--- title: "Archive: folders, rolls and projects · Manual" description: "Open the folder of your film scans, make each film a roll, gather frames into projects, and restore a deleted photo from the ONI Trash. Nothing is copied." url: "https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive" date: "2026-11-03" --- [Manual](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual) # Archive **Your scans, as your disk holds them, in Open Negative Initiative.** Open the folder of your scans, gather frames into rolls and photos into projects, label them and set some aside, part by part as the library column and the gallery lay them out. ![The Archive: the two roll folders of Film Scans in the folder tree, and the frames of both rolls as thumbnails.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/_astro/gallery.CPXWUEzH_1ygMTW.webp) ## Folders **The archive is your disk:** open the folder that holds your scans and every photo in it and in its subfolders is there. Nothing is imported or copied, and each photo's settings live in a small file beside it. - ADD FOLDER… **Your scans, where they are.** **ADD FOLDER…** opens the folder that holds them and keeps it among your favourites. Nothing is copied. - **What changed on the disk.** **Refresh** reads your folders again and says what came and went. ### The app's own note on Folders > The archive shows a folder of your disk and everything under it. ### Add Folder **ADD FOLDER…**, in the gallery's bar, opens the folder that holds your scans and stars it among your favourites. Every photo in it and in its subfolders is there at once, read straight from your disk: nothing is imported or copied, and your originals are never written to. - **Open Folder…** (`⌘O`), in the File menu, opens a folder without starring it. A folder dropped on the window opens too. - Each photo's settings live in a small file beside it, which travels with the photo when you move its folder. - Pick the folder of your scans, not your whole disk: before reading a whole disk or your home folder, the app asks. - It reads camera RAW files through LibRaw, linear DNG and TIFF scans, 16-bit TIFFs of 45 megapixels and more, and JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP and WebP. - A folder with Nikon High Efficiency RAW files (HE or HE* NEF) offers to convert them to lossless DNGs beside them, through Adobe DNG Converter, free from Adobe. When it is missing, ONI downloads it from Adobe, about 1.8 GB, and opens its installer. - Once the DNGs are written, keep them alone, the NEF files moved to the Trash, or keep both, the better choice if you already opened them in another app. - [Folders and favourites](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-navigator) (Archive) - [Refresh](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-refresh) (Archive) - [How it opens](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/prepare-the-roll#roll-opening) (Prepare the Roll) - [Archive and Projects](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/archive-and-projects) (why it works, in Features) ### Folders and favourites The top of the Archive tab lists your folders. A click on one opens it in the gallery; its chevron folds or unfolds it without opening anything. Star the folders you use often, and the favourites key shows them alone. - Parent goes up one folder; the pill beside it names the folder you stand in, and a click on it jumps to any folder above. At the very top, your home folder and every disk. - A folder on a disk that is unplugged stays in the list, marked out of reach, and comes back with its disk. - Beside an open photo the list keeps a height of its own, unfolded down to the photo's folder. - [Add Folder](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-import) (Archive) - [The column's keys](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-column-keys) (Archive) - [Archive and Projects](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/archive-and-projects) (why it works, in Features) ### The column's keys A small plate of keys heads the column on the Projects tab, and on the Archive tab beside an open photo: show the selected photo, fold or open every folder of your projects, and lay the column out as **Names only**, **Two thumbnails a line** or **One thumbnail a line**. - The gallery and the editor each remember their own layout. - In the gallery, **Show the Selected Photo**, in the File menu, scrolls to the open or selected photo. - The gallery's grid shows six or twelve photos a row: `⌘−` and `⌘+`, Smaller and Larger Thumbnails in the View menu, switch between them. - [Folders and favourites](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-navigator) (Archive) - [Archive and Projects](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-tabs) (Archive) ### Refresh **Refresh** (`⌘R`), in the File menu, reads the opened folder and every favourite again, then says what changed: photos added, photos no longer in the folder, photos that cannot be found, or nothing. - Coming back to the window after working in another app, the opened folder is looked at