Import your photos and keep them in your own folder
You point Abney at a folder on your computer and it reads what is in
there. Your photos lie on a desk, like prints on a table, with the rest
in a row of thumbnails along the bottom. Rate them 1 to 5 from the
keyboard and show only the ones you kept. Nothing leaves your computer
while you do it.
★★★★
Tray · 24
★★★★★★★★★★★★
The keepers on the deskRated 1 to 5
Import
JPEG and TIFF import, at 8 and 16 bit
Camera raw, via the embedded JPEG preview
Single files or whole folders, dropped in
Photos pasted from the clipboard
Organise
Ratings and culling, 1 to 5 on the keyboard
Thumbnails grouped by roll or by rating
Full-screen preview, with keys to rate and put photos on the desk
Several desks from one set of photos
Your files
Unlimited photographs, desks and books
Photos in a folder on your computer
Offline, no connection needed
Originals never rewritten
Backups of your ratings, edits and layouts, kept by the hour, day and month
You edit a photograph in place on the desk and the change lands as
you drag. Underneath is a physical model of a darkroom, where your
picture is exposed onto a film negative and then printed onto colour
paper.
All eleven pairings are in the free account.
Zoomed detail. The desk shows the whole photo.Portra 800on Portra EnduraFast portrait film on the soft paper Kodak coated for skin. Warm, forgiving highlights and grain you can see.
A book starts from the photos already on your desk, so the sequence
you found is the order it opens in. You see two facing pages at a
time, the way a book is read, and drag pages until the order feels right. A title or a
caption sits on the page, not in the picture.
Page 24Page 25
Two facing pages, as the app lays them outPages 24 and 25
Setup
A four-step setup: binding, sheet, page, name
Selected photos as pages, in desk order
Portrait or landscape pages
Sheets A3, A4, A5 and Letter, plus Canon Selphy postcards
Layout
Two facing pages at a time, in reading order
Inset, bleed or spread across the spine
Margins and gutters in millimetres
Per-page overrides
Resize handles that keep the crop
Text
Text blocks you place yourself
Typeface, size, kerning, leading and ink
Shared text styles
Your own font files
Print the book at home or export a press-ready PDF
You choose a binding and a trim in millimetres, and Abney works out
which page goes where on each sheet. What comes off the printer is a stack that folds into
the book you print at home, already in the right order. Print a test copy on
plain paper first and a wrong fold costs you nothing.
Export is free and the PDF carries no watermark.
A4 · duplextwo-up · gap 6 mm
Sheet one of a stapled bookPage 32 and page 1
Sheets
Trim sizes in millimetres
Page order on each sheet worked out from the binding
You send a link and the other person opens the same desk in their
browser, moving the same photographs you are. Comments stick to the
photo they are about, so a note about the third frame stays on the
third frame. When the book is done, you give it a public page and put
the link in a message.
Sharing costs nothing, and the account the other
person needs is free too.
Public link
Evening walkDavid Cibis142 views
A photograph on its own public pageNo account needed to look
Collaborate
Invite links to a desk
View or edit roles
Live cursors and edit sync
Comments
Comments pinned to photographs, with replies
Threads you resolve when they are done
An unread count for what came in
Public pages
Public links to a photo or a book
No account needed to look
Link previews in chats and on social
View counts that skip your own visits
Manage
Every share listed in one place
Social links, off by default
Uploaded previews deleted when you stop sharing
Questions
Is Abney really free?
Yes, all of it. Abney is an independent project with no paid tier
to sell you. There are no ads, and no data is sold.
Are there watermarks or export limits?
No. The press-ready PDF and every photo export come out clean.
There is no watermark and no export limit, because nothing is held
back for a paid tier.
Will it ever cost money?
The local app will stay free. Optional cloud features may carry a
price in the future, since storage and bandwidth have real costs.
Where do my photos live?
In a folder on your computer. Abney reads and writes that folder
directly, works offline, and uploads nothing by default.
Is there AI editing?
No. Abney contains no generative tools, and every edit is your
own. The colour system is a physical model of film negatives and the
colour paper they were printed on.
How do sharing and comments work?
Sharing a desk requires a free account on both sides. Invitees sign in,
page through the books, and leave comments pinned to the photographs. A public
link needs no account to look. Sharing uploads preview images, never your
originals, and they are deleted when you stop sharing.
Nothing to unlock.
The whole app is in the free account. Start with the
folder your photos are already in.
