ART — The Complete Guide: A Simpler RAW Developer with Masks and Perspective Correction
ART (Another RawTherapee) takes RawTherapee’s development engine and trims the interface: fewer controls, more up-to-date tools. The result is a professional-quality RAW developer you can start using without weeks of learning.
ART (Another RawTherapee)
Alberto Griggio and contributors
A RAW developer derived from RawTherapee with a simpler interface, local editing with masks and automatic perspective correction.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Local editing — drawn and parametric masks to lift a dark area or fix the sky.
- Automatic perspective correction — straightens facades and converging lines in building photos.
- Lean interface — the important tools without the clutter of the original project.
- Ratings and labels in XMP — stored in a sidecar file that moves between programs.
- LibRaw decoding — broad camera support.
How it differs from RawTherapee
ART drops some rarely used options in favour of a clearer workflow and local masks that are easier to use. It suits fixing exposure in field photos and straightening building shots. Limitation: it is mainly a one-developer project, and documentation is relatively sparse.
Related tools
For the original project with every option — RawTherapee. For RAW development with a built-in catalogue — darktable. For pixel and layer editing after development — GIMP.
RawTherapee
RawTherapee project
A free RAW developer with a 32-bit processing engine, fine colour and detail control and batch processing of photos.
Get it from the vendor
darktable
darktable project
RAW development and photo library management with non-destructive editing, a free alternative to Lightroom.
Get it from the vendor
GIMP
GIMP team
Advanced image editing — site photos, perspective correction, marking defects and preparing images for reports.
Get it from the vendor
digiKam
KDE community
Management of a large photo archive with tags, face recognition and metadata, plus a built-in image and RAW editor.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
The comfortable choice for anyone who wants RawTherapee quality in an interface that does not intimidate.