Show HN: Caffenol, a darkroom simulation photo editing toy

Caffenol is a darkroom toy, built on film development and darkroom craft. You load a photo and develop it into a negative in a simulated tank. Then you print that negative under a timed enlarger exposure. You shape the light by hand with cut cards that you wave over the paper.

Under the hood, it's a WebGPU-powered film and paper sim, with chaos from each run producing a unique, organic result. It's built to encourage experimentation and there are few guardrails.

I built this because darkroom printing made me fall in love with editing photography in a way Lightroom or Capture One couldn't. But it's expensive, uses a lot of resources, and isn't accessible. So, Caffenol brings the process and makes a few opinionated turns so it's fun and enjoyable. Ultimately, I hope it helps people make cool art.

I'm tuning the film and paper sims with B&W processes now, with color coming shortly (read: when the color process can be made as fun as B&W is). No signups and everything is stored locally. If you find yourself wanting to learn more about how to bend and break it, the manual might help: https://caffenol.app/manual/

Hope it can make a print worth saving.