Watermarking, App Icon Picker, and an update to our business

Today’s release of Darkroom includes two new features that people have been asking for for a long time: Export Watermark, and an expanded App Icon Picker. We’re also switching to subscriptions for new users to set ourselves up for success in the next phase of Darkroom’s life.

What does this mean for existing users?

Starting today, anyone who paid for anything prior to this release will have access to all our premium features for free. To be crystal clear, even if you only bought a single filter set 4 years ago, you’ll now have access to all the filters and all the tools! We’re doing this to honor the commitment we made to you when you supported us before this switch.

How much is this going to cost new users?

For new users, a $3.99 per month or $19.99 per year subscription will unlock access to every filter and tool in Darkroom, on iPad and iPhones, now and in the future. As we grow and our product offerings expand, all new features and services will be included in this single subscription. For those who prefer to pay once and not have to reaffirm their commitments, we offer a one-time $49.99 purchase option.

Why is this better?

Since we launched Darkroom 5 years ago, we have been committed to building a photo editing and management tool that rivals any market leader in features, experience, and design. We have also committed to working on Darkroom for the very long term. That’s why we never took any outside funding from investors, and why we opted to go slow and steady, rather than fast and furious. This work will only grow in scope and volume as the team grows and the platform we’re building grows with it.

As an example, for the past 12 months we have been busy rebuilding the core infrastructure of Darkroom from the ground up. This has been a massive investment in our future, and it will enable us to finally build out some long-awaited features, improve the stability of the app, and dramatically increase its power and efficiency. As we embark on this new phase of Darkroom’s life, we need to ensure that we have a healthy business that can support its continued development and the investments necessary to get there.

Subscriptions will hopefully increase our revenues and with that, we can hire more people, invest more heavily in our infrastructure, and expand the scope of our ambition. We have 5 years of history to demonstrate our commitment, and we hope you in turn trust us with yours.

In 3 years we shipped 51 updates, of which 19 where major releases.

Thank you to everyone who made a purchase over the past 5 years. None of this would have been possible without your support. Photographers need to be able to rely on a professional tool that is constantly evolving, and we want to keep delivering just that.

To change the placement of your text or logo, simply tap one of the 9 areas, or drag it to the right place.

Watermark your Photos (Premium)

Last year we added to ability to add copyright information to the EXIF metadata on export. For a more explicit form of protection, many people have written us asking for a watermarking feature. This makes total sense, particularly in a world dominated by social media where images are often stolen and re-shared without credit. Darkroom’s Watermark is a full-featured watermarking tool that allows you to set a text or image watermark, and control its size, location, opacity, and even typeface.

Customize your App Icon (Premium)

It doesn’t hurt to have a bit of fun now and then :) Those who have been following us for a while know that every year or so we tend to give our brand a big overhaul to reflect major changes to the app. Now you can pick from old favorites or fun new interpretations of our icon. We’ve included 10 options in a couple flavors:

We added the app icons for all of our previous release so please enjoy that Neon icon you all loved so much!
Yes, we even added our internal development build icon, which we once accidentally released publicly 🙈
Lastly we added 4 fresh variations for you all to play with, we are big fans of the Vintage one.

Export Summary (Free)

Now you can see a short summary of your most important options when exporting a photo, such as export file type and quality, is watermark or copyright metadata protection added etc. Granted, this addition is subtle, but combines seamlessly with our Watermark addition, and gives us some headroom for future export additions.

2020 will be a big year for Darkroom, and we’re thankful for your continued loyalty and support, and look forward to sharing everything we have in store for you.

The Darkroom Team