- Pin PaddlePaddle to 3.0.0 on ARM64 to fix segfault in PIR inference
engine (3.1+ crashes on aarch64 Debian Bookworm)
- Fix text extraction for PaddleOCR 3.4.x result format (rec_texts)
- Add Node.js-level fallback chain (best -> balanced -> fast) when
Python subprocess crashes
- Add multi-image OCR: processes all uploaded files sequentially with
per-file progress and filename headers in combined output
- Convert input images to PNG via Sharp before OCR so HEIC, AVIF, WebP,
TIFF all work transparently
- Implement real auto-detect language using Tesseract multi-lang script
detection (analyzes Unicode ranges for Hangul, CJK, Kana, Latin)
- Default enhance to off (hurts clean digital images)
- Replace Auto/AI/Fast buttons with Fast/Balanced/Best (consistent with other tools)
- Rename "Denoise" to "Noise Reduction" with explanatory subtitle
- Change output format from 3 buttons to dropdown with all formats (PNG, JPG, WebP, AVIF, TIFF, GIF, HEIC, HEIF)
- Add HEIC/HEIF input decoding (was missing unlike other tools)
- Add HEIC/HEIF/AVIF output conversion via Sharp and heif-enc
- Generate browser-compatible WebP preview for non-previewable output formats
- Fix torchvision compatibility shim so Real-ESRGAN actually loads (was silently falling back to Lanczos)
- Fix denoise crash: Image.fromarray() instead of type(img).fromarray()
- Redirect stdout for entire AI pipeline to prevent library messages corrupting JSON output
- Add GFPGAN model download for face enhancement
- Use batch endpoint for multi-file uploads (enables Download All ZIP)
- Fix multi-image: process selected file, not always first
- Fix progress bar: asymptotic fill prevents visual stalling
- Fix slider: write results to captured index, not current selection
- Add model selection (Auto/AI/Fast), face enhancement, denoise
- Add output format (PNG/JPEG/WebP) with quality control
- Add Upscale All for sequential batch processing with queue
- More granular Python progress stages for smoother UX
- Fix temp file leak: clean up preprocessed image in finally block
- Log warning instead of silently swallowing preprocessing failures
- Simplify auto_detect_language to honest default (was a stub that
wasted time loading a model but always returned "en")
Ultra quality (People only):
- BiRefNet-matting ONNX (928MB) for true alpha matting with per-pixel
transparency on hair wisps and fine edges
- Custom rembg session class, zero new Python dependencies
- Model pre-downloaded in Docker build for immediate availability
Quality tier labels: Fast / HD / Max / Ultra (shorter, fits 4-col grid)
Adds a new "Ultra" quality tier for People subject type that uses
BiRefNet-matting (ONNX, 928MB) for true alpha matting instead of
binary segmentation. Produces per-pixel transparency for hair wisps
and fine edges that standard models miss.
- Custom rembg session class loads BiRefNet-matting ONNX from GitHub releases
- Zero new Python dependencies (reuses existing onnxruntime)
- Model pre-downloaded in Docker build alongside existing models
- Ultra option only visible when subject is People
- Falls back to Best when switching to Products/General
Remove Background:
- Two-phase flow: AI removes bg once, then effects adjust instantly
- Blur background effect with real-time CSS preview (portrait mode)
- Drop shadow effect with opacity control
- Gradient backgrounds with presets, custom colors, and angle
- Custom background image upload (including HEIC/HEIF)
- Solid color backgrounds moved from Python to Node.js/Sharp
- Effects-only API endpoint for instant re-renders without AI re-run
- HEIC/HEIF input support (decoded before passing to Python/rembg)
- Passport/ID photo checkbox defaults ON for People subject
- Before/after slider preserved when no effects active
- 15 comprehensive Playwright e2e tests
Color Tools:
- Consolidated 4 tools (brightness-contrast, saturation, color-channels,
color-effects) into single "Adjust Colors" tool
- Added exposure, temperature, tint, hue, sharpness controls
- SVG filter-based live preview for all adjustments
- Backward-compatible URL redirects from old tool paths
Other fixes:
- Favicon tool: download button instead of auto-download
- Batch processing: HEIC filename extension fix
- File store: processedFilename field for proper batch downloads
- Add bidirectional HEIF support: decode (input) and encode (output) via system heif-convert/heif-enc
- Add server-side WebP preview generation for non-browser-previewable formats (HEIC, TIFF)
- Fix content-aware resize failing on HEIF input (decode before passing to caire)
- Fix content-aware resize timeout on large images by downscaling to max 1200px and using JPEG intermediate
- Add HEIF as target format in convert tool
- Add loading spinner for HEIF preview decode in file store
- Fix file picker not accepting HEIF files (explicit .heic,.heif,.hif extensions)
- Extend frontend timeout for medium tools to 180s with 45s progress animation
- Redesign rotate controls with preset buttons and compact flip section
- Remove misleading savings percentage from convert tool
Replace the Python seam-carving library with caire (esimov/caire v1.5.0),
a Go-based content-aware resize engine that is faster and supports both
shrinking and enlarging via seam insertion.
