Everything
mono+
can do.

Quick Start

Five steps from first launch to your first signature shot.

1. 01Swipe the filter strip at the bottom of the viewfinder. Tap any thumbnail. Start with Tri-X for hard black and white, Portra for warmth.
2. 02Drag INTENSITY right for full effect, left to blend toward natural. 60–80% is a strong starting point.
3. 03Tap PRO — a full creative studio floats over your live camera. Six tiles. Tap any to enter. Start with LOOK.
4. 04Pick your mode above the shutter: PHOTO, VIDEO, or PROMPT.
5. 05Shoot. Filter, grain, border, imprint — everything bakes permanently. Not added later. The look is the image.

Capture Modes

• Photo
• Single frame. Every filter, effect, border, imprint, and watermark bakes permanently into the file.
• Video
• Tap to start, tap to stop. Every setting renders live. What you see is what records. A countdown timer is available — tap the timer button left of the record button to cycle 0 / 3 / 5 / 10 seconds. Tapping the record button during a countdown cancels it.
• Prompt
• Your words scroll over the screen. Your audience sees you. Switch to PROMPT and the front camera activates automatically. Record professional narration without memorising a line.
• Booth
• Sequential photo capture on the front camera. Tap the shutter to begin the countdown, then the sequence fires automatically. Configure output (Strip or Burst), number of shots, delay between shots, and initial countdown in PRO → SETTINGS → PHOTO BOOTH. Strip mode composites four frames into a single 2×2 image. Booth forces 1:1 aspect ratio and restores your previous ratio on exit.

Camera Controls

Focus and exposure

• Tap to focus
• Tap anywhere on the viewfinder to move focus and exposure to that point. An amber square indicator appears and auto-hides after 2 seconds.
• AE/AF lock
• Long-press (0.5 seconds) on the viewfinder to lock both focus and exposure at that point. The indicator stays on screen with an AE/AF LOCK label. A haptic confirms the lock. Tap anywhere else to clear it. Lock clears automatically on camera flip, mode change, or start of recording.

Exposure compensation

A vertical slider appears on the right edge of the viewfinder after a tap-to-focus. Drag up to increase exposure, down to reduce. The range is device-dependent — typically −2 to +2 EV. The slider auto-hides 3 seconds after the last interaction and stays visible while AE/AF lock is active. Resets on camera flip and mode change.

Torch

The bolt icon in the top-right of the camera screen activates continuous torch light. Amber when on. Rear camera only — the button is hidden when the front camera is active. Torch disables automatically on camera flip and when video recording stops.

Zoom

A vertical column on the left edge shows discrete zoom levels: 1× / 2× / 3× (rear camera only). On devices with ultra-wide hardware, 0.5× also appears. Tap any level to jump to it — the active level is highlighted amber. Tap the chevron to collapse the column; tap again to restore. Pinch-to-zoom works independently at any time.

Volume buttons

Either volume button triggers the shutter in Photo mode. Operates identically to the on-screen shutter button — haptic and sound included. Volume buttons do not trigger capture in Video, Prompt, or Booth modes.

Countdown timer

In Photo mode, a timer button appears between the flip button and the shutter. Tap to cycle: off → 3s → 5s → 10s → off. When active, the selected time is shown amber. Tap the shutter to start the countdown — tap anywhere to cancel. Fires the shutter automatically at zero.

Help

The ? button appears in the Photo, Video, and Booth shutter rows. Tap to open this manual.

Film Simulations

27 simulations across four categories. Swipe the strip to browse, tap to apply. INTENSITY blends the simulation against the natural image — 1.0 is full effect, 0.5 is half-and-half.

B&W — 10 filters

Each renders the tonal signature of a colored optical filter over classic black and white film.

Film Stocks — 10 simulations

Contrast curves, color response, grain character, and vignette — each simulation built from the actual emulsion.

Vintage — 7 processes

Analog and lo-fi formats — process-driven simulations built frame by frame.

Precision Controls

Tap PRO — six category tiles float over your live camera. Tap any tile to enter. Back arrow returns to the grid. ALL ↕ expands or collapses everything at once. Every slider updates in real time. What you see is what you capture.

PRO — LOOK

Tone and texture on top of your active simulation.

