Aphera has four modes, each providing a different view and level of control over your photos.
Grid (Escape)
Displays a grid of photo thumbnails with Balance and Look tools available for quick adjustments. Use this mode to browse, select, organize, and edit photos. See Browsing & Grid.
View (Space)
Displays a single photo. Balance and Looks remain available in the right panel, so you can review photos one at a time and make quick adjustments.
View has no toolbar button — enter it by pressing Space in Grid, or by double-clicking a photo.
Develop (Return)
Displays a single photo with the full editing interface: the Editing Layers stack on the right and the Looks panel on the left. Use this for precise control over the image processing pipeline. See Image Stack and Looks.
Crop (K)
Displays the crop, straighten, and perspective tools. See Crop.
Switching Modes
Press the keyboard shortcut for any mode to switch to it. If no photo is selected when entering an edit mode, Aphera selects the first photo automatically.
Escape returns to Grid mode from any mode. Space enters View mode from Grid or Crop; in View and Develop modes, Space toggles the image zoom instead.
Lightbox L is an auxiliary view that can overlay any mode, displaying the current photo full-screen without UI. See The Workspace for details.