macOS · direct download · build 1 · 2 September 2026
Version 26.0.3 beta current
2 September 2026 · build 4 · delta update from 26.0.2
- Presets in the menu bar. The Favorites menu is now Presets: your develop presets, each with the thumbnail of the image it was created from — pick one to apply it to every selected image in the grid. Favorite folders live in the sidebar (⌘D / ⇧⌘D still add and remove the current folder).
- Right-click a favorite folder for Show in Finder and Remove from Favorites.
Version 26.0.2 beta
2 September 2026 · build 3 · delta update from 26.0.1
- Favorites, grown up. A Favorites menu in the menu bar (⌘D adds the current folder, ⇧⌘D removes it); each favourite shows a four-photo mosaic of its most recent images and a photo count in the sidebar.
- Bridge-style grid. Hairline separators between cells, and the selected image carries a clickable star-rating row (⊘ + five stars, keyboard 0–5) that writes real
xmp:Rating — visible to Lightroom and Bridge.
- OpenFX plugin presets. The parameter palette gains a Presets menu per plugin: save the current parameters under a name with a thumbnail captured at that moment, re-apply in one click.
- Vectors and PDFs open in their apps. SVG, AI and EPS files open in Vector Designer, PDFs in Pdf Editor Pro (system default when not installed); PDF/AI/EPS now list in the grid with real content thumbnails.
- LUT on/off switch beside the LUT picker, matching the OpenFX one — bypass without losing the choice, honoured by exports and grid thumbnails.
- Develop presets in the editor panel, with thumbnails, storing the complete develop state.
- The window opens maximized at launch; the Z zoom tool shows the magnifier immediately and steps instantly while held; heavy OpenFX plugins no longer stall editing (draft-resolution previews while dragging, and grid thumbnails wait until the editor closes).
Version 26.0.1 beta
2 September 2026 · build 2 · delta update from 26.0
- English interface throughout. Every label, menu, palette, status and error message is now in English (205 strings). Sidecars and presets written by 26.0 still load unchanged.
- The app file is now
Golden Gate.app. The 26.0 disk image installed a file still named after the internal project; from this release the bundle carries the product name.
- Installed copies of 26.0 receive this update automatically (a ~4 MB delta).
Version 26.0 beta
The first public release, and a beta: a signed and notarised DMG with built-in updates, published so people outside the workshop can finally use it. Everything below is in this build; the app is young, so treat your originals as originals and send us what breaks.
Feature list
- The grid — an entire folder of shots drawn by Skia on Metal, with mipmapped GPU thumbnails, realtime pinch and ⌘-scroll zoom, folder navigation and history, drag and drop, multi-selection and keyboard navigation
- Two RAW engines — the in-house engine (rawler, linear half-float) on ⌘E, and Apple's CIRAWFilter on ⌥⌘E: the same negative, two demosaics, one keystroke apart
- Raw formats — CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, RAF, DNG, ORF, RW2, PEF and SRW, alongside TIFF, JPEG, PNG and HEIF
- Develop — exposure, white balance by temperature and tint, contrast, shadows and highlights, and the whole saturation family including vibrance, applied to the linear raw data on the GPU
- Free-form tone curve — a real curve editor drawn with NanoVG: points anywhere, dragged live
- Vectorscope — a live scope beside the picture while you grade
- Preserve-highlights fusion — an HDR pass that rebuilds blown highlights from the raw headroom instead of clipping them
- Twenty film LUTs — Portra 160, 400 and 800 (with push), Gold 200, UltraMax 400, Ektar 100, Ektachrome 100, Kodachrome 64, Verita 200D, the Vision3 50D, 200T, 250D and 500T print stocks, Velvia 100, Provia 100F, Pro 400H, C200 and X-Tra 400 — plus film grain
- OpenFX plugin host — third-party plugins rendered on Metal, with parameter palettes ported from Photo Editor Pro; Dehancer, Filmbox and the openfx-misc suite load as they are
- Print and CMYK simulation — see what the paper will do before the paper does it
- Physical straighten — levelling a horizon rotates the pixels, in one undo step, instead of leaving an orientation flag for another app to misread
- XMP sidecars — develop settings and star ratings written next to the file in Adobe's
crs namespace, so Camera Raw and Lightroom read what you did - Copy and paste develop settings — from one frame to a whole selection
- Export — 16-bit TIFF and HEIC in HDR PQ
- Feedback built in — Help ▸ Send Feedback… (⇧⌘F) and a floating feedback chat (⌥⌘F), both with the log attached
- Updates built in — Check for Updates… in the Golden Gate menu; the DMG is signed by RainbowFactory LTD, notarised by Apple, and every update is verified against the app's own EdDSA key before it is opened
Known limits of this beta
- No catalogue and no database: the folder on disk is the library
- Apple silicon only, macOS 12 or later
- The app is named Golden Gate everywhere it speaks, but the bundle in the DMG is still called
imagebrowser.app — its working name, kept for this release so installed copies and their settings survive the rename - Rough edges are expected: this is a first public build, and feedback is what turns it into a second one