and settings, with the fonts and logos it uses, but not the photos: it points to their folders, so a project copied together with its photos opens the same on another computer. When its folders were moved or renamed, n folders could not be found offers Locate… for each, or Later.
4. New project first asks for its name (Create or Cancel; left empty, it stays Untitled until you save it).
5. Leaving a project with changes asks Save changes to “…”?: Save, Don’t save or Cancel. An untitled project that holds photos always asks, since it is kept nowhere else.

Undo takes back the last change with Cmd/Ctrl+Z, and redo brings it back with Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+Z (or Cmd/Ctrl+Y), up to 200 steps. On a Mac they are in the Edit menu too.

14. Camera RAW

Fotollection opens the RAW files of most cameras as they are, with no conversion to DNG: RW2 (Panasonic), CR2 and CR3 (Canon), NEF (Nikon), ARW (Sony), RAF (Fujifilm), ORF (Olympus, OM System) and DNG (FR-016).

• Open the folder as usual. Thumbnails and best-shot suggestions appear as fast as for JPEG, because they use the small preview every camera stores inside its RAW files.
• The print preview develops the full photo the first time you open it, which takes about a second; changing a setting afterwards is instant. The export develops each RAW the same way.
• The develop is Fotollection’s own for every camera with a Bayer sensor (on a Mac, Panasonic and Olympus files are developed by macOS, for its lens corrections; Fujifilm X-Trans by the built-in reader). Fotollection prepares prints: it does not replace Lightroom, but a RAW goes further in it than a JPEG.
• Deeper RAW edits. On a RAW photo, Brightness, Highlights, Shadows, Warm / cool and Tint work on the camera’s own data before the picture is finished, as in a RAW editor: pulling the highlights down brings back detail near white, and the shadows lift with less banding. (On a Mac, Panasonic and Olympus RAW are developed by macOS and have less room above white.)
• RAW colour. A RAW photo opens Neutral: the sensor’s colours with the camera’s exposure and a gentle curve, a calm start for your own look. In its colour cards (the preview, or a photo picked on a collage sheet), the RAW colour card turns it Like the camera’s JPEG, with the contrast and colours the camera showed on its screen; Apply to all RAW photos does it for every RAW. The grid’s thumbnails always show the camera’s own preview. A project saved with an earlier version keeps the camera’s look for its RAW photos.
• On Linux, RAW opens through the reader built into Fotollection, with nothing to install.
• On Windows, RAW also opens through the reader built into Fotollection, with nothing to install (ADR-0029). If Microsoft’s Raw Image Extension is installed, the system’s codec is a last fallback for a file the built-in reader cannot open.

15. Opening a photo from Finder, Explorer or your file manager

Fotollection can be the app that opens a photo you double-click (FR-054). It never makes itself the default: you choose it.

• Once: right-click a photo → Open With → Fotollection (macOS), or Open with → Fotollection (Windows). On Linux, with the .deb installed, right-click → Open With → Fotollection in Files, Dolphin or Nemo; the AppImage is not listed there unless a tool such as AppImageLauncher registers it.
• Always: on a Mac, select a photo, press Cmd+I, choose Fotollection under Open with and click Change All. On Windows, choose Open with → Choose another app, pick Fotollection and tick Always use this app.

The photo opens in the preview straight away. Its folder becomes a tab in the sidebar, with only that folder’s photos (not its subfolders), so ← → go through the folder. Everything works as in any tab: stars, the print basket, crops, export. Click × on the tab when you are done; the photos stay on your disk. Opening another photo while Fotollection is running brings the window forward with that photo.

16. Shooting with a camera connected

With a camera plugged in by cable, Fotollection shows what it sees and takes the photo (FR-062, FR-063). For now this works on Windows, with the Sony a6400; the Linux version has no camera capture (ADR-0034). Other Sony bodies of the same years may work, but they are not checked yet.

