✅ Free · 🔒 Private · 🚫 No sign-up
Image Studio: the complete guide
Cromagnon Image Studio is a free online photo editor with Lightroom-style controls: exposure, colour, tone curve, HSL and colour grading, local masks, retouching, crop, resize, compress and convert. It opens JPG, PNG, WEBP, AVIF, GIF, HEIC photos from iPhones and even RAW camera files, and exports to JPG, PNG, WEBP and AVIF.
Every edit happens on your device. Your photos are never uploaded, including the AI tools: selecting people or the sky, background removal, denoise and face blurring all run with models that work inside your browser. No sign-up, no watermark, no paid plan.
This guide covers every tool, with tutorials for common photo jobs (resizing for social media, compressing for the web, passport photos, blurring faces), tips, shortcuts and an FAQ.
- 100% free
- Lightroom-style controls
- On-device AI masks
- RAW and HEIC
- No watermark
- Photos stay on your device
Features
Everything you can do in Image Studio
Light and colour
Exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows
The basic light controls photographers expect, with whites and blacks.
White balance, vibrance and saturation
Fix colour casts and make colours richer or calmer.
Tone curve
Shape contrast precisely, for the whole image or per colour channel.
HSL
Change the hue, saturation and lightness of single colours, like making a sky deeper blue.
Colour grading
Tint shadows, midtones and highlights for a film look.
Texture, clarity, dehaze, vignette and grain
Add punch, cut through haze, darken corners and add film grain.
Presets and LUTs
Dozens of ready-made looks, and import .cube LUTs from Lightroom and other editors.
Masks and local edits
Select people (AI)
Selects the people in the photo precisely, even around hair, with an on-device AI model.
Select sky (AI)
Finds the sky so you can darken or recolour it alone.
Brush, gradients and lasso
Paint a mask, or use linear and radial gradients and a lasso.
Magic wand, colour and luminance range
Select areas of similar colour or brightness.
Invert and combine
Invert a selection, paint to add and erase to remove.
Local edits
Apply light and colour changes only inside the mask.
Retouch and AI tools
Heal and clone
Remove spots, dust and small distractions.
AI denoise
Clean up grainy low-light photos.
Background removal
Cut out the subject and get a transparent or solid background.
Portrait blur
Blur the background behind the main subject.
Smooth skin
Gentle skin smoothing for portraits.
Replace sky
Swap a dull sky for a better one.
Blur faces
Detect faces and blur them for privacy before sharing.
Colourise
Add colour to black-and-white photos.
Liquify
Warp, bloat, pucker and twirl.
Filter gallery
Blurs, sharpening and artistic filters.
Crop, size and layers
Crop with aspect ratios
Free, square, wide, custom ratios and social media sizes.
Straighten and perspective
Find the horizon and level it automatically, and fix leaning buildings.
Rotate and flip
Left, right, horizontal and vertical.
Resize
Exact width and height with high-quality bicubic resampling.
Layers
Add images, text, shapes, stickers, icons and frames, with blend modes and groups.
New blank document
Start from presets for social posts, print, web and video thumbnails.
Passport and ID photos
An oval guide shows where the head should sit.
Export and workflow
Export JPG, PNG, WEBP and AVIF
Choose the format and quality, or a maximum size in KB.
Title, author and copyright
Set them once and they are written into the JPGs you export, so your photos carry your name.
Copy and paste edits
Copy one photo's edits and paste them onto another, or onto every open photo.
Batch export
Export many photos at once.
Pick and reject
Cull a shoot by marking picks and rejects.
Before and after
Compare your edit with the original.
History and snapshots
Every step is listed; jump back or save a snapshot.
Tutorials
Step-by-step how-to guides
How to edit a photo online like Lightroom
- Press Open and choose a photo.
- Set exposure and white balance first, then contrast, highlights and shadows.
- Fine-tune single colours with HSL.
- Press Before / after to compare, then Export.
How to resize a photo for Instagram or other social media
- Open the photo and choose Crop.
- Pick a social size (for example 4:5 for a portrait post).
- Set the export width and export as JPG.
How to compress an image to under 100 KB
- Open the image and press Export.
- Choose JPG or WEBP and enter a maximum size of 100 KB.
- Download the smaller file.
💡 Tip: WEBP and AVIF give the smallest files at the same quality; use JPG when a website only accepts JPG.