again on its own. - A photo whose original went missing, on an unplugged disk or after a move, stays in the archive, greyed, and is never removed on its own. - [Add Folder](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-import) (Archive) - [Folders and favourites](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-navigator) (Archive) ### Nothing moves by hand No drag moves a photo, a roll or a folder in the archive: your folders stay as they are on the disk. A drag only puts photos in order inside your projects. - A right click on a folder offers Open, Add to Favourites, Rename…, Make a Roll or Back to a Folder, New Folder Inside, and Remove from Library…, which forgets the folder and touches no file. - A folder out of reach also offers Locate…, to follow it where it went. - Move into a New Roll… moves your photos into a new folder, after asking, and `⌘Z` puts them back. - [Move into a New Roll…](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-new-roll) (Archive) - [ONI Trash](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-trash) (Archive) - [Archive and Projects](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/archive-and-projects) (why it works, in Features) ## Archive and Projects **Two tabs over the library column.** Archive shows a folder of your disk as it stands; Projects are lists you make from any of your photos, the one place where the order is yours. ### Archive and Projects Two tabs head the library column. **Archive** shows the folder you opened as your disk holds it, rolls and folders inside it; **Projects** shows the lists you made, whatever folder is open. - In the gallery a click selects; select a roll or a project and its own facts fill the column on the right. - Beside an open photo the column follows it, unfolded down to the photo's folder. - [Projects](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-projects) (Archive) - [Add Folder](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-import) (Archive) - [Archive and Projects](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/archive-and-projects) (why it works, in Features) ### Projects A project is a list of photos you gather from anywhere in your library: right-click a selection and choose **New Project from** it. A photo sits in one project at a time, and in a project the order is yours: drag photos to put them in order. - Add to Project and Remove from Project are on the same right click. Adding a photo that sits in another project asks first, since it leaves that one. - A project left empty stays, with its name and description; **Delete Project**, on its right click, removes it after asking, never its photos. - A project never moves a file: your photos stay where the archive has them. - [Archive and Projects](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-tabs) (Archive) - [Film Stocks](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-stock-summary) (Archive) - [Project name and Description](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-project-description) (Archive) - [Archive and Projects](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/archive-and-projects) (why it works, in Features) ## Roll **A roll is the frames of one film, measured together.** Select one in the gallery and the column on the right holds its name and three facts about the film, never guessed from a scan. - SELECT ROLL TYPE **What your roll was shot on.** Picked by hand among forty-one stocks; a colour stock lays its dyes on the roll's frames. - PREPARE THE ROLL… **Not measured yet.** A roll that needs it says so over this key, which opens Prepare the Roll. ### Not in a roll yet Select photos that belong to no roll and the column on the right reads **Not in a roll yet**, with three steps: the frames selected (`⌘A` takes the whole film), a name and a stock, then the key that makes the roll. - The key reads **Make this folder a roll** when you selected a whole folder, and **Move into a new roll** otherwise, which moves the photos into a new folder after asking. - The photos must come from one folder; the guide says so when they do not. - Nothing is made before you press the key. Next, Prepare the Roll measures the roll. - [Move into a New Roll…](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-new-roll) (Archive) - [Film Stock](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-film-stock) (Archive) - [How it opens](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/prepare-the-roll#roll-opening) (Prepare the Roll) ### Roll name Select a roll in the gallery and its name heads the column on the right; click the name to type another. The name is the roll's: the folder on your disk keeps its own, which Rename…, on the folder's right click, changes. - Move into a New Roll… names a roll after the earliest capture date of its photos. - A roll's row in the folder list wears its film stock's icon. - A roll not measured yet says so at the top of the column, over a **PREPARE THE ROLL…** key. - **Travels**: Never: it belongs to the roll, kept in its folder's roll marker or in its frames' sidecars, never in a photo's