AKS
GPU RAW Developer & Photo Editor
Lightroom-class editing without the subscription or the bloat. Aks (Urdu for 'reflection' or 'image') is a GPU-accelerated RAW developer and photo editor built as a fast, private, native desktop app.
Origin Story
As a photographer who codes, I got tired of renting my tools. I wanted something I owned outright — fast, offline, and mine.
How It's Built
The core is a WebGL2 fragment-shader pipeline, so every adjustment is GPU-accelerated and renders in real time, wrapped in a Rust / Tauri shell that handles native file access and RAW decoding.
Engineering Notes
A GPU pipeline, not CPU filters
Adjustments run through a WebGL2 fragment-shader chain, so the heavy per-pixel work happens on the GPU in real time rather than blocking the main thread. It's what makes a browser-tech editor feel like a native one.
RAW, owned and offline
A Rust/Tauri shell handles native file access and RAW decoding, and nothing leaves your machine. As a photographer who codes, the point was to stop renting the tools and own every pixel of the pipeline.
Aks is what happens when a photographer who codes gets tired of renting their tools — so they build a developer of their own, and own every pixel of it.
What It Does
GPU Pipeline
A WebGL2 fragment-shader chain renders adjustments in real time — the heavy per-pixel work runs on the GPU, not the main thread.
RAW Development
Develop RAW files with the tonal and colour controls a photographer actually reaches for.
Native & Private
A Rust / Tauri desktop app — your photographs never leave your machine, and there is no account to create.
Where It Stands
Aks is a working GPU RAW developer running its full shader pipeline natively. The roadmap is breadth of RAW formats and a preset system, all riding the same WebGL2 chain that already keeps adjustments real-time.
Aks is Tauri 2 + Rust with a React 19 front end. The editing engine is a WebGL2 fragment-shader pipeline (with Canvas2D for select operations) so adjustments are GPU-accelerated; Framer Motion drives the interface. It sits in my family of Urdu-named native apps.