How to remove the background from a photo
- Open the photo.
- Run Background removal (on-device AI).
- Export as PNG to keep the transparent background.
How to blur faces in a photo
- Open the photo.
- Run Detect and blur faces.
- Check every face is covered, then export.
How to make a passport photo
- Open a well-lit photo against a plain wall.
- Use the passport guide and move the crop until the head fills the oval.
- Export at the size your country asks for.
💡 Tip: Rules differ by country. Check the required size, background colour and head size before printing.
How to convert HEIC or RAW photos to JPG
- Open the HEIC or RAW file.
- Make any edits you like.
- Export as JPG.
How to edit many photos the same way
- Open all the photos.
- Edit the first one.
- Copy edits, then Paste to all.
- Batch export.
Tips and tricks
Get more out of Image Studio
Fix light before colour
Get exposure and white balance right first; colour edits look better on a balanced photo.
Use masks instead of global sliders
Darken just the sky or brighten just a face with an AI mask for a natural result.
Small files for websites
Export WEBP at a maximum width of about 1600 px for fast web pages.
Location stays behind
Exports are made fresh from the edited picture, so the hidden camera and GPS details of the original are not copied into them.
Save a snapshot
Before trying a bold look, save a snapshot so you can jump back.
Bring your own looks
Import .cube LUTs from other editors to keep your style.
Work faster
Image Studio keyboard shortcuts
Shortcuts don't fire while you are typing in a text box, except Ctrl + S. On a Mac, use ⌘ instead of Ctrl.
Privacy
Private by design: your files stay on your device
Most online photo editors and background removers upload your pictures. Image Studio edits them inside your browser; photos never leave your device.
The AI tools (people and sky selection, background removal, denoise, face detection) use models that are downloaded once and then run on your device. Your photos are not sent to an AI service.
Exported photos are made fresh from the edited picture, so hidden details from the original, such as GPS location, are not copied into them.
Comparison
Image Studio compared with typical online tools
| Cromagnon Image Studio | Typical online photo editors | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ✅ Free, every feature | Free basics, pro tools paid |
| AI background removal | ✅ Free, on your device | Often paid or credit-based |
| Where photos are processed | ✅ On your device | Uploaded to their servers |
| Tone curve, HSL, colour grading, masks | ✅ Yes | Often on paid plans |
| RAW and HEIC | ✅ Yes | Varies |
| Watermark | ✅ Never | Sometimes on free exports |
Made for everyone
Who uses Image Studio?
Creators
Consistent looks for posts with presets, LUTs and batch export.
Online sellers
Clean product photos with background removal and the right sizes.
Photographers
RAW development, masks and colour grading without installing software.
Designers
Layers, text and exports in modern formats.
Anyone sharing photos
Compress, resize, blur faces and strip location before posting.
Applicants
Passport and ID photos, and photos under a size limit for forms.
Troubleshooting
Common problems and how to fix them
The AI tools take a moment the first time
The model is downloaded once, then cached. After that it starts quickly and works offline.
The exported file is too big
Set a maximum size in KB, or export WEBP or AVIF instead of PNG.
A RAW file opens without my camera's look
RAW files contain no edits; start from a preset or adjust exposure and colour yourself.
The editor is slow on a huge photo
Very large images depend on your device. Resize first if you don't need full resolution.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Image Studio free?
Yes. Every tool, including the AI tools, with no watermark and no sign-up.
Are my photos uploaded?
No. Photos are edited in your browser, and the AI models run on your device.
Can it remove backgrounds?
Yes, with on-device AI. Export as PNG to keep transparency.
Can I open iPhone HEIC photos?
Yes. Open HEIC photos and export them as JPG, PNG, WEBP or AVIF.
Does it open RAW files?
Yes, many camera RAW formats can be opened and developed.
How do I compress a photo to a size limit?
Export with a maximum size in KB, and the quality is chosen to fit.
Does it have a tone curve and HSL?
Yes, plus colour grading, masks, presets and LUT import.
Can I edit many photos at once?
Yes. Copy edits and paste them to all open photos, then batch export.
Is the GPS location kept in exported photos?
No. Exports are made fresh from the edited picture, so the original hidden camera and location details are not copied.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes, in modern mobile browsers. Very large photos need more memory.
Ready to try Image Studio?
It's free, private and needs no sign-up.
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