1. On the camera: MENU → Setup → USB Connection → PC Remote. Plug in a data cable and turn the camera on. Close Imaging Edge Remote, since only one app can drive the camera at a time.
2. Click the camera button next to Open folder in the sidebar. The capture screen opens.
3. The capture screen:
   • The live view. If a print size is chosen, its shape is drawn over the live view, so you see what stays after Crop to fill.
   • The settings bar under the live view shows ISO, shutter speed, aperture and file format.
   • The panel steps ISO and shutter speed with − / +, and switches between JPEG and RAW (the camera may keep the old format for one more shot). Set the aperture on the camera or the lens.
   • Capture, or Space, takes the photo. The camera focuses first, so a shot takes about a second. If it cannot focus, the screen says so. One photo at a time: pressing again (or holding Space) while a shot is on its way does nothing.
   • The shots line up under the live view, newest first. Click one to open it in the preview.
4. Close the screen (Esc). You are in the session’s tab, with all its shots. A notice above the grid offers:
   • Save all…: choose a folder. The photos move there, nothing is overwritten, and your crops, stamps and ratings stay. If the folder already holds files (Pictures, for one), the photos go into a new folder named after the session inside it.
   • Delete photos.

   Until you choose, the photos stay in Fotollection’s own data. Closing the tab asks first, and so does quitting the app: Save all…, Delete photos or Cancel. If Fotollection ever closes without asking (a crash), the session comes back as a tab the next time it starts.

   Unplugging the camera or turning it off also closes the screen and shows the session’s tab.

RAW shots are read by Fotollection’s built-in RAW reader, so they show in the tab like JPEG (ADR-0029); on Windows this is being checked on a PC without Microsoft’s Raw Image Extension.

17. Updating to a new version

Fotollection looks for a newer version once when it starts, and when you ask (FR-021, FR-061, FR-103). Nothing is downloaded until you choose; offline, nothing happens.

1. At start: if a newer version is out, a small window says so, with What’s new, Download and Later. A red box inside it means your version has a serious fault fixed since: please update. To stop the check, turn off Check for updates when the app starts in Settings → Updates.
2. Any time: open Settings (the gear at the top of the sidebar, or the version number at the foot of any panel), then Updates and Check for updates.
3. If a newer version exists, click Download the installer: your browser downloads the right one for your computer.
4. Install it over the current version. Your settings, camera profiles and projects stay.
   • Mac: open the disk image and drag Fotollection into Applications, then choose Replace.
   • Windows: run the -setup.exe; keep the first choice, Uninstall before installing. If you installed with the .msi, update with the .msi: mixing the two leaves two copies.
   • Linux AppImage: the button downloads the new AppImage; make it executable (chmod +x) and use it in place of the old file.
   • Linux .deb: the button opens the release page; download the new .deb and run sudo apt install ./Fotollection_*_amd64.deb (_arm64.deb on ARM).

The cache, the memory the previews use and Instant previews are in Settings → RAM & cache (chapter 23).

Something wrong, or an idea? Open Settings → Report a problem, then the red Report a problem or an idea: it opens the project’s page for problems and ideas on GitHub, in your browser (FR-069). Say what you did and what you saw, then click Copy diagnostics and paste it into the report: it holds your version, your system and the last error codes.

An error code. Every error message ends with a code such as ERR-IMG-0006. The first letters say what kind of problem it is: IMG the photo file itself, FS a file or folder the app could not read or write, EXT a codec missing from the system, DRV the camera’s connection, CFG a setting, font or logo, EXP the export, NET Check for updates, RUS the app itself. The × on an error hides it; it comes back only if the same thing goes wrong again on a new try. Each code is explained, with what to do, in ERROR_CONTROL.md. The app keeps a small log of these errors on your computer (no photos, places or file names) only so Copy diagnostics can quote them; it sends nothing.

18. Simple mode

New in v0.9.0. The shortest way from a folder to prints: look at each photo once, keep it or drop it, then export what you kept (FR-048, FR-050).