look. - [Film Stock](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-film-stock) (Archive) - [Move into a New Roll…](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-new-roll) (Archive) ### Film Stock What the roll was shot on, picked with **Select Roll Type** among forty-one stocks grouped by brand; never guessed from a scan. Until you pick one, the block shows the generic stock of the roll's film type. > What this roll was shot on — never guessed, only ever what a hand picks. - Picking a colour stock lays its dyes, Kodak, Fuji, Generic, ECN-2 or E-6, on every frame of the roll, as the Roll tab's dyes; a black and white stock has none. - Its icon marks the roll in the folder list. - It fills the Film field of your exports' EXIF. - **Travels**: Never: it belongs to the roll, kept in its folder's roll marker or in its frames' sidecars, never in a photo's look. - [Shot Date](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-shot-date) (Archive) - [Camera Body](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-camera-body) (Archive) - [Dyes](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/roll#colour-dyes) (Roll) ### Shot Date When the roll was actually shot, as three plain fields: month, day and year. Until you set it, it shows the date of the roll's first photo; a key beside the fields clears a date you set. > When the roll was actually shot. Organisational only — never a photo's own capture date. - **Travels**: Never: it belongs to the roll, kept in its folder's roll marker or in its frames' sidecars, never in a photo's look. - [Film Stock](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-film-stock) (Archive) - [Camera Body](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-camera-body) (Archive) ### Camera Body The body the roll was shot on, typed by hand and kept when you press Return or click elsewhere. A scan's own EXIF names the scanner or the copy camera, so it is never read from there. > The body this roll was shot on, hand-entered — never read off a scan's own EXIF. - It fills the Camera field of your exports' EXIF. - **Travels**: Never: it belongs to the roll, kept in its folder's roll marker or in its frames' sidecars, never in a photo's look. - [Film Stock](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-film-stock) (Archive) - [EXIF fields](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/export#export-exif) (Export) ## Project **Select a project and the same column holds its name, the stocks among its photos and a description.** ### The app's own note on Project > Every stock among this project's own photos — counted by photo, since a project rarely holds a whole roll. ### Film Stocks Every stock among a project's photos, with its icon and a count of photos, since a project rarely holds a whole roll. It only reads: to change a stock, pick it on the roll itself. - **No stock set yet** means none of the project's rolls has a stock picked. - [Film Stock](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-film-stock) (Archive) - [Project name and Description](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-project-description) (Archive) ### Project name and Description Select a project and its name heads the column on the right, its first photos stacked under it; click the name to rename it. Under the film stocks, a **Description** field holds a few lines on what the project is for. - [Projects](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-projects) (Archive) - [Film Stocks](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#library-stock-summary) (Archive) ## Rolls menu **The Rolls menu makes and unmakes rolls, opens Prepare the Roll and takes rolls back to unconverted.** The same gestures are on a right click in the gallery. ### Move into a New Roll… **Move into a New Roll…** (`⇧⌘G`), in the Rolls menu and on a right click in the gallery, makes a folder in your photos' folder, named after their earliest capture date, marks it a roll and moves the photos into it. It asks first, naming the folder and counting the files. - Each photo moves with its sidecar and the files other apps keep beside it. - `⌘Z` puts them back, and removes the folder when nothing else lies in it. - The photos must come from one folder. - A folder that already holds a whole film becomes a roll in place: Make a Roll, on its right click. - [Ungroup](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-ungroup) (Archive) - [Not in a roll yet](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-roll-guide) (Archive) - [Nothing moves by hand](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-moves) (Archive) ### Ungroup **Ungroup** (`⌥⇧⌘G`), in the gallery, takes the selected photos out of their roll; no file moves. It is live when the selection holds a photo that belongs to a roll. - A folder made a roll turns back into a plain folder with **Back to a Folder**, on its right click. - [Move into a New Roll…](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-new-roll) (Archive) - [Nothing moves by hand](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-moves) (Archive) ### Reset