Centralized photo management, where you are the keeper of the castle.
Cardinal Photos is a free, self-hosted photo and video library. It turns the folders on your server into a timeline, a map and a set of albums, with all data relegated to your own hardware.
Features
Every photo, in order
Timeline
Scrub through decades of photos in one continuous archive.
A date for every photo
Capture dates come from EXIF, Google Takeout, GPS, file names and file dates, in that order, so nothing lands in the wrong year.
Photo viewer
Full-screen viewing with camera details, dates and location beside every photo.
Slideshows
Play any album or stretch of the timeline as a slideshow.
Videos
Phone videos sit in the timeline next to the photos taken alongside them.
Screenshots and saved images
Downloads, wallpapers and screenshots are kept and dated too, not just camera photos.
People and places
World map
Every geotagged photo on one map, clustered by place.
Where it was taken
A small map beside each photo, one click from opening the spot in a full map.
People
Faces are found and grouped on your server, so you can see every photo of someone.
Camera details
Camera, dimensions and altitude, read from each photo's EXIF.
Albums
Albums
Gather photos from across the library into albums, without moving a single file.
Cover photos
Every album gets a cover automatically, and any photo can replace it.
Add from anywhere
Add photos from the library browser, or file a photo into albums straight from the viewer.
Favourites
Mark the keepers and find them again in one place.
Bring your whole library
Google Takeout
Drop a Takeout export in as it is. Its dates, places and album details are read from Google's own metadata files.
HEIC anywhere
iPhone photos open on every device, converted to full-quality JPEG copies in the background.
Indexed in place
Photos are read where they live, at any folder depth. Nothing is imported, copied or moved.
Fast thumbnails
Thumbnails in every size are prepared in the background, so browsing stays quick.
Private by design
Your server, your photos
Photos, faces and places stay on your own hardware. Nothing is analysed in the cloud.
Unlimited accounts
Everyone in the household can have their own account.
Roles
Decide who can view photos, who can edit them and who can manage albums.
Cardinal Account sign-in
Optionally sign in with a Cardinal Account instead of a password.
Works with Cardinal Cloud
Optional services that extend a self-hosted stack.
Get help with Cardinal Photos
Guides for every feature, from first install to everyday use.
Visit the Help Site
