Call the reference curve what it is, and drop wording that reads as copying

The view transform's second curve is the DNG SDK's published reference
rendering — the ACR3 default curve applied by RefBaselineRGBTone — so
it is the "DNG Reference" curve in the panel, D21 and the code, not a
name borrowed from another product. Comments and docs that justified a
choice by another editor doing it ("as their Amount", "so a
photographer arriving from it finds the name") now give the actual
reason. The Vivid presets no longer describe themselves as reaching
for another editor's look; they are DarkRoom's own.

Factual mentions stay: which program wrote the library's DNGs, what
was measured against, and preset import. camera-profiles.md gains §15,
on starting a photograph from the edit it already carries.

core/dr-gpu/tests/camera_profile.rs

@@ -228,7 +228,7 @@ fn camera_raw_tone_agrees_with_its_cpu_reference() {
                 dr_pipeline::view::DEFAULT_WHITE,
             )
         },
-        "Camera Raw tone",
+        "DNG reference tone",
     );
 }
 

core/dr-gpu/tests/view_transform.rs

@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ fn sigmoid_chain() -> EditGraph {
 #[test]
 fn camera_raw_tone_agrees_with_the_acr3_curve() {
     // TRACES: FR-DEV-3j
-    // D21: a raw with no profile, Camera Raw's curve chosen, renders a grey
+    // D21: a raw with no profile, the DNG reference curve chosen, renders a grey
     // through the ACR3 default curve, which the profile buffer's placeholder
     // carries.
     let Some(ctx) = ctx() else {

core/dr-pipeline/presets/vivid.drpl

@@ -1,12 +1,8 @@
 drpl 1
 
-# Vivid: more colour than the default rendering, for the photographer used
+# Vivid: more colour than the default rendering (camera-profiles.md §9).
-# to Lightroom's richer starting point (camera-profiles.md §9).
 #
-# That difference is mostly Camera Raw's tone curve, not the camera
+# These do the work themselves, and work on every photograph — a JPEG, a body with no profile. They lean on
-# profile: Adobe Standard's look table, which D20 applies, desaturates dark
-# tones (camera-profiles.md §1). So these do the work themselves, and work
-# on every photograph — a JPEG, a body with no profile. They lean on
 # vibrance before saturation: vibrance lifts muted colours most and holds
 # skin back, so a frame gets richer before anything in it looks painted.
 # Saturation, which moves every colour alike, is used sparingly on top.

core/dr-pipeline/src/camera_raw.rs

@@ -1,16 +1,16 @@
 //! TRACES: FR-DEV-3j | FR-DEV-3e
-//! Camera Raw's tone, as a rendering the view transform can choose (D21).
+//! The DNG SDK's reference tone, as a rendering the view transform can
+//! choose (D21).
 //!
-//! Lightroom's colour is mostly its tone curve (camera-profiles.md §1): the
+//! The DNG specification's reference rendering runs a raw through the
 //! profile's `ProfileToneCurve`, or the ACR3 default for a profile with none.
-//! Half of what the curve does is *how* it is applied. Camera Raw's
+//! Half of what the curve does is *how* it is applied. The SDK's
 //! `RefBaselineRGBTone` runs it on the largest and the smallest channel, and
 //! places the middle channel at the fraction between them it had before. Hue
 //! is kept; saturation rises wherever the curve is steeper than the
-//! diagonal, which for the ACR3 curve is the shadows and the midtones —
+//! diagonal, which for the ACR3 curve is the shadows and the midtones.
-//! where Adobe Standard's look table desaturated to compensate.
 //!
-//! It runs in linear ProPhoto, as Camera Raw does, on values clipped to
+//! It runs in linear ProPhoto, as the SDK does, on values clipped to
 //! `[0, 1]`; its output is linear and goes to the output transform as the
 //! sigmoid's does. The curve is read from the profile buffer
 //! (`ops::camera_profile::profile_buffer`), which always carries one.
@@ -22,14 +22,14 @@ use crate::ops::camera_profile::{mul, working_prophoto};
 use crate::view::{DEFAULT_CONTRAST, DEFAULT_WHITE, SCENE_GREY};
 
 /// The input scale for a white point: 1 at the default, so sensor white is
-/// display white as in Camera Raw; each stop of `white` above it halves the
+/// display white as in the SDK's reference; each stop of `white` above it halves the
 /// input.
 pub fn input_scale(white: f32) -> f32 {
     (DEFAULT_WHITE - white).exp2()
 }
 
