Fair question. The scene-referred design is modelled on darktable’s, and darktable deserves the credit for it. My very first prototype ported some of darktable’s algorithms, and I replaced that with an independent implementation before releasing. Both projects are GPL-3.0, and the README now credits darktable directly.

I built Rembrandt because darktable’s learning curve kept me from using it, not because it’s worse; it has far more control. The goal here is approachability: fewer, broader controls, on-device AI for masks and denoise, and Lightroom catalog import.

Stack: the engine is JavaScript with WebGL/WebGPU shaders, in a small Rust (Tauri) desktop shell. LibRaw (C++) decodes RAW files.

Edit: corrected my earlier reply. I wrongly said it was written in C++, and I overstated the darktable answer.