RAW from many cameras
Opens the RAW files of the many cameras supported by LibRaw, from Nikon NEF to Fujifilm RAF (X-Trans included), demosaiced at 16 bits per channel.
Free RAW developerFukon
Develop your RAW photos straight from your folders. Add them and start: nothing to import, nothing to copy.
Always free Planned for macOS tooWhat is Fukon
Fukon starts from a simple idea: your photos already live in folders, so the program should simply work there. Add your folders, pick a photo, develop it: nothing is imported or copied. Your edits are saved in a small file next to the original (.dop), and ratings, colors and tags are also written to an .xmp file that other programs can read.
Your RAW files are never touched. The program is light, fast and made for people who want to focus on the photo, with a dark, neutral interface that does not bias your judgement of color.
The name comes from the two systems I shoot with, Fujifilm and Nikon, but Fukon is not limited to them: it opens the RAW files of many other cameras too.
Free. Always.
Fukon is freeware: free today and free tomorrow. No ads, no account, no subscription. If it is useful to you, you can support its development with a voluntary donation, but it is never required.
What it already does
All of this is already in the program.
Your folders, no import
Add your folders to a catalog (just a named list: a client, a trip) and the photos appear on their own. Nothing is imported, copied or moved. Edits live in a .dop file next to each RAW; rating, color and tags also go to an .xmp file.
16-bit linear pipeline
Development in 16-bit linear ProPhoto RGB, with smooth zoom and pan up to 100% and beyond.
Basic adjustments
White balance in Kelvin and tint, exposure, tone, saturation and vibrance, plus texture, clarity and dehaze.
Curves
Luminance, RGB and single-channel curves with smooth, monotone interpolation; drag a tone directly on the photo, save your curves by name and use them again on any photo.
Color grading and mixer
Color wheels for shadows, midtones, highlights and global, with blending and balance, and an eight-band hue, saturation and luminance mixer, on the whole photo or inside a mask.
Detail
Sharpening with masking, luminance and color noise reduction, with a 100% view.
Geometry
Crop with aspect ratios, free rotation right on the picture, flip, straighten along a line and perspective correction.
Local masks
Linear and radial gradients, brush, luminosity and color ranges, automatic subject detection; combine them by adding, subtracting and intersecting, and give each one its own adjustments.
Red eye
Click near the eye and Fukon finds the pupil.
Undo and before/after
Undo and redo for every adjustment, before/after with one key, and a split view with a line you can drag.
Filmstrip and ratings
Fast thumbnails, stars, color marks, review status, tags and notes, all editable from the strip; search, filter and sort the strip by rating, color, status, tag, date, camera and lens.
Metadata
EXIF with GPS, IPTC, ICC profile and the maker notes of Nikon, Fujifilm, Canon, Sony, Panasonic and Olympus / OM System, read without loading the picture.
Interface in 5 languages
A flat, neutral-gray dark interface in English, Italian, French, Spanish and German, with live language switching.
Graphics card (experimental)
Optional drawing on the GPU with Direct3D 11, off by default and switched on in Preferences.
Export
JPEG, PNG, TIFF (8 and 16 bit), WebP, AVIF, JPEG XL, HEIC and GIF that look like the screen, with sRGB, Display P3, Adobe RGB or ProPhoto and embedded ICC profiles; five ways to set the size and several sizes at once, a maximum file size, progressive JPEG, perceptual or relative rendering, output sharpening, a text or logo watermark, file naming, export presets and an animated GIF of a folder.
Copy and sync edits
Copy the edits of one photo, choose which groups to keep (tone, color, curves, grading, detail...) and paste them onto another photo or sync them to a whole folder, in one undoable step.
Presets
37 built-in looks (classics, black and white, film styles, special), your own presets, a live thumbnail of your photo for each one and a preview as you hover. Apply them at any amount or on top of your edits, keep favorites in your own order, search them and share them as packs. Import presets from Lightroom, ON1 and Capture One, even from a ZIP with many of them (converted as far as possible).
Colored filters
38 filters: warming and cooling correction, neutral density, blue and tobacco graduated filters, reverse and horizon graduates and a darker sky, solid or graduated, with their own controls.
Black and white and grain
A black and white switch in the color mixer, classic filter looks (yellow, orange, red, green, blue), film-style looks and film grain with amount and size.
Thumbnail menu
Right-click a thumbnail to revert the photo to the original, rotate it left or right, or delete it from the disk. Thumbnails show your real development.
