?> Phototheca: Photo Management and Editing Software — News

Phototheca News

What happens in Phototheca’s world


🔥 November 20th, 2023 — Major Phototheca update

Phototheca 2023.11.20.4239 has been released! This performance update brings a lot of new improvements and bug fixes to Phototheca. In this update:

  • Phototheca becomes fully x64 bits application. The program works faster on all modern PCs and utilizes all the power of modern CPUs, both Intel and AMD.
  • Increased thumbnail size to 512px to have a better look on high-resolution displays
  • Faster and more accurate facial recognition, accelerated on multiple CPUs cores
  • Exteded range of supported RAW formats, including modern Canon CR3 and Apple HEIC RAW formats
  • Improved metadata support for both reading and writing. Better support for side-car XMP files
  • Various user interface improvements
  • Performance improvements and bug fixes

January 7th, 2023

Phototheca X 2023.1.7.3836 has been released!

This is a service update with bug fixes and performance improvements.

August 24th, 2022

Meet major update Phototheca X 2022.8.24.3800!

In this update, we greatly revised and reworked the user interface and look and feel of Phototheca. We removed visual noise and overwhelming elements and refreshed icons and colors. Besides visual changes, this update also includes:

  • New look for the People section, with larger covers and Favorited people
  • A new way to sort faces
  • A new way to sort albums
  • Horizontal tabs for better navigation
  • New Calendar and Moments sections
  • Many minor bug fixes and performance improvements

April 25th, 2022

Phototheca X 2022.4.25.3596 is released!

In this update:

  • New look for the People section
  • Favorited Persons appear before all others on the top row
  • Minor bug fixes and improvements


December 19th, 2021

Phototheca X 2021.5.1.3520 has been released!

This is a service release with minor bug fixes and improvements.


November 22nd, 2021

Phototheca X 2021.4.3.3509 has been released!

In this update:

• Added integration with the SmugMug platform. Now you can upload photos to your SmugMug account from Phototheca directly

• Added a quick filter to narrow down the keywords list in the Keywords Search panel


June 20th, 2021

Phototheca 2020.22 Update is released!

In this update:

• Thumbnail size is increased x2 for high-DPI (4K) displays
• Import from iPhones is improved
• Better support for Olympus RAW formats (ORF)
• Better support for DNG formats
• A feature to view and change the list of known(tracked) folders is added

• Bug fixes and performance improvements


May 29th, 2021

Phototheca 2020.19 Update is released!

In this update:

• Options to flip images horizontally and vertically are added
• Better support for TIFF metadata
• Added support for 1-bit color(black and white) images
• Batch editing for captions and descriptions is added
• Option to trash all duplicates is added
• Bug fixes and performance improvements


February 21st, 2021

Phototheca 2020.18 Update is released!

In this update:

• Interface is translated to French and Polish languages
• New feature to export all photos with a specific person or export person’s faces clips:

• Added the feature to specify a target file format and quality options when saving edited photos:


January 30th, 2021

Phototheca 2020.17 Mid-Season Update is released!

In this update:

• Duplicates module is improved
• Restore expanded folders from the previous session
• Improved work with video files metadata, both MOV and MP4 formats
• Captions of photos appear in a slideshow
• “Favorites” feature is added
• “Save Library” menu action is added
• The option to show disk folders as a flat list is added:

• The option to show covers of folders is added:


December 5th, 2020

We are enlightened to announce the latest Phototheca major update – Phototheca 2020 Fall Update!

Read the blog’s full story and changes list — Phototheca 2020 Fall Update.


May 17th, 2020

We are thrilled to announce the new major release of Phototheca – Phototheca 2020 Productivity Pack!

Read the full story and changes list in the blog — Phototheca 2020 Productivity Pack.


February 2nd, 2020

Meet new Phototheca 2019.15.1.2726 service update.

In this update:
• Facial Recognition feature is improved
• Fixes for high-DPI display


December 30th, 2019

Phototheca 2019.12 Winter Update is released

In this update:
• Improvements to Face Recognition feature
• Better support for high-DPI display


November 18th, 2019

Meet new Phototheca 2019.11 major update.

