Shotwell (software)

---

title: "Shotwell (software)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["free-image-organizers", "free-image-viewers", "free-photo-software", "free-software-programmed-in-vala", "graphics-software-that-uses-gtk", "linux-image-viewers", "2009-software", "software-that-uses-meson", "software-using-the-gnu-lesser-general-public-license"] description: "Free software image organizer" topic_path: "technology/operating-systems" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotwell_(software)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Free software image organizer ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox software"]

Field	Value
name	Shotwell
logo	Shotwell 2016 logo.svg
screenshot	Shotwell 0.30.4 screenshot.png
caption	Shotwell 0.30.4 in Arch Linux
developer	Yorba Foundation
Elementary{{cite web
url	https://lists.launchpad.net/elementary-dev-community/msg02948.html
title	Picking Up Shotwell Development
website	lists.launchpad.net
access-date	2016-03-12
archive-date	2020-11-11
archive-url	https://web.archive.org/web/20201111222714/https://lists.launchpad.net/elementary-dev-community/msg02948.html
url-status	live
url	https://mail.gnome.org/archives/shotwell-list/2016-April/msg00000.html
title	Taking over
access-date	2018-06-06
date	2016-04-15
last	Georg
first	Jens}}
released
platform	GNOME
language	Multilingual
genre	Image organizer
license	LGPL-2.1-or-later
latest_release_version
latest_release_date
latest_preview_version	0.31.7
latest_preview_date	{{cite web
url	https://discourse.gnome.org/t/new-development-preview-shotwell-0-31-6-0-31-7/12597
title	New development preview - Shotwell 0.31.6 0.31.7
access-date	7 December 2022
date	3 December 2022
last	Georg
first	Jens}}
programming_language	Vala (GTK+)
operating_system	Linux
::

| name = Shotwell | logo = Shotwell 2016 logo.svg | screenshot = Shotwell 0.30.4 screenshot.png | caption = Shotwell 0.30.4 in Arch Linux | collapsible = | author = | developer = Yorba Foundation Elementary{{cite web | url = https://lists.launchpad.net/elementary-dev-community/msg02948.html | title = Picking Up Shotwell Development | website = lists.launchpad.net | access-date = 2016-03-12 | archive-date = 2020-11-11 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201111222714/https://lists.launchpad.net/elementary-dev-community/msg02948.html | url-status = live | url = https://mail.gnome.org/archives/shotwell-list/2016-April/msg00000.html | title = Taking over | access-date = 2018-06-06 | date = 2016-04-15 | last = Georg | first = Jens}} | released = | platform = GNOME | size = | language = Multilingual | genre = Image organizer | license = LGPL-2.1-or-later | latest_release_version = | latest_release_date = | latest_preview_version = 0.31.7 | latest_preview_date = {{cite web | url = https://discourse.gnome.org/t/new-development-preview-shotwell-0-31-6-0-31-7/12597 | title = New development preview - Shotwell 0.31.6 0.31.7 | access-date = 7 December 2022 | date = 3 December 2022 | last = Georg | first = Jens}} | programming_language = Vala (GTK+) | operating_system = Linux

Shotwell is an image organizer designed to provide personal photo management for the GNOME desktop environment. In 2010, it replaced F-Spot as the standard image tool for several GNOME-based Linux distributions, including Fedora in version 13 and Ubuntu in its 10.10 Maverick Meerkat release.

In 2019, Shotwell was the target of a predatory lawsuit by Rothschild Patent Imaging against the GNOME Foundation claiming a patent infringement related to the use of WiFi to transfer photographic images. The case was resolved through agreement in 2020 and the patent itself invalidated in 2022 following a legal challenge from the open source development community. | last1 = Bain | first1 = Malcolm | last2 = Smith | first2 = P McCoy | editor-last1 = Brock | editor-first1 = Amanada | title = Open source law, policy and practice | edition = 2nd | date = October 2022 | chapter = Chapter 10: Patents and the defensive response | pages = 213–255 | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford, United Kingdom | doi = 10.1093/oso/9780198862345.003.0010 | isbn = 978-0-19-886234-5 | url = https://academic.oup.com/book/44727/chapter/378966974/chapter-pdf/46778753/oso-9780198862345-chapter-10.pdf | access-date = 2023-01-01 | author = OSI Staff | title = GNOME patent troll stripped of patent rights | date = 28 April 2022 | work = Voices of Open Source | url = https://blog.opensource.org/gnome-patent-troll-stripped-of-patent-rights/ | location = USA | access-date = 2022-12-25

Features

Shotwell can import photos and videos from a digital camera directly. Shotwell automatically groups photos and videos by date, and supports tagging. Its image editing features allow users to straighten, crop, eliminate red eye, and adjust levels and color balance. It also features an auto "enhance" option that will attempt to guess appropriate levels for the image.

Shotwell allows users to publish their images and videos to Flickr, Piwigo, and YouTube. Shotwell can also set the desktop wallpaper.

Technical information

The Yorba Foundation wrote Shotwell in the Vala programming language. It imports photos using the libgphoto2 library, similar to other image-organizers such as F-Spot and gThumb.

References

References

1. "4. Changes in Fedora for Desktop Users". [[Fedora Project]].
2. Sneddon, Joey-Elijah. (2010-05-13). "See Ya F-Spot! Shotwell to be default Image App in Ubuntu 10.10".
3. "guillaumev/piwigoshotwell".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::