---
title: "Open Negative Initiative: Film negative converter, Mac & PC"
description: "Catalogue, convert and edit film on Mac and Windows: negatives, slides, black & white, each roll measured whole, colour managed to the file. Free, open source."
url: "https://open-negative-initiative.com"
---

# Open Negative Initiative

**Convert, edit and catalogue your scanned film.** Negatives, slides and black & white, from a camera or a scanner. A free film negative converter for Mac and Windows.

[Download for Mac](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-releases/releases/latest/download/OpenNegative.dmg) · [Download for Windows](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-releases/releases/latest/download/ONI-windows.zip)

![A seaside arcade at night, a man in silhouette in profile between claw machines lit in pink and yellow neon.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/media/carousel/arcade-neon-1400.webp)

![The raw scan of the arcade: the pink neon reads pale green, the silhouette almost white, under the orange base.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/media/carousel/arcade-neon-raw-1400.webp)

## Straight out of the app.

**The photograph above was converted in Open Negative Initiative.** This is the editor.

![The Open Negative Initiative editor on the Color tab: a converted night photo of glass lift lit green on a Paris pavement at night on the canvas, the frames of the roll on the left, and on the right the histogram, AUTO WHITE BALANCE and the colour and exposure sliders.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/_astro/editor-color-negative.BPHj9Uhs_ZacVtI.webp)

## What it does to your film

**Scans from a camera or a scanner, your originals untouched, nothing to pay.** Then what it does to your film, step by step.

**Converts what you scan.** Camera RAW, linear DNG, TIFF, JPEG or PNG, from a camera on a copy stand, a film scanner or a flatbed, as Negative, Positive or B&W.

**Non-destructive.** Your originals are never rewritten: each edit lives in a small JSON file beside its scan, and the export writes a new 16-bit TIFF or JPEG.

**Free and standalone.** No Lightroom, no account, no paid tier.

### [One measurement per roll. Measured from all its frames.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/roll-measurement)

Prepare the Roll reads every frame and balances the roll on their median.

![The editor's Roll tab on its Measured Roll block, which reads: Acts on the 9 photos measured with this roll.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/_astro/editor-roll.Dekse4-L_fRTE3.webp)

### [Colour management. What you edit is what you export.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/colour-management)

One working space, a paper's ICC profile included, proofed on the canvas.

![The Export panel's Space field on DP3, beside sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto and Custom, above the LOAD A PROFILE… and GET PAPER PROFILES… buttons.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/_astro/export.BMlaRCCq_2sAfCc.webp)

### [Archive and Projects. Your folders are the catalogue.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/archive-and-projects)

A roll is a folder, a project gathers frames across rolls, and nothing is copied.

![The gallery open on the Film Scans folder, each roll's frames laid in a grid under its folder's name.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/_astro/gallery.CPXWUEzH_1ygMTW.webp)

### [Dust and scratches. You paint, your photo patches.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/dust-and-scratches)

Dust on a negative prints as white specks. Paint over one, and it is filled from your own frame.

![A crop of a colour frame before the brush: two pale dust fibres on a blue wall.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/media/dust-before-720.webp)

*Before*

![The same crop after two brush strokes: the fibres are gone and the grain of the blue is unchanged.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/media/dust-after-720.webp)

*After two brush strokes*

### [Density inversion. Every stop gets the same room.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/density-inversion)

Your negative is turned back to light in density, the way film recorded it, so your highlights keep their detail.

![The Roll tab's Density Ceiling slider, above the Per-Channel Levels block.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/_astro/panel-roll.BCFVgtXv_Z1WPlkx.webp)

### [Chroma denoise. Colour noise goes, grain stays.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/chroma-denoise)

The colour noise of a dark or thin frame goes; your film's grain stays as it was.

![A crop of a night frame before chroma denoise: coloured speckle across a dark coat.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/media/chroma-off-720.webp)

*Slider off*

![The same crop after chroma denoise: the coloured speckle is gone and the film grain is unchanged.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/media/chroma-on-720.webp)

*Slider on*

### [Contact sheets. Your roll on one sheet.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/contact-sheet)

Five frames to a row, each numbered by its place on the roll.

![The top-left corner of a contact sheet the app exported: frames of one roll on black, numbered in orange, and the Open Negative Initiative logo at the foot.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/_astro/contact-sheet-export.CWbJl5Ac_19iwwm.webp)

### [Export and EXIF. Your camera, lens and film.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/export-and-exif)

Ready for the web, a screen or a print, with your camera and film written in the EXIF.

![The EXIF column of the Export screen: Name, then Camera, Lens, Film, ISO, Date, Artist and Copyright.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/_astro/export.BMlaRCCq_2sAfCc.webp)

[All features](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features)

## Every roll, labelled with its film.

**41 stocks, by maker.** Picking a colour stock also sets its dye family under Dye Separation.

Generic Azure, Generic Black & White, Generic Color Negative, Generic Color Positive, Generic Redscale

AgfaPhoto APX

CineStill 400D, CineStill 50D, CineStill 800T

Foma Fomapan 200, Foma Fomapan 400, Foma Fomapan 401

Fujifilm Acros, Fujifilm Fujicolor, Fujifilm Fujicolor Pro, Fujifilm Provia 100, Fujifilm Superia, Fujifilm Velvia 100, Fujifilm Velvia 50

Harman Phoenix, Harman Phoenix II, Harman Red

Ilford Delta 100, Ilford Delta 3200, Ilford Delta 400, Ilford FP4, Ilford HP5, Ilford Ortho, Ilford Pan F, Ilford SFX, Ilford XP2

Kodak Tri-X 400, Kodak ColorPlus, Kodak Ektachrome, Kodak Gold, Kodak Portra, Kodak UltraMax

Lomography LomoChrome Turquoise

Lucky Color 200

Mira Color 400, Mira Color 800

[Dye Separation, in the manual](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/roll#colour-dyes)

## Press Y, M or C.

**Colour, set with keys modelled on lab scanner keypads.** Switch the toolbar from Pro to Scanner, and each press is a step toward yellow or blue, magenta or green, cyan or red.

