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Kiln – a fast, native batch image processor

Kiln – a fast, native batch image processor

by the-hangry-dev·Jul 28, 2026·1 point·1 comment
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AI Analysis

●●SolidShip ItNiche Gem

Beats XnConvert benchmarks with a custom C++ pipeline and zero telemetry.

Strengths
  • •Custom cross-platform UI toolkit avoids Electron bloat and memory overhead.
  • •Verifiable performance gains over XnConvert in resize and conversion tasks.
  • •Reusable pipelines allow saving complex operation chains for future batches.
Weaknesses
  • •macOS version is currently unavailable pending code signing certificate.
  • •Lacks advanced features like watch folders or RAW input in this beta.
Target Audience

Photographers, designers, developers

Similar To

XnConvert · ImageMagick · Bulk Image Processor

Post Description

I was tired of outdated UIs and performance of similar tools. Nor did I want to write ImageMagick scripts every time I needed to resize/convert/watermark a folder with a few thousand images.

It's a native desktop app built with C++23, Skia for rendering, libvips for image processing and my own cross-platform UI toolkit - no Electron/Qt.

It allows building reusable pipelines: resize, convert, compress, watermark, sharpen, blur, rotate, flip, rename, and metadata (EXIF/IPTC/XMP) editing, chained in any order and saved for reuse. Batches run in parallel.

Everything is local — no uploads, no signups/account, no telemetry, no network calls during processing.

It's currently in public beta (as mentioned, no signups or accounts needed - can just download), for Windows and Linux (Wayland only). Waiting for the Apple certificate to sign the macOS dmg installer, at which point I'll post the download link for macOS.

Business model: free beta now, one I've received enough feedback and the tool is mature enough - a one-time license per major version once it's out of beta. There won't be any subscriptions or telemetry ever.

Would love to get your feedback, especially on missing formats/operations (e.g. RAW file formats, watch folders, a CLI) to drive the roadmap to the first official version.

Cheers.

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Niche GemShip It
dmaiken
115mo ago