ExportExport Settings

Export Settings

Two photos can have identical edits and still come out as very different files. Export Settings is where that difference is decided: the format, the compression, whether your location rides along in the metadata, and what copyright you stamp on it. A throwaway social post and a client delivery rarely want the same answers, which is exactly why these settings are worth understanding rather than leaving to chance.

You reach them from the Export view by tapping Export Options, or from the app's Settings under the same name. Change them in the moment for a one-off, or set them once as the default that every export inherits.

Picking a format

The format you choose trades quality, file size, and compatibility against each other. For stills, JPEG is the dependable everyday choice — small, lossy, and readable everywhere. HEIF delivers similar quality at noticeably smaller sizes and shines in Apple-centric workflows, though older platforms may not accept it. PNG is lossless and best for graphics, screenshots, and clean flat-color edges. TIFF is the heavyweight: large, essentially artifact-free, and the right call for archival or professional handoff into further post-production.

Video splits the same way. H.264 is the broadly compatible option that plays nearly anywhere; HEVC compresses more efficiently at comparable quality on supported devices. Video also exposes bitrate, expressed relative to the original — a higher bitrate keeps more detail but grows the file. If you want the deeper story on how Darkroom handles video output, the video processing announcement covers the encoding work behind it.

Metadata and privacy

Exported files carry more than pixels. Darkroom leans toward safer sharing by leaving location metadata off by default, so you don't accidentally broadcast where a photo was taken every time you post it — but you can keep GPS data embedded when a workflow genuinely needs it. Alongside that, copyright metadata writes your name and rights information into the file's EXIF, a quiet, machine-readable claim of ownership that pairs well with a visible watermark for layered attribution.

The Darkroom metadata viewer showing photo and video details
Darkroom reads and writes rich metadata for both photos and video — including the location and copyright fields you control at export.

Hashtags on iOS

On iOS, Export Settings can also manage hashtag sets: save the groups you post with most, and Darkroom copies the chosen set to your clipboard as you export, turning a tedious part of social posting into a single paste.

Choosing settings for the job

A reliable default for most people is straightforward — JPEG for stills (or H.264 for video) for maximum compatibility, location metadata off for anything headed to social, copyright on if you publish publicly, and hashtag copy enabled only if you actually reuse hashtag sets. That combination is hard to get wrong.

From there, let the destination steer you. Client review and collaboration are happy with JPEG or HEIF at moderate-to-high quality with copyright on. Archival or further editing wants TIFF for stills and a higher-bitrate setting for video. Cross-platform delivery is safest on JPEG and H.264, where compatibility surprises are rare. And for privacy-first publishing, make location-stripping your standing default on everything outbound.

A few habits keep this painless: don't over-size exports for a platform that's going to recompress them anyway, only reach for HEVC when you're sure the receiving app supports it end to end, and recheck format and metadata before a batch export so you're not re-running a large set to fix one setting. The privacy-first direction behind these defaults was introduced gradually in earlier releases, including Darkroom Everywhere.

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