- Add Go builder stage in Dockerfile to compile caire from source
- Rewrite seam-carving.ts to call caire via execFile (no Python sidecar)
- Remove content-aware-resize from PYTHON_SIDECAR_TOOLS (60s timeout)
- Add new options: blur radius, edge sensitivity, square mode, face detection
- Move content-aware toggle below standard resize in UI (subtler placement)
- Rename "Don't enlarge" to "Limit to original size" with hover tooltip
- Add smooth progress bar for medium-duration tools
- Delete seam_carve.py and remove seam-carving pip dependency
- Update integration tests and visual regression screenshots
Merge CPU, CUDA, and lite Docker images into a single unified image.
One tag (latest) works on all platforms: amd64 (NVIDIA CUDA) and arm64 (CPU).
GPU auto-detected at runtime. All ML models and packages baked in.
Key changes:
- Platform-conditional Dockerfile (nvidia/cuda on amd64, node on arm64)
- tini as PID 1 for proper signal handling
- Fix FILES_STORAGE_PATH data loss bug
- Fix RealESRGAN upscaler (was broken, always fell back to Lanczos)
- Fix PaddleOCR language codes and stdout corruption
- Simplified CI/CD (single build, single tag)
- Expanded model pre-download with verification
- Shutdown timeout, improved health endpoint
- Remove unused lama-cleaner
- Replace OpenCV Haar Cascades with MediaPipe for face detection, using
short-range model first with full-range fallback for better accuracy
- Add auto-orient to remove-background route for EXIF-rotated photos
- Change default background removal model from u2net to birefnet-general-lite
- Fix flaky test by setting SQLite busy_timeout before journal_mode pragma
Co-authored-by: Siddharth Kumar Sah <siddharth123sk@gmail.com>
onnxruntime-gpu reports CUDAExecutionProvider as "available" just
because the library was compiled with CUDA support, even on machines
with no GPU. This made gpu_available() return True incorrectly,
causing upscale.py to try torch.device("cuda") and fall back to
Lanczos instead of running Real-ESRGAN on CPU.
torch.cuda.is_available() actually probes the hardware. Use it as
the single source of truth for GPU detection.
Verified: CUDA image on Apple Silicon (no GPU) now correctly reports
gpu: false and all AI tools run on CPU without crashes.
The STIRLING_GPU=true env var was baked into the :cuda Dockerfile,
which made gpu_available() return True without checking actual
hardware. On machines without a GPU, this would crash upscale.py
(torch.device("cuda") fails) and ocr.py (PaddleOCR use_gpu=True).
Fix: the env var can only disable GPU (set to false/0), never
force-enable it. Hardware detection always runs. Removed the
baked env var from the Dockerfile since it adds no value now.
Add a :cuda Docker image tag that auto-detects NVIDIA GPU at runtime
and falls back gracefully to CPU. Same pattern as Immich.
- New gpu.py shared utility for cached CUDA detection
- Background removal (rembg): pass CUDAExecutionProvider to ONNX Runtime
- Upscaling (Real-ESRGAN): use CUDA device + FP16 when GPU available
- OCR (PaddleOCR): enable use_gpu when CUDA detected
- Dispatcher reports GPU status at startup via readiness signal
- Admin health endpoint exposes GPU availability
- Dockerfile uses ARG GPU=false with conditional NVIDIA CUDA base image
- docker-compose.gpu.yml override for GPU users
- CI/CD workflows build and publish :cuda tag (amd64 only)
Three tags: :latest (CPU), :lite (no AI), :cuda (GPU with CPU fallback)
Replace MIT with AGPLv3 + commercial dual-license. Add copyright header
and dual-license notice to LICENSE, add CLA to CONTRIBUTING.md, update
README license section, and update all package.json license fields.
Siddharth Kumar Sah