A project contains references to your images on disk, edits, and Looks used. We don’t touch your RAW files. Projects are saved as .apheraproject files. By default they live in ~/Pictures/Aphera, but the location is configurable — see Project Settings below.

Creating a Project

File > New Project creates a new, empty project in your projects folder. Aphera names the project from the naming pattern in Settings (default {date} {name}); if “Ask for project name each time” is enabled, you’ll be prompted for the name first.

Opening a Project

File > Open Project opens a file browser to select an existing project.

When you launch Aphera without an open project, the Project Launcher window displays a list of recent projects.

Project Launcher window displaying a list of recent projects with thumbnails

Closing a Project

File > Close Project closes the current project window.

Projects auto-save as you work — there’s no manual Save step.

Project Settings

Open Settings with Cmd+, and select Projects.

Project Settings panel showing options for choosing project storage location and naming pattern configuration

Option Description
Projects Folder Where new projects are created. The folder must be available; status appears next to the picker if the volume is missing or unreachable.
Naming Pattern How new projects are named, built from tokens. Default {date} {name}.
Ask for project name each time When on, File > New Project prompts for the {name} value before creating the project. When off, the project is created immediately with {name} set to Untitled.