1. Click Simple at the top of the sidebar, and open a folder if the library is empty.
2. The first photo fills the middle, as it will print, with your print size, date stamp and border.
3. Press ↑ or click Keep: the photo goes into the print basket, and the next one comes.
4. Press ↓ or click Drop: the photo is set aside, never deleted, and the next one comes.
5. ← → step back and forward without deciding. Cmd/Ctrl+Z undoes the last keep or drop. The culling keys of the preview work too: 0–5 stars, P / X / U flags, [ / ] quarter turns.
6. The bar above the photo counts where you are, and how many you kept and dropped.
7. In the panel on the right, choose Print or Share online, the print size, the 3 mm border and the date stamp (format, corner, colour, size, place and your own line, as in Pro), then Choose destination… and Export: it saves the photos you kept.

A photo kept in Simple mode is in the print basket in Pro too, so you can switch to Pro at any time to crop or frame a photo, and come back.

19. Collage mode

New in v0.9.0. Two photos on one print, like a half-frame film camera put two frames on one negative: a 10 × 15 print holds two 10 × 7.5 photos, so a set costs half as much (FR-035).

1. Click Collage at the top of the sidebar. Choose what to put on sheets in the sidebar, usually the Print basket.
2. The photos are paired in order, 1 + 2, 3 + 4…, and each sheet shows as it will print. An odd last photo leaves the other half white.
3. Sheet size: the print size, 10 × 15 for example; Original is not offered, as a sheet needs a fixed size. The sheet is split in half across its long edge and turns to suit its first photo: two landscape photos one above the other, or two portrait photos side by side. The turn button on a sheet, or R, turns it the other way. White or Black under 3 mm border colours the paper round the photos as well as the border. Under the size, Sheet says how many pixels the two photos make together and Prints at how sharp the sheet prints: its DPI and Excellent, Good, Fair or Too low, as sharp as the less sharp photo, so neither is enlarged (FR-087).
4. Two photos per sheet:
   • Fill each half: no white at all. Each photo fills its half (7.5 × 10 on a 10 × 15) and the two meet edge to edge; crop each photo (step 7) to choose what stays, by dragging and zooming. The settings below, the cut line included, are then hidden.
   • Photo ratio: each photo’s own (Photo), the sheet’s (Sheet, 2:3 on a 10 × 15), 4:3 or 1:1. The rest of the half stays white.
   • Photo size: the app suggests the largest size that leaves 5 mm of white round the photo, for example 6 × 9 cm for a 2:3 photo in a 7.5 × 10 half. Type another size if you like; with the lock on, one edge gives the other. Use the suggestion goes back.
   • Cut line: a thin line between the photos, to cut the print in two. Off, there is no line, and the photos keep the white between them.
   • The note under them gives the photo’s size, the part left inside the 3 mm border (chapter 5) and its sharpness.
5. Reorder: drag a photo onto another photo to swap them, or onto an empty half to send it to the end. ← → choose a photo, ⌥/Alt ← → move it one place. Reordering starts every sheet the way its first photo suits, and a photo added later joins at the end.
   • Auto turn (the wand above the sheets), for prints you cut in two: every sheet turns landscape and each photo turns to stand, so no standing photo sits next to a lying one. Revert brings every sheet and photo back to its own orientation. Each is one undo step. The ⓘ button next to the count lists the keys.
6. Choose the photos to print, as in the gallery (chapter 4): Select ticks whole sheets with a click, both photos at once, framed as one (Cmd/Ctrl+A all, Enter the chosen sheet), and the bar puts their photos in the Print basket, sets them aside or brings them back. While sheets are ticked, the export button says Export 2 selected sheets and writes only those. Photos in the basket carry its badge. Choose Print basket in the sidebar to make sheets of those photos only.
7. Preview: double-click a sheet, or press Enter or Space, to open it large in the preview, as a photo opens from the gallery. There:
   • the sheet opens with no photo chosen, exactly as it prints. Click a photo (or 1, 2) to choose it, and click it again (or Esc) to let go;
   • ← → go to the other sheets; with a photo chosen, ↑ puts it in the print basket and ↓ sets it aside (or the basket button next to it), and the zoom buttons or Cmd/Ctrl + / − zoom in;
   • Crop (or C, or the crop button next to a photo) crops and straightens the chosen photo for its place on the sheet; this never changes its print, and Reset centres it;
   • Turn the sheet (R) turns it the other way;
   • Rotate photo (⇧R) turns the chosen photo a quarter in its half, on this sheet only, and the sheet stays as it is (Turn the sheet turns the sheet): when a landscape photo shares a sheet with a portrait one, it then fills its half instead of sitting small in the middle. Its own print does not change;
   • the panel lists the two photos, holds the same Two photos per sheet and Date stamp cards, and Export this sheet saves this one sheet. Under Line under the date, turn Same on both photos off to type a line for each photo; the rest of the stamp stays the same for both;
8. Export in the panel writes one file per sheet, named after its two photos (for example P1000123+P1000124.jpg), in the first photo’s day folder when you export by day.