• Shadows
• Lift or crush the shadow range. Positive opens them; negative drives toward black.
• Midtones
• Shift midrange luminosity without clipping highlights or crushing shadows.
• Highlights
• Recover blown highlights with negative values. Extend them with positive.
• Clarity
• Midtone-targeted local contrast. Adds bite and texture without touching highlights or shadows. 0–1.
• Grain
• Per-pixel noise layered on top of any grain your filter already carries. Additive. 0–1.
• Vignette
• Corner darkening via multiply-mode falloff. Subtle at low values, dramatic at high. 0–1.
• Tilt-Shift
• Selective focus simulation. Enable the toggle first — Center, Width, and Blur controls appear only when it is on. Center sets the vertical position of the in-focus band. Width sets its height. Blur sets falloff intensity.

PRO — COLOR

Shadow and highlight toning, independently controlled. Works in color and B&W. From a whisper of selenium to a full cyanotype wash.

• Shadow Hue
• Color direction in the shadow range. −1 to +1 across the full spectrum.
• Shadow Str
• How strongly the shadow hue is applied. 0 = no color, 1 = fully toned.
• Highlight Hue
• Color direction in the highlight range. −1 to +1.
• Highlight Str
• Highlight tint intensity. 0–1.

Print Tone

One tap sets shadow and highlight hue and strength together — each preset built from a classic darkroom chemical process.

PRO — DECAY

The imperfections that make film feel real. Light leaks, halation, dust, scratches, gate weave. All default to zero. All rendered live.

Light

• Leak
• Warm or cool soft light bleeding in from a random frame edge — simulating a failed light seal.
• Halation
• Red-channel bloom from specular highlights — the glow of light bouncing off the film base. Signature of CineStill and fast stocks.
• Burn
• Intense orange-white edge flare — film overexposure at the frame boundary.

Texture

• Dust
• Animated particle drift — dark and bright specks moving across the frame. More visible on light tones.
• Scratch
• Animated vertical scratch lines, six independent channels with opacity flicker — emulsion or gate damage.
• Gate
• Whole-frame horizontal jitter — film transport instability through a projector or camera gate.

Color

• Bleed
• Chromatic aberration — red shifts right, blue shifts left. Lens fringing or color misregistration. Hidden in B&W mode.
• Fade
• Print fade — red push, cyan loss, shadow lift toward brown. Aged or improperly stored prints. Hidden in B&W mode.

PRO — FRAME

PRO → FRAME. Three sections: RATIO, BORDER, CUSTOM.

RATIO

• Full
• Native sensor — no crop.
• 1:1
• Square. Classic medium format framing.
• 16:9
• Widescreen. Standard video ratio.
• 2.39
• Anamorphic cinematic. Ultra-widescreen.

BORDER

PRO → FRAME → BORDER. Tap the section to expand it.

• None
• Clean, full-bleed.
• Black
• Solid black frame.
• White
• Solid white frame.
• HUD
• Filming-style heads-up display. Timecode, date, GPS, battery, user ID — burned into video recordings. Suppressed entirely on photo captures. Still images are always clean.
• Polaroid
• White frame, thick bottom — classic instant print. Selecting Polaroid forces 1:1 aspect ratio automatically.
• Polaroid Aged
• Warm cream tint — the aged print. Also forces 1:1.
• Custom
• PNG borders received from the Companion. Transparency preserved. Any design, any proportion. Custom borders appear after the bundled six — scroll down if you have more than three installed.

CUSTOM

Output decoration. Three controls, one section. All default off.

• Text Overlay
• One line of text over your border — a date, a location, a name. Toggle on, type, pick a color: White, Black, or Grey. Renders in Space Mono at the bottom of the border margin, horizontally centered, at a size proportional to the frame. Single line — no wrapping. Position varies slightly by border style. Only renders when a border is active.
• Film Imprint
• A data strip at the frame edge: film stock name, Film ID, capture metadata. The frame counter increments per capture and persists per filter across sessions. Watermark is suppressed when imprint is active. The vertical position is randomised per capture — this is by design.
• Watermark
• Your text, burned into the frame. Up to 20 characters. Set in PRO → SETTINGS → CAPTURE. Suppressed when Film Imprint is active. Also suppressed on photo captures when HUD is on.

PRO — OVERLAYS

Shooting aids over your viewfinder — invisible in captures.

