Kiln Public Preview

Kiln
6

Kiln 0.1.0-beta.7

Beta.7 brings quite a bit of polish. Kiln is beginning to feel like a real app, not just a work in progress.

This release adds collections, a catalog for organizing images apart from their folders, previews of icon and animated exports, moving and deleting folders and files, and a redesigned import dialog. Several features move or delete files on disk, so please read “Please test” below before pointing them at photos you can’t replace.

I don’t have a Windows machine, so Windows behavior is checked by automated tests only. If you use Windows, let me know how things go.

Download

The beta.7 release remains valid through 2026.

Download for MacOS and Windows.

Catalog

A catalog is Kiln’s library of images you have imported, either as copies Kiln stores or as references to the original files. This release adds groups for organizing folders, a redesigned import dialog and better tracking of files that go missing.

  • Catalog groups: make groups, nested if you like, in the Folders tree to organize folder roots. Drag a folder onto a group or use Move to Group…. Groups only change where a folder is listed; nothing moves on disk. Selecting a group shows the images in every folder beneath it.
  • Folder rows show whether a folder is copied (plain folder) or referenced (folder with a warning mark).
  • Rows have a context menu: Import, Sync, Purge Missing, Reveal and Remove. Files deleted outside Kiln are detected and counted as missing, and missing tiles show their file name.
  • An Options dialog replaces the header dropdown for choosing, creating, renaming and deleting catalogs.
  • Import dialog redesigned: a sidebar (catalog, source, storage, destination) beside the thumbnail grid, with the file count and Select all / Select none above it. It remembers the catalog and Copy or Reference choice from your last import.
  • Import Folder to Catalog… in the Folder widget’s menu opens the dialog on the folder you are viewing.
  • Importing several folders as copies no longer writes into an existing folder of the same name that holds images from a different source. The new subfolder is named Shoot-2.
  • The Catalog’s Folders tree keeps your open folders when the catalog reloads (after an import, a move or a drop into a folder).

Collections

Collections let you group cataloged images in ways that don’t depend on where the files are. An image can belong to any number of collections, and putting one in a collection never moves or copies the file. Only images in a catalog can be added to a collection, not images shown in a Folder or Remote Folder widget.

  • A new Collections widget groups cataloged images independently of folders. An image can be in many collections.
  • Structure: a Project at the top, Sets inside it (they nest without limit), and Collections, which hold the images. Each widget shows one Project, so several widgets can show separate groupings.
  • Select a Collection to show its images in the grid. Select a Set to show nothing, or, with “Show Images of Sets” on, each image from the Collections beneath it once.
  • Move Sets and Collections by dragging them or with Move…. Deleting a Project or Set deletes what is inside it, never the images or files.
  • Add images by dragging them from a catalog grid onto a Collection, or with Add Selected to Collection… in the stage’s Image menu.
  • Smart Collections: in the Catalog widget, select a folder and choose New Smart Collection from Folder…. It holds every cataloged image in that folder and its subfolders and stays in sync as images are imported, removed or moved. Images can’t be added to or removed from one by hand.
  • Quick Collection: press B on the selection in the grid, filmstrip or loupe to add it to a quick collection, or remove it when all of it is already there. Each catalog and each project has one, shown as a row in the Catalog and Collections widgets. Each row has a count and a menu: Add to Collection…, Save as Collection… and Clear.
  • Target Collection: right-click a collection and choose Set as Target. B then files into that collection instead. Shift+B still uses the Quick Collection.
  • All in Project: a row above the Collections tree shows every image in the project.
  • Names of collections, sets, projects and catalogs now sort the way folders do: Set 2 before Set 10, ignoring case and accents.

Export previews

Icon Export and Animated Export can now show their results before you export. A preview opens as a tab on the stage, so you can check the output and adjust settings without writing files to your export folder.

  • Icon Export: Preview on Stage, from a button in the widget header or the widget menu. A tab on the stage shows every image file the export would write for the active image and crop, with dimensions and file size. A Theme, White, Black or custom backdrop lets you judge icons against different grounds; it does not affect the export.
  • Animated Export: Preview on Stage shows the enabled frames encoded as the export would encode them, with dimensions, format, file size and frame count.
  • Both follow your selection and settings, and keep the last result on screen, dimmed, while the next one renders. Previews are written to a scratch folder in the system temp folder, never to your export folder, and are deleted when the tab closes.
  • The stage gets a tab strip while a preview is open, with the Library first. The Library stays loaded behind the preview, so returning to it keeps your scroll position and selection.
  • Icon Export now accepts images of any shape. Drag the image under a square frame, zoom with a slider, rotate freely or in 90° turns, and Reset to return to the largest centered square. “Circle preview” shows the round mask. Corners left uncovered by a rotation are transparent (black in JPEG).
  • A single image now exports as a still in Animated Export, so it no longer needs two frames.

Moving, copying and deleting

Folders and files can now be moved, copied and deleted from within Kiln, and Kiln keeps the catalog in step with what it does on disk. Moves and copies run as jobs in Activity. Deletes go to the Trash.

