Writing and software,
by André Berg

I write about constraint, and I build the apps that come out of writing about it.

The blog came first, then the book. In 2026 the writing got practical: I left Lightroom after twenty years and built the Photo Suite for macOS to replace it. Everything is privacy-first, on-device, and a one-time purchase.

The Photo Suite

What leaving Lightroom actually required: a complete photography workflow for macOS. Files and folders, XMP sidecars, no catalog, no lock-in.

Batch Renamer
Photo Culler
Photo Archive
Photo Developer
Photo Sandwich
Photo Flashbacks
Photo Suite
A suite of apps. One philosophy. Zero subscriptions.
Import, cull, archive, develop, blend, remember — every app reads and writes the same open metadata, so no app owns your photos.

Start with Photo Developer — the RAW engine the rest of the suite works around.

Book from DigTek Press

Life as User Experience

What happens when you apply software design principles to life — with honesty about what fails. A book about constraint, defaults, and the systems that shape our days.

Explore the book Read the announcement
Free companion workbook →

Before the suite there were the iOS apps — eleven small experiments in constraint, all still on the App Store, none of them subscriptions. All apps →

Less, but better

Every app does one thing. The feature lists are short because the kill lists are long.

On-device, always

No analytics, no accounts, no server calls. Your photos and words never leave your machine.

Constraint as method

The writing argues for limits. The apps are built inside them.

Buy once, keep forever

One-time purchases, plain files, open metadata. Nothing here is designed to make leaving hard.