Silent here. In the app each key clicks, and Mute Key Clicks turns that off.

[Scanner, in the manual](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-colour)

## Open source.

**[GPL-3.0](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html).** The code is written in [a public repository](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-rs), and every release ships with its own source.

- [1.5.4](https://open-negative-initiative.com/changelog#v1.5.4) Latest version 2 November 2026 [OpenNegative-1.5.4-source.zip](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-releases/releases/download/v1.5.4/OpenNegative-1.5.4-source.zip)
- [1.5.3](https://open-negative-initiative.com/changelog#v1.5.3) 2 November 2026 [OpenNegative-1.5.3-source.zip](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-releases/releases/download/v1.5.3/OpenNegative-1.5.3-source.zip)
- [1.5.2](https://open-negative-initiative.com/changelog#v1.5.2) 2 November 2026 [OpenNegative-1.5.2-source.zip](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-releases/releases/download/v1.5.2/OpenNegative-1.5.2-source.zip)
- [1.5.1](https://open-negative-initiative.com/changelog#v1.5.1) 1 November 2026 [OpenNegative-1.5.1-source.zip](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-releases/releases/download/v1.5.1/OpenNegative-1.5.1-source.zip)

- [All release notes](https://open-negative-initiative.com/changelog)
- [Open source and licence](https://open-negative-initiative.com/open)

## One app instead of Lightroom and a plugin.

**A negative converter with its own catalogue.** It replaces a Lightroom and Negative Lab Pro workflow.

| App | Open Negative Initiative | Negative Lab Pro | Capture One |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Needs another app | No | Lightroom Classic | No |
| Price | Free | $99 once, plus Adobe | Subscription or perpetual |

Negative Lab Pro is a Lightroom Classic plugin: $99 once, plus Adobe. Open Negative Initiative needs nothing underneath it and keeps the catalogue itself. Leaving the plugin? [What a crack still costs, and what switching keeps](https://open-negative-initiative.com/negative-lab-pro-crack).

Negative Lab Pro price and Lightroom requirement from [negativelabpro.com/pricing](https://www.negativelabpro.com/pricing/), consulted 15 August 2026. Capture One negative conversion shipped in 16.7.4, March 2026, from its release notes, consulted 15 August 2026.

[Negative Lab Pro alternatives, compared](https://open-negative-initiative.com/negative-lab-pro-alternative)

## Questions before you convert

**Before you download.** Cost, Lightroom, scanners, film types, the orange mask, your original files, Windows and Linux.

**Is it really free?**

Yes. Open Negative Initiative is free in full: no paid version waits further along, and nothing asks you to sign in. It is licensed GPL-3.0.

**Do I need Lightroom or Photoshop?**

No. Open Negative Initiative is a standalone application, not a plugin, and it keeps the catalogue itself, so nothing goes back to Lightroom. Nothing else has to be installed, and there is no subscription underneath it.

**Does it work with a flatbed or a film scanner, or only with camera scans?**

Both. Open Negative Initiative opens the TIFF or linear DNG that a flatbed or film scanner writes, and the RAW of a camera on a copy stand. It also reads RGB Passes: a frame shot three times, under red, green and blue light, read as one negative. Prepare the Roll asks which one digitised the roll.

**Does it do black and white and slide film?**

Yes. Open Negative Initiative reads a slide as a Positive roll and black and white as a B&W roll: pick it in the first step of Prepare the Roll, and change it later under Film Type in the Roll tab. Prepare the Roll balances a roll of slides on a white or grey you click on one slide, a cloud or a wall, and leaves each slide's blacks and whites alone; skip the click and your slides keep the camera's 5500 K.

**How does it remove the orange of a colour negative?**

Show it the bare film once. In Prepare the Roll, click the border or the gap between two frames: that orange becomes the black of every frame of the roll, so the cast goes with it, the same on every frame.

**Does it modify my original files?**

No. Open Negative Initiative reads your scans where they are, in the folder you add, and your settings travel with that folder, so deleting the app's index loses nothing. A file moves only when you move photos into a new roll, and Undo puts it back. Deleting a photo hides it in the ONI Trash, its file untouched.

**Is there a Windows or Linux version?**

Windows, yes: Open Negative Initiative runs on Windows 10 and 11 in 64-bit, the same application as on the Mac. It is made for those two systems, macOS and Windows.

## Convert your first roll tonight.

**Add your folder, prepare the roll once, export.** Free, and nothing else to install.

[Download for Mac](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-releases/releases/latest/download/OpenNegative.dmg) · [Download for Windows](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-releases/releases/latest/download/ONI-windows.zip)

[How to convert a film negative, step by step](https://open-negative-initiative.com/guide)

- **Mac**: macOS 13 or later on Apple Silicon or Intel
- **Windows**: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit)

[Blocked at first launch?](https://open-negative-initiative.com/download#verify)

![A snowy Paris street at night, a lit cafe under arcades, tyre tracks in the snow.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/media/carousel/snow-night-1400.webp)

***Snow night.** Kodak Gold, converted in Open Negative Initiative.*