Every change is one undo step. The date stamp prints on each photo, with its place and your own line if you chose them; the info frame is not used on sheets. Collage mode also makes postcards: chapter 20.

20. Postcards

New in v0.9.4. A kiosk print becomes a postcard you can post: one photo on one half, the back of a postcard on the other (FR-073).

1. In Collage mode, turn on the Postcard switch in the bar above the sheets, next to Select (off goes back to two photos a sheet). Each photo now makes its own sheet: 50 photos are 25 sheets of two, or 50 postcards. The Postcard card appears in the panel.
2. Held: Landscape puts the photo on the left and the card on the right; Portrait puts the card on top and the photo below. A dashed stamp box sits at the top right, smaller than most stamps so the stamp hides it, and the band across the top stays free for more stamps or a long label printed at the post office. The writing lines sit together at the foot: 3 lines or 4 lines for the message, then 3 for the address, one under the other on a landscape card and side by side on a portrait one (message left, address right).
3. The photo half works as before: ratio, size, Fill each half, the 3 mm border, the date stamp, Crop and Rotate photo in the preview. A postcard has no cut line and does not turn; Auto turn is hidden.
4. Text on the postcard, the card under it, or leave the lines blank to write by hand. Choose a postcard (click it, or open its preview) and type its Message (up to 400 characters, on the top lines) and its Address (up to 200 characters; on its 3 lines, or 4 smaller ones in the same room when it is long). B, I and U next to each set that part bold, italic or underlined on every card. The same card sets how every postcard prints its text: Font, the typewriter face Xanh Mono, the handwriting face Patrick Hand or one of your own (Import OTF/TTF…, as in chapter 9), which has the letters of every European language written in Latin script (Greek or Cyrillic come from the app’s other font), so a copied address prints as typed; Size, small, medium or large; Ink, Black (white on black paper), Blue, Sepia or Red; and Credit line (optional), a small line at the foot of every card, for example Photo © Anna Schmidt. What does not fit its lines is left out of the print, as the preview shows, and a red ! marks the card in the grid and in its preview, and the part that is cut: shorten it, or choose a smaller size.
5. Export writes one file per postcard, named after its photo (for example P1000123-postcard.jpg).

One address for a whole set (FR-077). Type the address on one card; under it, Use for N postcards without an address puts it on every other card shown that has none, in one step that Cmd/Ctrl+Z undoes. Or for all N other postcards replaces theirs too. With postcards ticked in select mode, it goes to the ticked ones only. On a card with no address yet, Recent addresses lists the last ones typed on this computer: click one to put it on the card, or × to forget it. They stay on this computer and never go into a project file.

Writing by hand. A print’s face is a coating that many pens do not take. Use a fine permanent marker (Sharpie Ultra Fine, edding 400, Stabilo OHPen S), try it in the stamp box first, and let it dry for about a minute; ballpoint pens often skip and gel or fineliner pens smear. Typed text has none of these problems.

Posting it. A 10 × 15 print is 15.2 × 10.2 cm: Deutsche Post takes postcards from 14 × 9 to 23.5 × 12.5 cm and 150–500 g/m² (photo paper is about 240), and Magyar Posta’s rules give 9 × 14 to 12 × 23.5 cm (to check at the counter). Česká pošta allows postcards only up to 14.8 cm long, so there it goes as a letter. The post may print a barcode along the bottom edge, which can rub off a glossy print; ask at the counter when in doubt.

