MONOCHROME GRAIN was one integer knob 0..10 with one meaning, how much. It is now
a strip of three: AMOUNT — the same knob, in half steps — SIZE, a percentage of
the stock's own grain cell (50..200%, so the same number means the same texture
relative to the picture on both platforms), and an inert readout of N/INCH, the
clump count the two knobs and the stock add up to in the print's own terms (300
dpi = 300px of the 1080-wide reference the knob was tuned at).
Emulsion is not one grain size across the frame: the coating settles unevenly.
The field now prints that — the same hash read slowly (ZONE_FREQ = 1/96 cells,
turned off the axes, smoothed so a border between two patches is a slope and not
a seam) swings each patch's own cell by half of ZONE_SWING either way, ±20%.
Nothing in it moves the field's mean: a coarser patch prints bigger clumps, not a
brighter one, which is why the strip can read out one number while the frame
carries a range.
A patch may not swing a cell under the pixel the target can print, or the clumps
are sub-pixel and print as static — aliasing, not a finer emulsion. The shader
takes that floor as a `mincell` uniform beside the cell (u, mincell, seed.xy, in
declaration order): an export passes one output pixel, a preview one device pixel
(1 / PixelRatio), which is the floor the phone's preview already needed.
SIZE is stored as an integer percent so no float noise reaches the recipe JSON,
and it is read by the same two engines that read grain: the web's
grainCell(width, stock, sizePct) and the phone's grainCell(width, minCell,
sizePct). The chip above the strip carries the amount in half steps the way TEMP
carries the kelvin, and the readout moves with SIZE, not with AMOUNT.
Measured:
grain-controls-test.cjs 20/0 — the strip carries grp-grain, grain:amount,
grain:size and grain-inch; the AMOUNT ruler is 0..10 step 0.5, and 3 -> 3.5
moves the frame (sigma 18.53 -> 21.91, new hash) without moving the readout;
10 -> sigma 60.43, 0 -> sigma 0; SIZE 200% -> 130/INCH (sigma 40.06), 50% ->
522/INCH (66.56: under the preview's pixel floor what is printed is static,
not finer grain); the region claim on an 8x8 grid of the flat frame gives
tile sd 51.0..66.1, max/min 1.295, and a tile mean spread of 1.14 — a coarser
patch is not a brighter one.
grain-size-test.cjs 17/0 (was 12/0) — the SIZE rule and the readout on the
module itself: 200% doubles the cell, 50% halves it, the output pixel still
floors the smaller one. 4000px file cell 3.704 against 1.083 device px on a 3x
preview, the old one-dp floor 2.77x coarser, rho1 0.627 against 0.074. The
harness built its own 3-uniform array; it now passes [u, mincell, seed.xy]
like every other caller.
_grain-zone-ck.cjs — the zone's own contribution, at preview scale (cell 1.70,
1600px, 8x8 tiles of 200px): zone on, tile sd 23.22..24.82 (ratio 1.069);
zone off, 24.42..24.79 (ratio 1.015). Nothing else differs.
_grain-ck.cjs — the clump field is otherwise what it was: rho1 0.62
classic-neg / 0.12 velvia, residual autocorr 0.035 against 0.036 with the
swing forced to 0, peak/median 32.3 against 27.6.
_grain-spectrum.cjs (app, 1600px render) — residual autocorr 0.017..0.018,
spectral peak/median 4.6..6.1: the slow lattice adds no peak of its own.
grain-stock-test 53/0, sims-test 31/0, fx-mono-test 15/0, wb-preset-test 33/0,
temp-swatch-test 33/0, wm-font-test 38/0, grain-analog-test 7/0 (its grain
selectors moved to the strip).
tsc: web clean; the phone's scoped config reports exactly the pre-change
baseline (Viewfinder.tsx's own errors, none new).
ponytail: the amount is fractional now, so the two recipe-create forms read grain
through their own half() instead of the int() that would truncate the half the
ruler just spent — every other knob there is still whole. The SIZE knob is one
number for the whole strip: no way to dial a single patch, and no seed control.
The readout is the DESIGN count the field is built on, never a per-patch
measurement.
RecipesCam
RecipesCam is a camera and photo-editing app built around recipes — reusable
looks that carry a film simulation plus a full set of adjustments. You shoot or
open a photo, dial in a look, and keep it as a recipe you can apply again, share
as a .recipe file, or save to your account.
It ships twice from one repository: a React Native (Expo) app for iOS and
Android, and a self-contained web build under docker/ that runs the same
render pipeline in the browser.
What it does
- Shoot with a recipe applied. Live viewfinder, GPS-tagged captures, and the recipe baked into the saved file.
- Film simulations. Built-in looks — PROVIPES, VELVIPES, CLASSIC CHRIPES, CLASSIC NEGIPES, ASTIPES, ETERNIPES, ACRIPES, B&W HIGH CONTRAST and the LC STREETLIFE pair — each with its own grain and tone curve.
- The full adjustment set. Exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows, saturation, colour temperature, clarity, grain, and an HSL mixer with a colour picker that samples straight off the photo.
- Geometry. Crop to a fixed ratio or free-form, quarter turns, and a straighten ruler, plus printed frames (classic border, retro instant, wall frame portrait/landscape).
- Finishing. Watermark and GPS stamp, EXIF carried through the export, JPEG written with a proper 300 DPI JFIF header.
- On-device upscaling. A Real-ESRGAN pass runs locally when an export asks for more pixels than the source has — no server sees the photo.
- Recipes. Save, favourite, export and import
.recipefiles; the web build keeps them in your account, the phone build also keeps them on device.
The two builds
| Build | Where | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| iOS / Android | repo root | Expo + React Native, @shopify/react-native-skia for the render pipeline, NativeWind for styling |
| Web | docker/ |
Vite + React, CanvasKit (canvaskit-wasm) for the same pipeline, Fastify + SQLite API for accounts and recipes |
The render engine is shared by design: the web build compiles the app's own
src/utils/* and type definitions unchanged, with @shopify/react-native-skia
aliased to a CanvasKit shim (docker/frontend/src/engine/skiaShim.ts). A look
looks the same on both because it is the same code.
Running the web build
cd docker
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d --build
# → http://localhost:8090
Photos never leave the browser: grading, framing, watermarking and JPEG
encoding all run in the visitor's tab; the API only stores accounts and recipe
JSON. See docker/README.md for the layout and the proxy setup.
Running the app
npm install
npx expo start # Expo Go / dev client
npx expo run:android # or run:ios for a native build
Repository layout
App.tsx, src/ the Expo app: screens, tool rail, viewfinder, shaders
docker/ the web build (frontend + API + compose file)
frontend/shared/ vendored copies of the app's types and utils
frontend/src/engine/ CanvasKit shim, export engine, super-resolution
docs/ privacy policy
THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md licences of the bundled fonts, models and libraries
Licence
See LICENSE and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.