Added in this update:
• Face Recognition feature
• Support for faces metadata standards – XMP MWG and Microsoft Photo
• Support for maker notes metadata
• Better detection of lens models
• Support for Affinity Photo file format
• Support for iPhone media types: selfie, Instagram posts, long exposure photos, and screenshot
• Streamlined UI and improved look&feel
• Dozens of fixes and optimizations


August 1st, 2019

New Phototheca 3.2.0.2434 is released. In this update:
• Added Text writing tool. Add text to photos and bring new meaning to your images. Our text editor comes packed full of fonts, styles, and everything else you’ll need to add text to photos!


June 30th, 2019

We’re happy to announce Phototheca User Guide has finally arrived!

Read all details about Phototheca and learn how to use the program in Phototheca User Guide!


May 2nd, 2019

You’ve been waiting years for this, and finally, it’s here!
Phototheca got a major version update. Meet Phototheca 3.1 Premium with photo editing features!

Phototheca Premium includes 18 sliders to enhance and correct photos, crop tools, and 56 striking photo filters to beautify a photo in a single click. All editing is non-destructive and doesn’t touch original photos ever, you are covered.
Download and check it out here – Phototheca 3.1 Premium

March 8th, 2019

New Phototheca 2.9.0.2292 is released. In this update:
• Added new section FOLDERS to the library. This section shows a tree of folders where all library images are located. This section is similar to the Windows Explorer tree, except that it only shows folders with imported images, not all folders of local drives, and doesn’t create clutter.

February 3rd, 2019

New Phototheca 2.9.0.2266 is released. In this update:
• Overall look and feel of Phototheca is improved
• Better support for high-DPI display and Surface tablets
• Better integration with Windows 10
• Share photos to any target on Windows 10
• Feature to share to Facebook is back on Windows 10
• Feature to upload images to Google Photos is fixed
• Send by email feature supports more mail clients: Gmail, Outlook, Win 10 Mail app
• It’s possible to resize images when sent by email
• It’s possible to resize images on export
• Instant search can perform a search by a weekday’s name
• Library tree now shows small album covers instead of icons
• It’s possible to assign a cover image for any folder
• Added built-in smart albums for media types(HDR, panorama, portrait, video) that come from iOS devices
• Feature to show badges of media type on HDR and portraits thumbnails
• Better support for the latest RAW formats, including Panasonic RW2 format
• Added support for raising HEIC\HEIF formats (new photo formats on Apple devices) on Windows 10
• Read XMP sidecar files of RAW photos to get keywords and descriptions into Phototheca

3 November 2017

New Phototheca 2.8.0.2010 is released. In this update:
• You’ve asked for years, and it’s here – a feature to rate photos with stars! Set ratings with context menu or hotkeys, make Smart Albums with filtering by ratings and search for photos with specific ratings in the search bar.
• Minor bug fixes and improvements.

17 October 2017

New Phototheca 2.8.0.1991 is released. In this update:
• Added support for AVCHD video format (MTS, M2TS file extensions).
• Enabled view of file extensions. A lot of small improvements and fixes.

24 September 2017

New Phototheca 2.8.0.1985 is released. In this update:
• Fixed issues with imports from the iPhone.
• Fixed issue when dates of the shoot were misinterpreted on specific images.

18 March 2017

New Phototheca 2.8.0.1966 is released. In this update:
• Faster and smoother video import, now from iOS devices also.
• A fresh look for the DEVICES section.
• Feature to remove all empty Events and Albums in one click – File->Manage Library.
• Reworked Info panel.
• Remember the Timeline scale and position.
• A lot of small improvements and fixes.

12 February 2017

New Phototheca 2.6.0.1904 is released. In this update:
• Better visualization for keywords on the information pane.
• Fixed issue when custom applications to edit photos are not displayed in the menu.
• Cut&paste now works with albums.
• Another handy feature is to scan the entire library for changes. Use the link “Scan all images for changes” to refresh the metadata of files processed in another software and pick up the latest changes(keywords, descriptions, EXIF, etc.)

26 January 2017

New Phototheca 2.6.0.1874 is released. This is a performance update, and it’s unbelievable!
• The performance of many operations on huge libraries(>50,000 images) has increased significantly. Phototheca becomes more responsive and fast.
• Another handy feature is here — support for multiple libraries! First, use the button “Copy Library…” from the “File->Manage Library…” dialog to make a copy of a current library to another folder:

Next, when you want the switch to another library using the “Change…” button for a DB path field, point to a location with another library and answer “Switch to Library” when you see this:

12 January 2017

New Phototheca 2.6.0.1830 is released.
• An option to exclude specific keywords from search results is added. 