• Grid
• Composition guide. Five styles: Thirds, Square, Golden, Center, Diagonal.
• Level
• Electronic horizon. A line appears when the camera tilts — turns green when level.
• Histogram
• Live luminance histogram in the corner of your screen. Real-time tonal distribution.
• Focus Peaking
• Edge-detection highlight of in-focus areas. Sensitivity slider controls the threshold — lower values mark only the sharpest edges.
• Zebra
• Overexposure warning stripes above the set threshold. Threshold slider sets the trigger level.

PRO — SETTINGS

PRO → SETTINGS. Library, sharing tools, and device preferences.

Gear icon — device preferences

Tap the gear icon (top right of SETTINGS) to show or hide Appearance, Capture, and Output. These are per-device settings — set once, leave alone.

• Text Size
• PRO panel label size — S, M, or L.
• Skin
• Auto follows system dark/light mode. Studio forces dark regardless of system setting.
• Watermark
• Custom text burned into every capture. Up to 20 characters.
• Film ID
• Your identifier for the film imprint data strip. Up to 20 characters.
• Location
• GPS coordinates in EXIF metadata. Off by default.
• Video Quality
• High or Maximum. Maximum records at full sensor resolution.
• Video Format
• H.264 for compatibility. HEVC for smaller files at identical quality.
• Photo Format
• JPEG or HEIF. HEIF is smaller with equivalent quality on modern devices.

System presets

Four factory looks. Tap to apply. Long-press to remove from view.

Saved Looks

Your custom library. Scrolls to reach all looks and the Add button. Tap any look to apply it.

• SELECT
• Tap to enter multi-select mode. Check multiple looks. DELETE SELECTED removes them all at once — with confirmation. CANCEL exits without changes.
• Save Current Look
• Captures every PRO setting as a named look.
• Share Looks
• Exports your entire library as a .monopluspack file.
• Share This Look
• Exports only the currently selected look as a single-preset .monopluspack file.
• Save All Settings
• Writes the current configuration into the active look.
• Reset All Settings
• Clears all PRO adjustments to default values.
• Import Look from Photo
• Opens the photo picker. Select any mono+ image to extract and apply its complete look. Works only with photos captured in mono+ — standard camera roll photos have no look data.

Saving a Look

Every PRO setting saved under a name. Apply it to any shot, any time.

1. 01Dial in your look — filter, intensity, all PRO adjustments.
2. 02Open PRO → SETTINGS. Tap SAVE CURRENT LOOK.
3. 03Name it. Up to 30 characters. Tap Save.

Teleprompter

Write or import your script, hit record and deliver eye-to-eye. Your audience sees you. You see your words. Every active filter renders live — your look applies to the entire recording.

1. 01Tap the mode pill above the shutter. Select PROMPT. The front camera activates automatically.
2. 02If no script is loaded, the setup sheet opens — paste or type your script, set font size and scroll speed. If a script was sent from the Companion, this step is skipped automatically.
3. 03The teleprompter control row appears: pencil icon (edit) on the left, record in the center, X to exit.
4. 04Tap record. Three-second countdown, then the script scrolls.
5. 05Tap the overlay to pause. Tap again to resume. Recording stays live — only the scroll stops.

Sharing Looks

Looks travel as .monopluspack files. Every parameter, every custom border, in a single shareable file. AirDrop, Messages, email, or any share target — receiving a pack merges those looks straight into the library.

From your iPhone

1. 01PRO → SETTINGS. Tap SHARE LOOKS for your full library, or SHARE THIS LOOK for just the current one.
2. 02The iOS share sheet opens with your .monopluspack ready. AirDrop to another iPhone or your Mac, or use any share target.

Companion → iPhone

Looks sent from the Companion arrive automatically via iCloud. No action required on the iPhone. A toast confirms receipt.

LookDNA™

The recipe travels with the photograph.

Every mono+ photo carries its complete look embedded invisibly in the file — filter, grain, tone, color, decay, tilt shift, borders. The full creative specification lives in the standard EXIF UserComment field as plain JSON. Share a photo and you share the look. The data travels wherever the file goes.

Import a look from a photo

1. 01PRO → SETTINGS → IMPORT LOOK FROM PHOTO.
2. 02Select any photo from your camera roll.
3. 03mono+ reads the EXIF. If look data is found, it applies immediately. An alert asks whether to save it as a named look.
4. 04If no look data is found: "This photo does not contain mono+ look data."