Monitor color management
The photo, the thumbnails and the presets are shown through the profile of the monitor the window is on, so colors are right on wide-gamut displays too.
JPEG, PNG and TIFF too
Pictures that are not RAW are opened and developed with the same tools, in 16 bits, with their color profile and orientation.
Installer, guide and updates
An installer or a portable zip, a quick guide in the program (F1), “Report a problem” with an anonymous text to send by e-mail, and an update check only if you want it.
Lens correction
Distortion, vignetting and lateral chromatic aberration, from the data the camera writes in the RAW file or from the lensfun database of lenses; the lens is recognized by itself, or you choose it.
Spot removal and vignette
One click removes dust or a spot (the source is picked for you and can be moved), with circles or brush strokes, healed or cloned; and a creative vignette that follows the crop.
History, snapshots and virtual copies
Every step of an edit in a list, a click to go back to it; named snapshots kept with the photo; virtual copies to develop the same photo in several ways without copying the RAW.
Compare and survey
Two photos side by side with zoom and place linked, or all the photos you chose in a grid, to keep the best and set the others aside.
Bulk rename
Rename many photos at once with a scheme of date, counter, camera and text, with a preview and undo; the .dop and .xmp files and the virtual copies follow.
Folders that open at once
Thumbnails are kept on disk with your edits, so a folder you have already seen shows up at once, without reading the RAW files again.
Screenshots
A look at the program.
Coming next
What we are building now and what comes after. No dates promised.
Import from the memory card
Copy the photos from the card to a folder you choose, renamed with your scheme and skipping the ones already copied.
Map
The photos with a GPS position on a map.
Camera profiles and Fujifilm recipes
Color profiles of the camera, the film simulation of a Fujifilm photo read from the file, and our versions of popular Fujifilm recipes.
One photo per page or a contact sheet, with margins and the printer's profile.
HDR, panorama and AI noise reduction
Merging exposures and stitching photos, and noise reduction with a neural network.
Download Fukon
Windows 11, 64-bit. Free. Version, release notes and checksums are on the download page.
Latest version: 1.1.0
Questions
Windows says “Windows protected your PC”: is it safe?
Fukon is not digitally signed: a signing certificate costs money every year, and Windows SmartScreen warns about every program it does not know yet. Click “More info”, then “Run anyway”. To be sure the file is the one published here, compare its SHA-256 with the one on the Download page.
Do I have to import my photos?
No. Fukon works on your folders as they are: you add them to a catalogue (just a named list of folders) and the photos show up. Nothing is copied or moved.
Where are my edits kept?
Next to each photo, in a small .dop file; rating, color and tags also in an .xmp file that other programs read. The RAW files are never changed. Move or copy a folder and your work goes with it.
Does Fukon send data anywhere?
No. There is no telemetry, no account and no advertising, and no data is taken from you. Only if you ask, it reads the number of the latest version from this website. Details on the Privacy page.
Can I use it for my work?
Yes. Fukon is free for personal and professional use, also for paid work, with no time limit. See the License.
Which cameras does it open?
The RAW files of the cameras that LibRaw supports (most of them, Nikon and Fujifilm X-Trans included), and JPEG, PNG and TIFF pictures.
How do I report a problem?
In Fukon, menu ≡ > Report a problem: it prepares a text with the version, your system and the last errors (without your user name and your folders), which you send to fukon@milkmail.it yourself with what you were doing.
Fukon is free, and always will be.
If it is useful to you and you want to help, buy me a beer: it turns into development time, tools, a Windows code-signing certificate, a website and test machines.
No obligation, and no feature is reserved for donors. Donations are handled by PayPal.
How it is made
Fukon is written in Delphi Professional with the FireMonkey (FMX) framework. RAW files are decoded with LibRaw, loaded as an external dynamic library.
Thanks
Thanks to the LibRaw team and contributors for their outstanding work (LGPL 2.1 / CDDL 1.0 license), to the lensfun project and its contributors for the database of lenses and cameras (CC BY-SA 3.0), to Google and the libwebp contributors for the WebP encoder (BSD license), to the libavif and aom projects for AVIF and to the JPEG XL project for libjxl (BSD licenses), to Embarcadero for Delphi and FireMonkey, and to the SQLite project.
What about macOS?
I develop on Windows and I have no Mac to build and test the program on. If enough donations arrive, I will buy a MacBook Pro and we will build Fukon for macOS too.