PiRAWnha Raw Image Processor App for iPad

Compatibility: iPad running iOS 4.3 or later.

Version Reviewed: PiRAWnha 2.0

PiRAWnha Pros:

• Offers a range of useful image adjustments.
• Detailed help manual is available within the app.
• Image export can continue in the background after PiRAWnha is closed.
• Supports "Open In…" for importing images from other sources such as email, web, Dropbox, etc.

PiRAWnha Cons:

• Slow and very resource intensive. Displays frequent low memory messages and requires you to restart iPad often and close all background apps.
• Slider controls make it difficult to make precise adjustments.
• Interface is ugly and not optimized for touch input.

• PiRAWnha allows you to develop and process raw camera files with control over exposure, contrast, brightness, highlight recovery, gamma correction, white balance, hue, saturation, vibrancy, crop and rotation, noise reduction, and sharpening.


• Works with all raw files supported by Apple.


• Automatically displays all raw images found on your iPad. Import raw files to iPad using Apple's iPad Camera Connection Kit, through iTunes file sharing, or open from other sources such as Dropbox, email, etc.


• Display EXIF metadata including camera make and model, shutter speed, aperture value, ISO, focal length, date, and time.


• Add ratings and keywords to images which will be saved as metadata in the file or an XMP sidecar file.


• Save adjustment settings as a preset, then apply to multiple images for batch processing.


• Review edits in a full screen preview where you can compare original photo, previous edit, and current edit.


• Choose from several output file formats for saving edited photos. (jpg, tiff, bmp, png, eps, ppm, psd, pdf)


• Saves photos at full resolution (up to 15 megapixels on iPad 1, no limit on iPad 2).


• Export processed images in a batch and processing will continue if app is closed.


• Option to edit non-raw image files such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, etc.

PiRAWnha is fairly straightforward, and if you have worked with other photo editors, you should have no trouble getting up and running with this app. PiRAWnha automatically detects and displays all the raw files on your iPad when it opens, and you simply choose one and get to work. PiRAWnha offers a wealth of adjustments including exposure, highlight recovery, gamma, contrast, vibrancy, white balance. and so on.

In terms of sheer functionality, PiRAWnha excels, but the overall experience is hampered by the limited recourses of the iPad and the clunky user interface design. I was constantly bombarded with low memory warnings on my iPad 2 as I used the app, even when working on a small cropped portion of a photo that could not have been more than 2-3 megapixels. Even after restarting the iPad and closing all background apps, I was only able to work on one image and open another before the low memory warnings started to appear. Fortunately, in most cases, I was able to dismiss the warning and the processing would complete, albeit very slowly.

The user-interface utilizes sliders for making adjustments, which is similar to most desktop software, but is not ideally suited to the touch interface of the iPad and it makes it difficult to dial-in precise adjustments. The user interface design is also rather plain and unattractive. One nice feature, however, is that you can double-tap any of the slider controls to reset its values back to zero, or default.

Although I liked the editing flexibility offered by PiRAWnha, it behaved strangely at times. For instance, many times during editing, my image would crop or zoom unpredictably after making certain adjustments (always contrast and sometimes others) and I could never figure out how to view the whole image again. Usually making another adjustment would reset the view, but not always. I also found the crop tool was very tricky to work with.

As you work on a photo in PiRAWnha, you can toggle between the current and previous edit by double tapping the image, and toggle between the original and unedited version by triple-tapping. Or you can switch into a full screen preview where you can compare the current image view with the embedded thumbnail, the original raw file, the previous edit, and the current edit.

When you finish your adjustments, you add the image to the export queue and can process more files, or go ahead and export. Although several export formats are offered, you must choose one as the default in preferences and you can't choose the format on a file-by-file basis. You also can't transmit images directly into Photoshop as you can with PiRAWnha's only competitor, PhotoRAW. Exporting the final image is a slow process, so it's nice that you can close the app and let this continue in the background, although you do need to open the app once again before the photos will be saved to the iPad's photo library.

Overall, PiRAWnha is a capable and promising raw image processor, but it its current state no one is going to say it's enjoyable to work with. The app appears to be actively developed, though, and the developers request input on their website and in several photography communities, so there is hope for improvement. If developing raw files on an iPad is something you need to do, PiRAWnha is currently the best option.

PiRAWnha in the iTunes App Store