Aphera’s workspace is a three-panel layout: Sidebar, Content Area, and Inspector.

Aphera's unified workspace showing Grid view with Balance and Look tools

Sidebar (Organizer)

The left panel displays navigation and organization controls with several key sections:

All Ctrl+A: Shows every photo in the project.

Starred Ctrl+S: Shows photos with one or more stars, grouped by star rating.

Rejected Ctrl+D: Shows photos marked as rejected.

Groups: Custom photo groupings within the project.

See Browsing & Grid for detailed information on using these sections.

Toggle visibility with Ctrl+O, or via View > Show/Hide Organizer.

Content Area

The center panel displays your photos. What appears in the content area depends on the current mode: a grid of thumbnails with Balance and Look tools in Grid mode, or a single photo with editing controls in Develop or Crop mode.

Toolbar

The top toolbar spans the content area and provides two key functions:

  • Navigation (left side): Switch between Grid, Develop, and Crop modes
  • Status (right side): Displays current project information including image count, selection ranges, Export status, and Import progress

Click the status area to toggle through different states. The disclosure caret provides live updates when Export or Import operations are active.

Inspector

The right panel provides consistent access to Exports, Balance controls, and Looks.

Exports: Pick the active Export Preset for the project and run it on the selected images. Use Show in Finder to open the export folder. The gear icon opens Settings → Exports, where you create and modify presets. See Exporting for details.

Balance: Core tonal adjustments including exposure, temperature, tint, contrast, shadows, highlights, and saturation. See Balance for details.

Looks: Apply and manage preset styles and looks. See Looks for details.

Toggle visibility with Ctrl+I, or via View > Show/Hide Inspector.

Lightbox

The Lightbox displays the current photo without chrome. On a single display, it replaces the standard window with a full screen view. On a multi-display setup, it opens as a separate view on another screen.

Lightbox view showing a full-screen image with metadata overlay

Toggle with L or via View > Open/Close Lightbox.

Configure which display the Lightbox appears on via View > Lightbox Screen. Options are Same as Project or a specific connected display.

Full Screen

Standard macOS full screen behavior via the green window button or the View > Full Screen menu item.

Help

The toolbar includes a Help (?) button that opens the online documentation.

Background Color

The canvas background color behind your photos can be cycled:

Shortcut Action
, Darker background
. Lighter background

This works in all modes.