# LightBites > A fully native photo library and raw editor, written in Swift for iPhone, iPad and Mac: a real alternative to Lightroom that is fast, light on battery and keeps your original photos untouched. Use a local library on the device, or sync every device through your own self-hosted LightCraft server. No account, no ads, no subscription. Website: http://localhost:3000/ App Store: coming soon. Platforms: iPhone and iPad (iOS 26 or later), Mac (macOS 26 or later). Contact: elrumo97@me.com. ## In short - A real alternative to Lightroom: a photo library and non-destructive raw developer. - Written natively in Swift for each platform, not a cross-platform or web-based port. - Local library on the device, or sync through your own self-hosted LightCraft server (a NAS or any computer). - Originals are never changed: edits are stored as instructions beside the photo. - No account, no ads, no tracking. Free to download and to edit with; exporting and sharing come with LightBites Pro, one purchase after a free 7-day trial, no subscription. ## Why native matters ### Fast, because it is native Written in Swift for iPhone, iPad and Mac, not wrapped in a web page or ported from another system. Sliders follow your finger, big raw files open quickly and the grid scrolls smoothly. ### Light on your battery It uses your device's own graphics chip and does the same work with less processor time. Your iPhone stays cooler, your battery lasts longer and your Mac's fans stay quiet. ### Feels like it belongs Made for each device: touch on iPhone and iPad, a sidebar and keyboard shortcuts on the Mac, with Face ID, the share sheet and Dark Mode working as you expect. ## What it does ### Library: Every photo, sorted the way you think. - Import from Photos, Files, a camera or a memory card. - Albums and folders, ratings, picks and keywords. - Years and months at a glance, and a map of where you took them. - A Hidden album that opens with Face ID. ### Search & People: Find the photo you remember, not the file name. - Describe it: "sunset at the beach", "dog in the snow". - Text in your photos is searchable too. - People groups the same face across your library, so you name it once. - All of it runs on your device. ### Retouch: Take out what should not be there. - Remove: brush over a distraction and it is filled in. - Heal and clone for dust and blemishes. - Lens Blur with a depth map for a soft background. - Generative Expand widens the frame. ### Sync: Keep it local, or sync every device. - On its own, LightBites keeps a local library on the device. No server, no account. - Want it everywhere? Run the LightCraft server on a NAS or any computer of your own, and sign in from your iPhone, iPad and Mac. - Edit a photo on one device and the change shows up on the others: photos, edits, albums, ratings, keywords and presets all follow you. - Works across libraries: the Photos library on each device, and folders already on the server, like a NAS, without copying them. Edit a photo and it joins the synced library. - The LightCraft apps for the desktop and the web open the same library. - Choose what each device keeps: every original, or previews within a size limit. Your photos stay on your own hardware. ### Light & Dark: Light or dark, like the rest of your device. - Follows your iPhone, iPad or Mac between light and dark by itself. - Or keep it on one: Light or Dark in Settings, or from the menu bar on a Mac. - Every screen is drawn for both, from the grid to the sliders. This page does it too. ## More - **Originals stay untouched**: Edits are kept beside the photo, never written into it. Undo anything, any time. - **Raw from your camera**: Canon CR3, Apple ProRAW and other DNG files, with the camera's own look as a start. - **HDR**: Edit and view HDR photos at full brightness on displays that show it. - **Presets and profiles**: Import your own presets and colour profiles, preview them, keep them in sync. - **A real Mac app**: Written natively for macOS: keyboard shortcuts, a sidebar, a grid you can pinch. Not a phone app on a big screen. - **Share an album**: With a LightCraft server, send an album as a link. People open it without an account. - **Export and share**: Any size, straight to the share sheet, Photos or Files. - **Works offline**: Everything runs on the device. The internet is only for downloads you ask for. ## Roadmap What is being built now, what comes next and what is done (http://localhost:3000/roadmap). ### Now - **Public beta**: The first builds go out to testers on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Leave your email on the home page and you will hear when it opens. - **Video clips**: Import clips with your photos and play them in the loupe. Trim them, pick the poster frame, preview your edits and export at full size, 1080p or 720p. - **iCloud sync**: No server of your own? iCloud carries your presets, settings and edits between your iPhone, iPad and Mac, and can keep your photos in iCloud Drive. What on-device search found travels too, so your phone finds the faces and words your Mac found. - **Shortcuts, Siri, Spotlight and Handoff**: Find, rate, flag and export photos from Shortcuts and Siri. Find them in Spotlight by caption, keyword, person or place, and pick up the photo you were on from another device. - **Edit from the Photos app, with Live Photos**: Open a photo in Apple's Photos app and edit it with the LightBites sliders and presets, without importing it. Live Photos keep their motion when you edit and save them. - **More than one library, on a drive or a NAS**: Keep several libraries and switch between them without restarting: one on the device, one that syncs with your server, or one on an external drive or a shared folder on your network. ### Next - **On the App Store**: LightBites on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Free to download, with a 7-day trial of LightBites Pro and one purchase for all three. No subscription. - **Colour that matches your camera**: Measured colour