Libre Camera: Open‑Source Flutter Camera App

Libre Camera is a fully open‑source, privacy‑focused camera application for Android, developed using Flutter and Dart. Licensed under GPL‑3.0, this compact app (< 20 MB) offers powerful features such as manual focus, exposure control, zoom, and multiple camera formats (JPEG, PNG, WebP), making it an ideal alternative to proprietary camera apps.Key Features & Code Usage

• Capture photos and record videos using both rear and front cameras.
• Privacy-first design: By default, no EXIF metadata is saved—yet users can re-enable EXIF if needed via settings.
• Manual controls: Touch to focus or expose, lock manual focus/exposure, and adjust manually using on-screen sliders.
• Zoom integration: Two-finger pinch or optional slider control.
• Flexible formats & resolutions: Switch between JPEG, PNG, WebP and choose from multiple resolutions.
• Customizable save path: Use file-picker dialog in code to define image/video storage location.
• Theme support: Light, Dark, AMOLED black, or follow system theme via dynamic color.
• Timer and flash control: Built-in timer/delay and flashlight modes (on capture, auto, always‑on, off).
• Volume button shutter: Code listens for hardware volume button presses to capture images (#69).
• Compress images & remove EXIF: Implements flutter_image_compress in code to minimize file size and strip metadata.
• Orientation & UI polish: Auto orientation lock, onboarding screen with view pager, and screen always‑on using wakelock.

Developer & Setup Guide

To build and contribute, follow this code snippet:

git clone https://github.com/iakdis/librecamera.git
cd librecamera
flutter pub get
flutter gen-l10n           # generate translations
flutter build apk         # build Android APK
flutter build apk --split-per-abi  # optional smaller APKs

After building, the APK is saved under build/app/outputs/apk/release/.

The app includes a settings UI (built with provider) and leverages packages like:
camera, permission_handler, shared_preferences, device_info_plus, flutter_image_compress, flutter_android_volume_keydown, and more for robust camera functionality.

Roadmap & Contributions

Looking ahead, the open‑source codebase plans features such as manual resolution/aspect ratio, QR-scanner integration, tablet UI support, and searchable settings. Community contributions via pull requests and translations through Weblate are welcome. Bug reports and feature requests can be submitted on GitHub issues.

By combining Flutter’s camera plugin code patterns with lightweight Dart architecture, Libre Camera delivers a compelling, privacy-respecting camera solution that’s fully transparent and modifiable.

Additional Metadata

• Author: iakdis (primary maintainer and contributor team)
• Programming language: Dart + Flutter (Android front-end, some Kotlin under-the-hood)
• License: GNU General Public License version 3 (GPL‑3.0)
• License usage constraints:
  • Free to use, modify, and redistribute, provided derivative works are also licensed under GPL‑3.0.
  • Cannot be re-licensed under non‑GPL terms.
  • Must include license text and source attribution.
• Repository link: https://github.com/iakdis/librecamera