Export

Press E in Browse to export selected photographs, or all photographs in the current view when none are selected.

The Export button shows the target count. Export uses each photograph’s selected treatment. ORIGINAL and photographs without edits export as a straight conversion.

The resizable export window floats above the main window. You can continue selecting photographs behind it. Keys apply to the active window; rating or rejecting with Export focused does not change photographs behind it.

Preview. The first photograph appears with its watermark. For multiple photographs, the preview advances every three seconds. Hover over it or adjust a watermark slider to pause temporarily. Click the photograph, an arrow or pause to stop cycling until resumed. Cycling also stops when another application is active.

Presets. Select a preset above the settings. Changing a setting displays Custom. The ⋯ menu has Save these settings…, Rename… and Delete…. Rename and Delete are disabled for Custom. Deleting a preset preserves current settings. Presets include the destination; a preset saved without one keeps the destination already selected.

A summary above the sections describes format, size, colour space, sharpening, watermark and destination. Each collapsed section also shows its current values. Open sections are remembered.

The file. Choose JPEG or HEIF with adjustable quality, 16-bit TIFF, or PNG at 8 or 16 bits. Colour spaces are sRGB, Display P3 and Adobe RGB. ProPhoto is available only at 16 bits to avoid visible gradient banding.

Size. Resize by long edge or percentage. Frames renders at full resolution before resizing and never enlarges. Output sharpening applies only after resampling.

Metadata. Camera information, capture date, location and copyright have separate switches. Location is off by default. Keywords and captions come from the catalogue; creator and copyright come from Photographer settings. Turning Copyright off withholds creator and copyright while keeping captions and keywords.

The catalogue’s keyword list replaces existing file keywords, including with an empty list. PNG may preserve an existing copyright notice even with Copyright off. See Captions and credit and Words of your own.

The mark. Add a text or image watermark at one of nine positions. Set size and inset as fractions of the exported long edge, plus opacity. Text colour defaults to white. Tokens such as © {date:yyyy} resolve per photograph.

Click the section’s preview grid to position the mark and use the sliders to adjust it. Watermarks are composited after resizing and output sharpening. They do not appear in Photos write-back. The section header shows the mark, position and colour, or none when disabled.

A selected watermark image is remembered through a file-access bookmark. A missing image stops the affected export and identifies the file. The window also counts photographs whose text tokens produce no usable mark.

Where it goes. Under Send to, choose Folder or Share sheet, then set the folder and filename patterns. The tokens are {name}, {date:yyyy-MM-dd}, {time:HHmmss}, {seq:3}, {camera}, {lens}, {iso} and {rating}; the { } button beside each field lists them and appends the chosen one, with its format ready to edit. Tokens are highlighted and the resolved path appears below. Token values are sanitised as filename text: a slash in a lens name does not create a directory. This section opens automatically when no destination has been chosen.

Share exported photographs. Choose Share sheet under Send to, then click Share. Frames exports with your chosen format, size, metadata and watermark settings. The export window closes and progress appears in the activity readout. When the export finishes, the macOS share sheet opens with the files that were successfully written. Choose an available service, such as Mail, Messages or AirDrop. If no files were written, the share sheet does not open; check the activity readout for failures.

Sharing does not require a destination folder. The folder row and Subfolder field are hidden, and only the filename pattern is used. Your folder settings return when you choose Folder again. Frames writes shared files to a temporary folder and removes folders older than 24 hours when the app next launches.

Downloads and space. The summary estimates required original downloads and their size using camera-model averages, and shows destination free space. When originals are available it shows originals on disk. Otherwise, Download now fetches them before the export. Insufficient estimated space is shown in red but does not disable Export.

Existing files. Choose Replace, Skip or Keep both before the first render. Keep both also protects files created while the export is running, including files from another export, by choosing another numbered name. Skip leaves a file that appears before writing untouched. Replace applies only to existing requested filenames; numbered alternatives do not replace other files.

Exports run as one cancellable activity, fetching the next photograph while rendering the current one. Failed photographs are named. A photograph whose required mask detection fails, or needs an unavailable Select model, is not exported. Retry after the detector recovers or the model has downloaded.

All exports are SDR. Original gain maps are omitted because they do not describe the edited pixels.

Command line. rawctl export --out <dir> --rating <n> exports without a window. A rating floor is required.

See Soft proofing, Captions and credit, Words of your own.