 /// The power the input is bent by about middle grey: 1 at the default
-/// contrast, so the curve is Camera Raw's untouched.
+/// contrast, so the curve is the reference's untouched.
 pub fn contrast_power(contrast: f32) -> f32 {
     contrast / DEFAULT_CONTRAST
 }
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ fn rgb_tone(curve: &[f32], p: [f32; 3]) -> [f32; 3] {
 }
 
 /// TRACES: FR-DEV-3j
-/// The view transform's Camera Raw rendering of one working-space colour.
+/// The view transform's DNG reference rendering of one working-space colour.
 pub fn apply_reference(curve: &[f32], c: [f32; 3], contrast: f32, white: f32) -> [f32; 3] {
     let (to, back) = working_prophoto();
     let scale = input_scale(white);
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ fn camera_raw_curve(x: f32) -> f32 {
     return mix(profile_table[base + i].x, profile_table[base + i + 1u].x, s - f32(i));
 }
 
-// Camera Raw's RGBTone: the curve on the largest and smallest channel, the
+// The SDK's RGBTone: the curve on the largest and smallest channel, the
 // middle one kept at its fraction between them, so hue survives.
 fn camera_raw_tone(c: vec3<f32>, scale: f32, power: f32, grey: f32) -> vec3<f32> {
     var p = PROFILE_FROM_WORKING * c * scale;

core/dr-pipeline/src/ops/camera_profile.rs

@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ pub const LOOK: ParamId = ParamId("look");
 /// The look's strength at which the LookTable is applied as the profile
 /// states it, in percent.
 pub const DEFAULT_LOOK: f32 = 100.0;
-/// Twice the profile's look: Lightroom's *Amount* reaches the same.
+/// Twice the profile's look.
 pub const MAX_LOOK: f32 = 200.0;
 
 /// Entries of the buffer's header, before the entries themselves: one
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ fn wgsl_mat(m: &[f32; 9]) -> String {
 
 /// The working space to ProPhoto and back, as WGSL constants, and where
 /// the profile buffer's sections begin. A helper of its own because the
-/// view transform's Camera Raw curve needs it too, and helpers are emitted
+/// view transform's DNG reference curve needs it too, and helpers are emitted
 /// once each, in the order first asked for.
 pub(crate) static PROPHOTO_HELPER: LazyLock<Helper> = LazyLock::new(|| {
     let (to, back) = working_prophoto();
@@ -390,7 +390,7 @@ if (hue_sat_dims.x > 0.0 || look_dims.x > 0.0) {
 /// The curve is always there: the profile's own where it has one, Camera
 /// Raw's ACR3 default otherwise — including in the placeholder every source
 /// without a profile binds, whose tables are absent, so a raw with no
-/// profile still renders through Camera Raw's tone (D21).
+/// profile still has the reference tone curve when it is chosen (D21).
 pub fn profile_buffer(tables: Option<&ProfileTables>) -> Vec<[f32; 4]> {
     let header = |t: Option<&HueSatTable>| match t {
         Some(t) => [
@@ -706,7 +706,7 @@ mod tests {
     fn the_buffer_puts_the_header_first_and_the_look_after_the_hue_sat_map() {
         let bare = profile_buffer(None);
         assert_eq!(bare[..2], [[0.0; 4]; 2], "no tables");
-        assert_eq!(bare[2][0], 1025.0, "and Camera Raw's default curve");
+        assert_eq!(bare[2][0], 1025.0, "and the reference default curve");
         assert_eq!(bare.len(), HEADER_ENTRIES + 1025);
         let t = tables(
             Some(uniform(2, 2, 1, [1.0, 2.0, 3.0])),

core/dr-pipeline/src/ops/view_transform.rs

@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ pub const WHITE: ParamId = ParamId("white");
 /// TRACES: FR-DEV-3j
 /// Which curve renders: D19's sigmoid (index 0, the default) or Camera
 /// Raw's (D21). Which of the two should be the default is open — the
-/// Lightroom-matching work decides it — so the default is what 0.20.0
+/// measurement work decides it — so the default is what 0.20.0
 /// rendered.
 pub const CURVE: ParamId = ParamId("curve");
 