profiles for the most popular cameras, so a raw file opens looking the way it did on the camera's screen, before you touch a slider. - **Olympus and OM System raw files**: Compressed ORF files open as full raw files you can develop, not only as their previews. - **Focus points**: See where the camera focused, drawn over the photo, and zoom straight to that spot to check sharpness while you cull. - **Mask presets**: Save a mask's adjustments, like a brighter face or a deeper sky, and use them again in one tap. Export them to share with a friend. - **Slideshow export and Print**: Give a slideshow titles and overlays and export it as a video or a PDF, and print photos straight from your iPad or Mac. ### Later - **Subject, Sky and People masks**: Select the subject, the sky or a person in one tap, worked out on your device by a model you download once. - **Nikon High Efficiency raw files**: Full raw decoding for NEF files saved in Nikon's High Efficiency modes, which open as previews for now. - **Corrections for more lenses**: Distortion, vignetting and colour fringing corrected automatically for more lenses, from profiles we measure ourselves. - **Comments and likes on shared albums**: People you share an album with can like photos and leave a comment, and you see it in the app. - **More languages**: Korean, Hindi, Arabic, Vietnamese and Indonesian, with right-to-left layouts for Arabic. ### Done - **Sync with your own server**: Run the open-source LightCraft server on a NAS or any computer, and every device shares one library: photos, edits, albums, ratings, keywords and presets. - **Search by description, and People**: Describe a photo to find it, search the text in your photos, and name a face once for People. It all runs on your device. - **Remove, Heal and Lens Blur**: Brush over a distraction and it is filled in, heal dust and blemishes, and soften the background with a depth map. - **Canon CR3 raw files**: CR3 files from 26 Canon bodies, checked one by one, open as full raw files. - **Camera and lens profiles that stay up to date**: LightBites looks for new camera and lens profiles once a day and downloads only what changed. - **LightBites Pro, one purchase**: Editing and your library are free. Export and sharing come with one purchase after a free 7-day trial, with no subscription. ## Questions and answers ### Is LightBites really native? Yes. It is written in Swift for iOS, iPadOS and macOS, not built with a cross-platform toolkit or a web view. That is why it starts quickly, edits smoothly and needs less processor power and battery than an app that is not made for your device. ### Which devices does LightBites run on? iPhone and iPad with iOS 26 or later, and Macs with macOS 26 or later. ### Can I script it or use it with an AI assistant? Yes. The Mac app can be controlled from a shell script, a test or an AI assistant that speaks the Model Context Protocol (MCP), such as Claude, over a connection that stays on your computer and is off until you switch it on. Run any command, press any control and read the result. The developer docs at /docs have the protocol, every command, MCP setup and recipes, and /docs.md is the same page as Markdown. ### Do I need an account? No. There is no account, no ads and no tracking. Help & Feedback asks for an email address only if you use it, so the reply can reach you. ### Which files can it open? Raw files from many cameras, including Canon CR3, Apple ProRAW and other DNG files, as well as JPEG, HEIC, PNG and TIFF. ### Are my original photos changed? Never. Your edits are stored as instructions beside the photo and applied when it is shown or exported, so every edit can be undone. ### Are my photos uploaded anywhere? No. Everything runs on your device. Syncing between your devices is optional and goes through a LightCraft server you run yourself. The models for search, People and Remove are downloaded once, when you ask for them. ### Do I need a server? No. LightBites works with a local library on your device, on its own. A server is only for syncing: run the LightCraft server on a NAS or computer you own when you want the same library on several devices. ### How does sync work? Run a LightCraft server (it is open source) on a computer, NAS or small server of your own, and sign in to it from each device. They then share one library, and a change you make on one device, such as an edit, a rating or a new album, appears on the others: photos, edits, albums, ratings, keywords and presets. Photo folders already on the server appear without being copied, the LightCraft desktop and web apps open the same library, and each device can keep every original or only previews. ### Does it have a dark mode? Yes. LightBites follows your device between light and dark, or you can keep it on Light or Dark in Settings. ### How much does it cost? LightBites is free to download, and editing and your library stay free. Exporting and sharing photos (with Save to Photos, Edit In and contact sheets) come with LightBites Pro, one purchase with no subscription, after a free 7-day trial. It is an in-app purchase on the App Store, and one purchase covers your iPhone, iPad and Mac. ## Pages - [Home](http://localhost:3000/): What it does, who it is for, how sync works and the questions people ask. - [Guides](http://localhost:3000/guides): Step-by-step guides with screenshots from iPhone and Mac: how to use the app, and how to edit raw photos like a pro, with the raw files and finished settings to download. - [Developers](http://localhost:3000/docs): Developer docs: control the Mac app from a script, a terminal or an AI assistant. The local protocol, commands, controls, MCP setup and recipes. - [Roadmap](http://localhost:3000/roadmap): What is being built now, what comes next and what is already done. - [Developer docs as Markdown](http://localhost:3000/docs.md): the whole reference in one file. - [Guides as Markdown](http://localhost:3000/guides.md): how to use the app and how to edit raw photos, step by step.