A macOS Photos–style photo manager for Windows — folder-native, non-destructive, with HEIC/MOV Live Photo, map view, and GPU-accelerated browsing. - OliverZhaohaibin/iPhotron-LocalPhotoAlbumManager
As I am rather fond of Live Photos and the minimalist Mac-style photo albums, I found no suitable lightweight Live Photo management software on Windows, nor any light, purely local photo album applications. Consequently, I emulated one using Python and the Qt technology stack.
Leveraging an SQLite database and GPU acceleration to ensure browsing speed is crucial for large photo libraries. When scanning thousands of photos to build an index for the first time, will it cause high CPU/memory usage or unresponsive UI? Is it possible to schedule scans (e.g., during idle time)?
For users switching from Mac, this "macOS Photos-style" positioning directly addresses a key pain point and immediately sparks the desire to try it out. As an open-source project, is its installation and initial configuration process user-friendly enough for non-technical users to get started easily?
The professional color grading, cropping tools, and independent .ipo edit files offer peace of mind when retouching photos, with no risk of damaging the original images. For ordinary users, are there plain-language explanations or presets for these advanced adjustment parameters (e.g., "Brilliance", "Vignette") to help enhance photos quickly instead of tweaking settings blindly?
The fact that it supports HEIC and MOV Live Photos on Windows is a total game-changer for iPhone users. I wonder if the playback is seamless, and if it also lets you pick a different 'key photo' for the Live Photos just like you can on iOS.
Congrats on the launch! Love how iPhotron brings a fast, folder‑native, non‑destructive Photos‑style experience to Windows users.
Hey Haibin, that frustration of wanting something Mac-like on Windows and just not finding it is real. Was there a specific moment where you tried yet another photo app, realized it was either bloated or couldn’t handle Live Photos, and thought fine, I’ll just build it myself?