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ impl Operation for ViewTransform {
         "\
 // Skipped for an already-rendered source: a JPEG is a display rendering
 // already, and rendering it again would compress it twice.
-// D19's sigmoid by default, Camera Raw's tone by choice (D21).
+// D19's sigmoid by default, the DNG reference tone by choice (D21).
 if (!non_linear) {
     if (mode > 0.5) {
         c = camera_raw_tone(c, cr_scale, cr_power, cr_grey);

core/dr-types/src/hue_sat.rs

@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ pub struct ProfileTables {
     pub look: Option<HueSatTable>,
     /// The profile's `ProfileToneCurve`, resampled onto
     /// [`crate::tone::TONE_SAMPLES`] points; `None` where it has none, and
-    /// the view transform's Camera Raw curve then uses
+    /// the view transform's DNG reference curve then uses
     /// [`crate::tone::ACR3_DEFAULT`] (D21).
     pub tone_curve: Option<Vec<f32>>,
 }

core/dr-types/src/tone.rs

@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 //! TRACES: FR-DEV-3j | FR-DEV-3e
-//! Camera Raw's tone curves, as data (D21).
+//! The DNG SDK's reference tone curve, as data (D21).
 //!
 //! # Where the numbers come from
 //!
 //! [`ACR3_DEFAULT`] is the "ACR3 default" tone curve of Adobe's DNG SDK
-//! (`dng_tone_curve_acr3_default`): what Camera Raw renders a raw through
+//! (`dng_tone_curve_acr3_default`): what the SDK's reference renders a raw through
 //! when its camera profile carries no `ProfileToneCurve` of its own, which is
 //! true of Adobe Standard. The values are RawTherapee's
 //! `adobe_camera_raw_default_curve` (`rtengine/dcp.cc`, GPLv3), copied

docs/dev/camera-profiles.md

@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ Two departures, both forced by D19's unbounded scene-linear values (the SDK runs
   both tables, which is where the second reason matters:
 - **The look sees exposure.** The SDK applies `LookTable` after its exposure ramp, so a look that
   desaturates highlights finds the highlights the photographer chose. At 25 it does too. Contrast,
-  tone and the colour controls come after it, as they do in Camera Raw.
+  tone and the colour controls come after it, as they do in the DNG SDK's reference rendering.
 
 **Tables are per source, like the matrix.** They are decoded with the raw, interpolated once at
 decode (the HueSatMap blend uses the as-shot neutral, as the matrix does) and carried on
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ reads a buffer no declaration can name:
 | Parameter | Kind | Default | Meaning |
 |---|---|---|---|
 | `apply` | Bool | on | Use the profile's tables, or the matrix alone |
-| `look` | Scalar 0–200 | 100 | Strength of the `LookTable`, as Lightroom's *Amount* |
+| `look` | Scalar 0–200 | 100 | Strength of the `LookTable` |
 
 `look` scales the look's deltas: `hueShift · a`, `1 + (satScale − 1)·a`, `1 + (valScale − 1)·a`,
 with `a = look/100`, scales floored at 0. At 200 the look is twice as strong, which is the
@@ -277,14 +277,14 @@ correction to it. The DNG SDK's total is their sum, and so is this one's.
   baseline, and matches a copied `.dcp` counts the baseline twice. Every Adobe-written DNG embeds
   its profile, so that DNG is a hand-made one.
 
-## 12. Camera Raw tone (D21)
+## 12. DNG reference tone (D21)
 
-Lightroom's richer colour is its tone curve (§1). Camera Raw renders a raw through the profile's
+The DNG SDK's reference rendering runs a raw through the profile's
 `ProfileToneCurve`, or, for a profile that has none — Adobe Standard among them — through the
 *ACR3 default curve*, a 1025-point table published in the DNG SDK and carried by RawTherapee
 (GPLv3) as `adobe_camera_raw_default_curve`.
 