to Default… **Reset to Default…**, in the Rolls menu and on a right click in the gallery, takes the whole rolls of the selected photos back to unconverted. Their crops, dust corrections, flat-fields, labels and EXIF stay. - It asks first: the roll's measurement and every setting of the look go, and a frame shot in RGB passes splits back into its three shots. - A contact sheet of the roll goes to the ONI Trash. - `⌘Z` brings it all back, and Prepare the Roll measures the rolls again. - [How it opens](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/prepare-the-roll#roll-opening) (Prepare the Roll) - [Move into a New Roll…](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-new-roll) (Archive) ## Labels **A label marks a photo for yourself, and the filter shows one label at a time in the gallery.** - **A label in one key.** `0` for None, then Bronze, Silver and Gold. - ALL **One label at a time.** The filter in the gallery's bar, or `⌘L`, steps through All, Bronze, Silver and Gold. ### Labels and the filter Four labels, None, Bronze, Silver and Gold, set from the Labels menu, the bare keys `0` to `3`, a right click, or the medals in the status bar. `⌘L` cycles the gallery's filter through All, Bronze, Silver and Gold. - The digits are off while you type in a field, so typing a name never labels a photo. - In the gallery the filter also stands in the bar, in words: ALL, BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD. Each shows exactly that label. - In the status bar, a click on the label a single photo already wears takes it off; on several photos, they all take the one you click. - [The centre keys](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/toolbar#toolbar-centre) (Toolbar and menus) ## Files **Deleting is reversible:** a photo moved to the ONI Trash keeps its file and its settings, and Restore puts it back in its folder, its roll and its project. ### ONI Trash **Move to ONI Trash** (`⌘⌫`) sets the selected photos aside in the ONI Trash, at the foot of the folder list. Their files stay where they are on your disk; nothing moves and nothing is erased. - In the File menu, on a right click, and as the red key of the gallery's bar; `⌘Z` takes it back. - Open the ONI Trash to see its photos, newest first, whatever folder or disk holds them. **Restore** (`⇧⌘⌫`) puts the selected ones back in their folder, roll and project. - The RESTORE key on the ONI Trash's row restores every photo in it, after asking. - In the editor, moving the open photo to the ONI Trash goes on to the roll's next frame. - [Labels and the filter](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-labels) (Archive) - [Nothing moves by hand](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive#archive-moves) (Archive) ## The rest of the manual. **Every surface of the app, in the order of your work.** From the folder of scans to the exported file. - [Prepare the Roll The five steps a roll goes through before its frames are edited: film, flat-field, film base, flags, measuring frame, then Measure.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/prepare-the-roll) - [Roll What a roll shares: film type, flat-field, source encoding, the manual balance, the levels, dye separation and Balance strength.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/roll) - [Crop The framing's own Copy and Paste, aspect ratio, straightening, quarter turns and mirrors, and the measuring window.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/crop) - [Color Auto White Balance, Temperature and Tint, Lighting, Effects, Curves, the finishing blocks, and Paper Correction on a paper profile.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/color) - [Details Sharpening, chroma denoise and texture, the stages that act on the grain, judged in the loupe at full resolution.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/details) - [De-dust The brush for dust and scratches, its size, and the list of corrections painted on the open photo.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/de-dust) - [Scanner The Scanner face: ONI or Frontier, a lab scanner's keypad of D, C, M, Y and TEMP, and the finish laid after its render.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner) - [Presets The deck, saving a preset, its eighteen switches and white balance choice, the Settings menu, and Copy and Paste.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/presets) - [Export The export screen: three presets, format, space and paper profiles, size, the HDR hack, each photo's EXIF line.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/export) - [Toolbar and menus Every key of the bar and of the canvas margin, and every menu item with its shortcut.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/toolbar) - [The whole manual Every surface on one page, in the order a roll goes through the app.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual) - [The guide Your first negative converted, step by step.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/guide) ## 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.*