  • Folders can be moved and copied across the Folder, Catalog, Remote Folder and Collections widgets. A taken name offers Keep Both or Cancel, never Replace or merge. Progress, Cancel and Undo are in Activity. Cataloged images follow a moved folder.
  • Locate Folder…: for a folder you moved outside Kiln. Pick its new location and Kiln relinks the images it finds (“42 of 42 found”).
  • A Folder widget whose folder is gone now says which folder is missing, instead of showing an empty grid.
  • Delete files and folders to the Trash (Recycle Bin on Windows): Delete… in the grid menu or Cmd+Backspace (Ctrl+Backspace on Windows) for images, and Delete… on a Folder row. The dialog counts what’s inside a folder and warns about files Kiln doesn’t show. There is no Undo, since Kiln can’t restore from the Trash.
  • Remove from Catalog can also send files to the Trash, with a checkbox for each kind in the selection: copies Kiln made, and the original files of referenced images. Both are off by default.
  • “Delete Selected Images…” on the stage is now “Remove Selected Images…”, since it takes images out of the catalog. “Delete” now always means deleting files.
  • Dropping images onto a folder that already has files with the same names asks first: Keep Both, Replace (the old files go to the Trash) or Cancel.
  • Remote folders: folder rows can be dragged onto another folder on the same connection, copied to a local Folder, and have a context menu (New Folder, Rename, Delete, Set as Scoped Folder and more). Uploads, downloads and moves run as Activity jobs with progress and Cancel, and failures appear there. Downloads and moves have Undo. Remote Folder no longer reconnects on launch; it waits for Connect.

Image grid

Changes to the grid of thumbnails on the stage: a context menu, clearer loading, and better behavior when you remove or drag images.

  • Right-click a tile, or press the Menu key (Shift+F10 on Windows and Linux, Ctrl+Return on macOS), for a context menu: Open in Lightbox, Reveal, Copy Path, and per-source actions such as Import to Catalog…, Add to Collection…, Download… and Move to Folder….
  • Tiles show a faint background until their thumbnail loads, and the selection ring waits for it.
  • Removing the selected image from the grid now moves the selection to the next image, and the arrow keys keep working.
  • Dragging images now shows what a drop will do in the status bar (“Drop to move · hold ⌥ to copy”, “Can’t drop here”).

Widgets and layout

Smaller changes to widgets, the command palette, settings and performance.

  • Activity is now a button in the footer, with the job list in a popover. It is no longer a widget.
  • Widget headers show the instance name on a second line beneath the type name.
  • Widgets can be moved up and down from the widget menu and the command palette, and workspaces from commands.
  • Command palette searches match the words of an action’s label. Each panel’s “add widget” action names its panel.
  • Export widgets: press Enter in a text or number field to start the export. Output Folder, Export Targets and Presets are now fields like the others, and required fields are marked with an asterisk.
  • Settings is wider and divided into sections. Header highlighting is off by default. A new Library workspace starts with Catalog and Collections above Folder.
  • Large catalogs are faster. In a development build at 50,000 images, selecting a collection paints in about 0.8 s (was 1.9 s) and changing the sort takes about 1.2 s (was 4.4 to 7 s). Production builds are faster still. Dragging images over folders with thousands of subfolders no longer stalls.

Fixes

  • Fixed the grid’s selection surviving a change of folder and holding ids of images that were gone.
  • Fixed a slow folder load replacing a folder you opened afterwards, in the Folder and Remote Folder widgets.
  • Fixed a cross-device folder move that failed while removing the source deleting the complete copy.
  • Fixed importing a large folder (thousands of images) failing with too many SQL variables.
  • Fixed deleting images or a catalog leaving their collection memberships behind.
  • Fixed reordering widgets clearing the stage.
  • Fixed menu checkmarks not updating while the menu was open.

Windows

  • The grid’s “Missing” badge now clears when a thumbnail loads, and shows a code and reason when one doesn’t (hover the tile). This is to find out why some Windows tiles showed “Missing” with nothing missing.
  • Recently viewed images stay open in Kiln’s image library, which could make editing, replacing or moving them fail on Windows. That no longer happens.
  • Paths over 260 characters: Kiln now opens and writes images at such paths (thumbnails, import, and Image, Icon and Animated Export). Reveal and Open show the nearest folder Windows can open, and Move to Trash explains a refusal. Reading and writing images at such paths passed an automated test on Windows; Reveal, Open and Move to Trash have not been tried there.

Please test

Report problems in the Kiln beta category.

Please try these on a copy of a folder first. They move or delete files.

  1. Move a folder in the Folder widget by dragging it to a new parent, then use Undo in Activity. Try one that contains cataloged images.
  2. Delete an image and a folder from the Folder widget. They should go to the Trash.
  3. Remove an image from a catalog with the delete options ticked. The files should go to the Trash.
  4. Move a folder outside Kiln (in Finder or Explorer), then use Locate Folder….
  5. Move a folder to another drive, if you have one.

Everything else:

  1. Make a Project with a Set and a Collection, and drag images into the Collection. Press B on a selection, then set a Target Collection and press B again.
  2. Make a Smart Collection from a catalog folder, then import more images into that folder.
  3. Open Preview on Stage in Icon Export and in Animated Export. Change settings and the crop, and check that the preview follows. Close the tab and check that the Library kept your place.
  4. Import a folder with the redesigned dialog, as a copy and as a reference.
  5. Right-click grid tiles in the Folder, Catalog and Collections widgets.
  6. Watch for the Folder widget’s list disappearing. It happens now and then and I don’t yet know why. If it does, note what you had just done and send it along.

On Windows:

  1. Look for a “Missing” badge on tiles that show a thumbnail. If one appears, hover it and send me the text, or a screenshot. Say whether the folder is in OneDrive or a similar synced folder.
  2. Export into a folder nested deep enough that the full path passes 260 characters, import a folder that deep, then Reveal and Delete a file in it. Send me any error, with the path length if you know it.

Known limitations

  • Windows builds are unsigned, so SmartScreen will warn. Windows changes in this release have not been tried on a real Windows machine.
  • Deleting files has no Undo.
  • Windows paths over 260 characters: Reveal and Open show the nearest folder above that Windows can open, and Move to Trash reports a clear error if Windows refuses. Explorer and other programs may still reject such paths unless long-path support is on.