-**How it is applied** is half of what it does. Camera Raw does not run the curve on each channel:
+**How it is applied** is half of what it does. The reference does not run the curve on each channel:
 `RefBaselineRGBTone` runs it on the largest and smallest channel and places the middle one at the
 same fraction between them as before. Hue is kept; saturation rises where the curve is steep —
 the shadows and midtones — which is exactly where Adobe Standard's look table desaturated to
@@ -296,25 +296,25 @@ that rendering, chosen by a new parameter on `view_transform`:
 | `curve` | What it is | Default for |
 |---|---|---|
 | Sigmoid | D19's log-logistic curve | every raw, for now |
-| Camera Raw | the profile's curve, else ACR3, via RGBTone in ProPhoto | — (D21: the default is open) |
+| DNG reference | the profile's curve, else ACR3, via RGBTone in ProPhoto | — (D21: the default is open) |
 
-*Amended 2026-10-03:* Camera Raw was the default in the first draft. The measurement it rested on
+*Amended 2026-10-03:* the DNG reference was the default in the first draft. The measurement it rested on
 compared against Lightroom renders of *edited* photographs; see D21. The default is decided by
 measuring against Lightroom exports of unedited ones.
 
 A JPEG is still not rendered again (FR-DEV-3j). Film simulation still replaces the view transform
 when a stock is chosen.
 
-**The two sliders keep meaning something** under Camera Raw:
+**The two sliders keep meaning something** under the DNG reference curve:
 
 - `white` (stops above grey at which the scene reaches display white) sets the input scale:
   `2^(4 − white)`. At its default of 4 the scale is 1 — sensor white is display white, as in
-  Camera Raw.
+  the SDK's reference.
 - `contrast` bends the input about middle grey before the curve, as a power of
-  `contrast / 1.4`: 1 at its default, so the curve is Camera Raw's untouched.
+  `contrast / 1.4`: 1 at its default, so the curve is the reference's untouched.
 
 **What the ACR curve gives up** is D19's shoulder. Values above display white clip, as they do
-in Camera Raw; highlight recovery is the highlights slider's job before it. Sigmoid stays one
+in the SDK's reference; highlight recovery is the highlights slider's job before it. Sigmoid stays one
 click away for a photograph that wants the shoulder.
 
 **A profile's own curve** is a list of `(x, y)` pairs. It is resampled at decode onto the same
@@ -323,7 +323,7 @@ identity is treated as absent, as RawTherapee does.
 
 **On the GPU** the curve rides in the profile buffer (`@binding(8)`) after the tables: a third
 header entry gives its length, then the samples. The placeholder bound for a source without a
-profile carries the ACR3 curve, so a CR2 with no `.dcp` still renders through Camera Raw's tone.
+profile carries the ACR3 curve, so a CR2 with no `.dcp` renders through the reference tone when that curve is chosen.
 
 ## 13. Profiles sync
 
@@ -355,8 +355,8 @@ its parent, as it excludes the trash.
 - RGBTone: grey goes through the curve unchanged in hue; a colour keeps its hue (the middle
   channel's fraction between the outer two is unchanged); a curve that is the identity changes
   nothing; the shader agrees with the CPU reference on a device.
-- Camera Raw is the default curve for a raw; Sigmoid at the defaults renders to the bit what 0.20.0
+- Sigmoid is the default curve; at its defaults it renders to the bit what 0.20.0 rendered,
-  rendered without baseline exposure.
+  apart from baseline exposure.
 - A DNG with `BaselineExposure` +0.25 renders a flat grey 0.25 EV brighter than the same pixels
   with none; a `.dcp` copied from it carries `BaselineExposureOffset` 0.25 and gives a CR2 the same
   total.
@@ -365,3 +365,24 @@ its parent, as it excludes the trash.
   parsed and matched on the next decode; a file of the same name and size is left alone.
 - Measured again on `_MG_9080`: mean saturation at defaults closer to Lightroom's 0.49 than 0.20.0's
   0.35.
+
+## 15. The photographer's earlier edit
+
+What §1 and D21 first took for a difference in rendering is an edit. Every DNG in the library
+carries, in its embedded XMP, the develop settings it was given before it came to DarkRoom — a
+consistent house style: per-colour saturation (blue +58, aqua +50, yellow and purple +23, orange
++13, green +10), highlights −40, blacks −20, with a second variant (vibrance −10, blue +31). Those
+settings, not the profile and not the tone curve, are why the same photographs looked richer
+before.
+
+- **Translated on open** (`dr_preset_xmp::read_embedded`), the HSL bands onto the colour mixer —
+  aqua to cyan and purple to violet, the nearest of its twelve by hue — and the rest as the preset
+  importer already did.
+- **Applied only to a photograph DarkRoom has no edit of**, and only on positive evidence: no
+  sidecar beside a local file, or a server that answered "no such file" with nothing cached
+  (`FetchedSidecar::absent`). An edit that failed to arrive is not an absent one, and this would
+  otherwise be saved over it.
+- **One undoable step, "Earlier Edit"**, then an ordinary edit, saved with the photograph. Export
+  applies it the same way, so a photograph never opened exports as opening it would show.
+- **The translation is one for one for now.** Measurement against the earlier exports (the
+  `lr-fit` work) may scale individual bands.