• Keywords fuzzy search feature is added.
• A help button to show an explanation for a search query language is added.

• Context menu item to find all Events and Albums containing clicked photo is added.

13 November 2016

New Phototheca 2.6.0.1795 is released.
• Smart Album conditions are extended with a new one to filter by a file’s path.
• Fixed the issue with metadata reading for RAW files.

24 October 2016

New Phototheca 2.6.0.1782 is released. It’s amazing!
• Again, you’ve been asking years for this, and it comes — video files support in Phototheca! Import movies made by a camera or regular videos from a hard drive, assign tags and keywords and arrange in albums. Even more — the instant search and Smart Albums work with movies the same way as with photos.
• Support for the Camera Roll folder on Windows 8 and Windows 10 is added. All shoots that you make with your Windows-based phone or tablet have their own place in the Library.

18 October 2016

New Phototheca 2.5.0.1713 is released! It’s unbelievable!
We are thrilled to announce that Phototheca got more features to share your lovely photos with Facebook, Google Photos, and Twitter! No more manual uploads from a browser! Just select an album, an event, or several photos, do the click — and Phototheca immediately starts to upload those photos on your behalf. It’s possible to specify privacy settings and the size of uploads. You can even upload RAWs, which are converted to JPEGs on the fly.

11 October 2016

New Phototheca 2.4.0.1634 is released! Phototheca goes online!
• The feature to upload photos, Albums, and Events to Flickr is added! You can easily upload photos, Albums, and Events into new Sets or Photostream under your Flickr account. Just in two clicks! You can specify the privacy level and size of uploads as well. Phototheca can perform 2-ways synchronization with Flickr, meaning all your changes made to photos locally or on Flickr appears on the opposite side. And all metadata(EXIF, IPTC, etc.) are also preserved on upload!
And here is our new application in Flick’s App Garden — Phototheca Uploader, which accepts calls on their end.

8 October 2016

New Phototheca 2.3.0.1609 is released! 
Finally, you’ve been asking for years for this, and it comes with RAW file formats support! Refer to the article RAW in Phototheca for details.
• Single-page TIFF format support is added.
• Other minor bug fixes and improvements.

3 October 2016

New Phototheca 2.2.0.1588 is released! In this version:
• A huge UI redesign has been introduced. The look&feel of the main screen became more slick, sharp, and nice.
• Import speed is increased by 20%.
• Other minor bug fixes and improvements.

18 September 2016

New Phototheca 2.1.0.1547 is released! In this version:
• Visual quality and appeal of Event’s covers are greatly improved.
• New Welcome screen on the first start.
• Fixed issue with drag&drop to start the import
• Fixed issue with a first start on Windows 10
• Fixed issue with Dual View if open an image inside a large Event
• Other minor bug fixes and improvements.

6 September 2016

Lunarship Software Joins Intel® Software Partner Program
Lunarship’s Phototheca app is now optimized for the Intel® Skylake platform.

— Lunarship Software today announced that it has joined the Intel® Software Partner Program and is offering the Phototheca application specifically optimized for the latest Skylake Intel® Architecture-based Ultrabooks. 
“Since launch, our photo organizing application Phototheca has become a popular app for people around the world,” explained Anton Vasylkivskyi, co-founder of Lunarship Software.
“By joining forces with Intel, we’ve been able to optimize the app for the Skylake Intel® Architecture, the very latest one, ensuring that users get an optimized UI and UX on their devices.”

Phototheca app has been validated by Intel®on 2-in-1 Media, and 2Screen experience enabling programs, meaning the app can work on modern 2-in-1 devices, laptops, and tablets, and provides
support for a dual monitor view as well.
Read more

2 September 2016

New Phototheca 2.0.0.1524 is released! In this version:
• The information panel is reworked. It shows more image-related details about shoot conditions (ISO, aperture, shutter, exposition bias, focus length).
• New dialog to review all Exif properties of a file is added.
• Smart Albums got nice covers as other albums have, finally.

