Rolls & Albums

Winder groups frames two ways, and the difference is the file system.

A roll is a place

A roll is a folder. A frame is on exactly one roll — or on none, sitting loose at the top of your library. Moving a frame between rolls moves the file.

A roll carries what the whole roll has in common: the film, the camera and lens that shot it, what scanned it and when. One body and one film get you through 36 exposures, so those answers live here and every frame inherits them.

The folder's name is the roll's name, so renaming it in Finder renames the roll. Naming is optional — leave it blank and the roll is filed under a dated folder, and the shelf shows the film box with no sticky note.

An album is a label

An album is a word, not a place. A frame wears any number of albums, or none, and joining one moves nothing on disk.

Albums live in the Library tab's filter rail. They have no cover and no folder. That is the point: "Portraits" and "Rome 2026" and "Shot on Gold" can all describe the same frame at once, which no folder could.

Which one do I want?

Use a roll for the roll you actually shot. Use an album for anything you want to gather across rolls.

Nothing refuses a scan

Both rolls and albums are Pro-gated — two rolls and three albums on the free tier. Importing never is. The meter is on creating the grouping, never on the photographs, and leaving the import destination unset files the frames loose at the top of the library. They still land, still show up, and can still be dragged onto a roll later.

Renaming and deleting

• Rename a roll — the folder moves. Renaming it in Finder works just as well.
• Delete a roll — the folder moves into .trash. Nothing is erased.
• Rename an album — one line changes in albums.json. Membership is stored as ids, so no sidecar is touched.
• Delete an album — the label is dropped and taken off every frame wearing it. No image moves, because an album never owned any.

Updated 2026-08-06