docs/dev/requirements.md

@@ -2437,7 +2437,7 @@ Rationale, evidence, and the eliminated alternatives are recorded in
 | D12 | Scope versus pace | **DECIDED 2026-09-19** — settled by events; full scope stands, no v1 date |
 | D18 | Derived images | **DECIDED 2026-09-19** — a merge writes a new source file; no multi-source Version |
 | D19 | Scene-referred pipeline | **DECIDED 2026-09-27** — edits on unbounded scene-linear colour; one view transform, last; per-body base curves retired |
-| D21 | Camera Raw tone for raws | **PARTLY DECIDED 2026-10-03** — the view transform gains a Camera Raw curve (profile's, else ACR3 default, via RGBTone in ProPhoto) as a choice; which curve is the default is open, pending measurement against Lightroom exports |
+| D21 | DNG reference tone for raws | **PARTLY DECIDED 2026-10-03** — the view transform gains the DNG reference curve (profile's, else ACR3 default, via RGBTone in ProPhoto) as a choice; which curve is the default is open, pending measurement against Lightroom exports |
 | D20 | DCP camera profiles | **DECIDED 2026-10-02** — HueSatMap and LookTable as a scene operation after exposure; embedded profile first, then a matched `.dcp`; tone curve not applied; none shipped |
 
 ### D11 — product positioning
@@ -2773,7 +2773,7 @@ matrix does.
 *What it costs.* Every DNG with an embedded profile renders differently; previews refresh only when
 rendered again; tablet and desktop release together. The profiles directory does not sync yet.
 
-### D21 — Camera Raw tone for raws · **PARTLY DECIDED 2026-10-03**
+### D21 — DNG reference tone for raws · **PARTLY DECIDED 2026-10-03**
 
 *Amended the same day:* the default is **not** decided. The measurement below was against
 Lightroom previews of photographs carrying the user's Lightroom edits — a house look of HSL

ui/dr-ui/src/labels.rs

@@ -213,9 +213,8 @@ fn catalogued(key: &str) -> Option<&'static str> {
         // the pipeline, and the photographer is choosing how the scene's range
         // is fitted onto the screen.
         "op.view_transform" => "Tone Mapping",
-        // The DNG camera profile's tables (D20). "Camera Profile", as Camera
+        // The DNG camera profile's tables (D20). "Camera Profile", the DNG
-        // Raw calls the same thing, so a photographer arriving from Lightroom
+        // specification's own name for what the file carries.
-        // finds it under the name they know.
         "op.camera_profile" => "Camera Profile",
 
         // Parameters
@@ -226,15 +225,15 @@ fn catalogued(key: &str) -> Option<&'static str> {
         "param.learned_denoise.apply" => "Apply",
         "param.learned_denoise.grain" => "Keep grain",
         "param.camera_profile.apply" => "Use Profile",
-        // The LookTable's strength, as Lightroom's profile "Amount".
+        // The LookTable's strength.
         "param.camera_profile.look" => "Look Amount",
         "param.view_transform.contrast" => "Contrast",
         // In stops above middle grey: where the scene reaches display white.
         "param.view_transform.white" => "White Point",
-        // The view transform's curve (D21): Camera Raw's tone, as Lightroom
+        // The view transform's curve (D21): the DNG SDK's reference
-        // renders a raw, or D19's sigmoid with its highlight shoulder.
+        // rendering, or D19's sigmoid with its highlight shoulder.
         "param.view_transform.curve" => "Curve",
-        "param.view_transform.curve.camera_raw" => "Camera Raw",
+        "param.view_transform.curve.camera_raw" => "DNG Reference",
         "param.view_transform.curve.sigmoid" => "Sigmoid",
         "param.temperature" => "Temperature",
         "param.tint" => "Tint",