26 August 2016

New Phototheca 2.0.0.1505 is released! In this version:
• Fixed issues with safe boxes.
• The format of album covers is changed to 3×4.
• Fixed issue with a date range condition in Smart Albums.
• The option is added to make the text size bigger for the left pane and menus.
• The application opens up a full-screen on start-up if it has been closed from a full-screen.
• Library Management dialog is extended with the option to delete all thumbnails of missing files.

14 August 2016

We proudly announce that Phototheca got a major version update to 2.0, and Phototheca 2.0.0.1475 has been released! In this version:
• Support for 2-in-1 devices on the Windows 10 platform is added. Phototheca can detect switches between clam-shell and slate modes and switch its own UI accordingly.
• New touch UI with gestures support browsing across a library, swapping, zooming in, and zooming out with fingers.

5 May 2016

New Phototheca 1.7.0.1385 is released! In this version:
• Dual display support is added. Now it is possible to use your second screen to show selected photos in full size while browsing a library on the first screen.
• The email feature is added. You can email photos right from the application
• Full compatibility with a high-DPI display is added. Phototheca respects Windows settings, uses larger fonts, and scales UI accordingly when fonts are scaled to 125% or 150%.
• Multiple minor bug fixes and improvements

2 April 2016

New Phototheca 1.6.0.1331 is released! In this version:
• This is a service release with bug fixes and performance improvements

8 March 2016

New Phototheca 1.6.0.1312 is released! In this version:
• Fix for sorting issue inside Smart Albums
• The new feature “Fix Library” is added to the Troubleshooting dialog. This lets you fix minor issues with Library by yourself.
• Default destination of the installer is changed to the Program Files folder
• Minor bug fixes

13 February 2016

New Phototheca 1.6.0.1300 is released! In this version:
• Filtering suggested keywords while you type
• “Export Photos” dialog is improved
• “Import” dialog look is refined with bigger thumbnails
• Minor bug fixes and speed improvements

7 January 2016

New Phototheca 1.6.0.1280 is released! New in this version:
• Support for Apple devices. A connected iPhone or iPad appears in the Devices section of a library, and it’s possible to import photos directly from a device with a nice import dialog.
• Support for long-long folder names
• Minor bug fixes

16 December 2015

New Phototheca 1.6.0.1252 is released!
This is a service release with bug fixes

26 July 2015

New Phototheca 1.6.0.1230 is released! New in this version:
• Print feature
• Change the list of external applications to edit photos
• Option to do not copy files from removable drives during the import process
• Do not create new events when doing re-import from known locations

28 April 2015

Phototheca is featured in the Crestleaf blog as one of the solutions for genealogy enthusiasts all over the world! We are happy our software can help people to organize family photos.

1 March 2015

New Phototheca 1.6.0.1120 is released! 
This is a service release with bug fixes and speed improvement

12 October 2014

New Phototheca 1.6 has been released! 
This is a service release with bug fixes and speed improvements

8 June 2014

New Phototheca 1.5 has been released! New and changes in this version:
• Support for large Windows fonts on high DPI displays
• Speed improvements to display and scroll hundreds of small thumbnails
• Bug fixes and stability improvements

18 April 2013

New Phototheca 1.4 has been released! News and changes in this version:
• Live Album feature is added
• Open and edit photos in an external application
• “Import to Phototheca” item is added to Windows Autoplay dialog when connecting removable drives
• “Import to Phototheca” item is added to Windows Explorer’s context menu
• “DEVICES” section in the Library – let to import photos from memory cards, removable drives, cell phones, cameras, and tablets directly, without copying to a local drive first
• Drag & drop photos from Calendar into Library creates Album
• Highlighting the last added item in the Library
• Detects name of graphical adapter and gives a hint of where to find drivers if drivers are not installed
• Bug fixes and speed improvements

1 February 2013

New Phototheca 1.3 is released! New and changes in this version:
• Zoom item is added to the context menu
• Hotkeys to show\hide panels, start a slideshow, create a new item
• Convert multiple Events into Albums
• Albums merge feature is added
• Show a list of corrupted and skipped files on import
• Bug fixes and speed improvements

7 December 2012

New Phototheca 1.2 has been released! New and changes in this version:
• Bug fixes
• Look & feel speed improvements
• Export photos feature is added: File->Export… menu item
• The feature is added to change the location of the library: File->Manage Library…

19 October 2012

Phototheca 1.0 is released to the public!