Extended Metadata
Today we're introducing Extended Metadata, a major update to the metadata viewer in Darkroom. It's a complete rewrite of the metadata system that makes it faster, more reliable, and far more complete.
Metadata has always been part of Darkroom, but if we’re honest, it wasn’t always great. It could feel slower than it should, sometimes behaved slightly differently depending on how you opened it, and while it covered the essentials, it didn’t always reflect everything your files actually contained. With Darkroom 7.1, that changes.
The Full Picture
Previously, we showed a practical subset of metadata, enough for most situations, but not the complete story. With Extended Metadata, we now display everything we can extract.
We still begin with a clean summary at the top, highlighting the details you’re most likely looking for: camera, lens, exposure settings, ISO, focal length, and resolution. From there, expandable sections reveal the rest. Detailed EXIF fields, extended lens data, color space and profile information, GPS coordinates when available, and any additional technical metadata embedded in the file are all accessible.
If it exists in the asset, you can now inspect it in Darkroom.
For photographers who care about precision, whether you’re comparing lenses between shoots, validating export settings, troubleshooting color workflows, or simply understanding how an image was captured, this makes the tool meaningfully more powerful.
Faster When You Need It
The new Metadata tool now loads in two stages. The moment you open it, you immediately see what’s already available locally on your device or cached from iCloud Photos. That means you get the most important context right away, without waiting.
If additional metadata exists beyond what we already have, Darkroom fetches it quietly in the background and merges it in seamlessly. Instead of blocking the interface with a loading spinner while gathering everything, we prioritize responsiveness first, and depth second. The experience feels lighter and more deliberate, especially when working with large libraries or assets stored in iCloud.
Built for What’s Next
Rebuilding the metadata system wasn’t only about improving performance and reliability. It was about creating a foundation we can build on.
In upcoming releases, we’ll begin introducing metadata editing inside Darkroom. You’ll be able to modify and manage metadata directly within the app, something many of you have asked for. Extended Metadata in 7.1 lays the groundwork to make that possible in a way that’s robust and future-proof.
Mac Workflow Improvements
We have also made two minor overdue improvements to the Mac workflow. First, you can now print your photos directly from the app. On iOS this was easily possible through the system Share Sheet, but on Mac it was not. So now, in the File menu you will find the familiar Print option, which works with single and multiple photos. Second, the "Edit With" Darkroom option, as found in the Apple Photos app, now properly works on Mac. It will open the right photo in Darkroom, and it even works if you have multiple photos selected.
The Darkroom Team