Glossy paper and the post. The postmark on the stamp itself is fine, as a stamp is paper, but where it runs onto the glossy coating its ink may smear before it dries, and sorting machines can scuff the photo’s face. If the shop lets you choose, print postcards on matt paper; use a self-adhesive stamp, as a gummed one may not hold on the coating; or post it in an envelope, as a letter. Try one card before sending a whole set.

21. Colour: Faves and Tools

Two cards change a photo’s colour, under Print / export size, in the previews only: open a photo (or a collage sheet) to change its colour. They change that photo only, as its date stamp does, and Apply this look to all photos makes its look everyone’s.

• Faves shows four sliders: Brightness, Contrast, Warm / cool and Saturation. More adds Highlights, Shadows, Tint and Vibrance. Hover a slider to read what it does; double-click it to put it back to 0. A press just above or below the bar still takes it, and a click on a slider’s name lets the ← and → keys move it (by 1, by 10 with Shift).
• Tools is folded at first; click its title to open it. Fade lifts the blacks, Tint the shadows and Tint the highlights lay a colour over the dark and the bright parts (with Balance between them), and Black and white turns the photo grey through a filter: red darkens a blue sky the most, green lightens leaves.
• A folded card says how many of its sliders are set (“Tools · 2 changed”); the ↺ on its title resets the card.
• In the preview, Before (or the \ key) shows the photo without its look; press it again to come back. The arrow beside it opens Lightroom’s other views (FR-096): Side by side (Y), Split, left and right (⇧Y: one photo, before on the left of a line you drag, after on the right), Top and bottom (⌥/Alt Y) and Split, top and bottom. Both sides zoom and move together and stay sharp at 1:1; the same key again, or Esc, goes back to the photo alone.
• The date stamp, the info frame and the border are never tinted, and a photo with nothing set prints exactly as before.
• In Collage mode, open a sheet’s preview and click a photo on it to change its colour; the cards show only while a photo is picked. Click beside the photos, or press Esc, to let go.

22. Keyboard shortcuts

A focused field or slider keeps its own arrow keys: click the photo to give them back to browsing.

23. Settings

Every setting of this computer is in one window (FR-086): click the gear beside by @hoangphi01 at the top of the sidebar, press ⌘, (Mac) or Ctrl+, (Windows, Linux), or click the version number at the foot of a panel for What’s new. The sections are listed on the left, as on an iPad; projects never carry these settings.

• General: the language, the look (chapter 1), and Photo preview: in a window, or filling the app window with the Navigator and History (chapter 4).
• RAM & cache (FR-091):
  • Share of this computer’s RAM for previews: 15, 25 (the default) or 40 %. More keeps more photos ready, so → ← and photos opened again show at once; less leaves room for other apps. Held now shows what the previews keep. When the computer runs short of memory, they give it back by themselves.
  • Cache on disk: its limit (2, 5, 10 or 20 GB), what it holds (thumbnails, previews, best-shot analyses) and Clear cache. Nothing of yours is lost: everything comes back when needed. A larger cache keeps the previews of more folders, about 0.7 MB a photo.
  • Prepare previews in the background: after a folder’s thumbnails, a preview of every photo is made (Preparing previews in the gallery’s bar), so any photo opens in about 30 ms instead of 0.3 to 0.5 s, RAW photos too. Off saves disk space; previews are then made when a photo is opened.
  • For this computer shows what Auto goes by: the processor and its cores, the graphics card (and whether it draws the colour sliders), the memory and the free space on the cache’s disk.
  • Default puts back 25 %, 5 GB and previews on. Auto chooses for this computer: 40 % of memory from 32 GB, 25 % from 12 GB, 15 % below; the largest cache that fits in a tenth of the free disk; previews on unless less than 5 GB is free.
• Updates: Check for updates (chapter 17).
• Report a problem: the report page and Copy diagnostics (chapter 17).
• What’s new: every version with two lines on what it brought; Show all opens its whole entry (added, changed, fixed). The version you run opens unfolded; opening another folds the one open, so one is open at a time.