What gets embedded

Mac Companion

Your full preset studio on your Mac. Precision sliders, live preview on your own photos, custom borders, script library, one-click delivery to iPhone. Free with mono+.

1. 01Download MonoPlusCompanion from monoplus.pro and open it.
2. 02On iPhone: PRO → SETTINGS → SHARE LOOKS. Your pack arrives in the Companion automatically via iCloud — no AirDrop, no file handling required.
3. 03Edit in the lab. Changes save automatically — 1.5 seconds after your last move, the file is written.
4. 04Click Send to iPhone. Looks update on the phone via iCloud.

Companion — Looks

The LOOKS tab shows your full library. Click any look to open it in the lab editor. Right-click to rename or delete.

• Lab editor
• Every PRO parameter from iPhone — INTENSITY, TONE, TEXTURE, DECAY, COLOR, TILT SHIFT. Full slider control on a large screen. All values map identically to iPhone.
• Photo preview
• Click the photo icon to load any image from your Mac — JPEG, PNG, HEIC, or TIFF. See your look on your own photos before sending.
• Before / After
• Split the preview panel — original on one side, processed on the other.
• Lab text size
• S / M / L in the toolbar scales the lab editor text. Sidebar is unaffected.
• Dark / Light
• Toggle in the lab nav bar switches the editor appearance. Sidebar follows system preference independently.
• Import
• File → Open, or drag any .monopluspack onto the Companion window. A checklist lets you select which looks to bring in — deselect any you want to exclude before confirming.
• Export Pack
• Saves selected looks to a new .monopluspack file.

Companion — Borders

Design your frame on your Mac or iPad. Send it straight to iPhone. A film rebate, a print edge, a signature — any PNG, any proportion, installed on your phone before you shoot.

1. 01Select the aspect ratio: Full, 1:1, 16:9, or 2.39. Detected automatically from the PNG dimensions — verify before sending.
2. 02Click CHOOSE PNG and select your file.
3. 03Review the filename and pixel dimensions. Edit the border name — this is what appears in the iPhone border picker.
4. 04Optionally add a text overlay default: type the text and choose White, Black, or Grey. This pre-populates the text field on iPhone.
5. 05Click SEND BORDER TO IPHONE.

Recommended resolution by format

• Full / portrait
• 3000 × 4000 px
• Square (1:1)
• 3000 × 3000 px
• 16:9
• 3840 × 2160 px
• 2.39 cinema
• 3840 × 1607 px

These guidelines apply to borders sent via the Companion apps. Built-in borders are already at the correct resolution.

Photo Booth strip borders

Strip borders apply to the full 2×2 composite output. The PNG must have four transparent rectangles — one per photo — aligned to the grid. Each photo panel is separated by an 8px gap, so the transparent holes sit at the top-left, top-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right quadrants of the frame with that gap between them. Everything outside those holes — edges, corners, and the gap strips between panels — is where your decorative artwork lives. Minimum 3000 × 3000 px. Send via the Companion with the Photo Booth Strip format selected.

Companion — Script

Write your teleprompter content on a full keyboard. Save a library of scripts. Send to iPhone in one click — when you tap PROMPT, it is already loaded.

• Write
• Full-width scrollable editor. Write as much as you need.
• Save
• Name the current script and save it to your library.
• Load
• Click any saved script in the library to load it into the editor.
• Font size
• 14–60pt. Sets the size the teleprompter uses on iPhone.
• Send to iPhone
• Sends the current script via iCloud. On iPhone, PROMPT mode loads it automatically — the setup sheet is skipped.

Companion — Send to iPhone

The toolbar Send to iPhone button opens a sheet with three independent sections. Send one thing or everything — your call.

• Looks
• Toggle on. A checklist lets you choose exactly which looks to include. The send button updates live to describe what will transmit.
• Script
• Toggle on to include the current script.
• Borders
• Toggle on to include custom borders referenced by the selected looks.

iPad Companion

The full Companion experience on iPad — identical features, identical layout, larger canvas. Same three-tab sidebar: Looks, Borders, Script. Same lab editor. Same Send to iPhone. Shoot on iPhone, edit on iPad, send back.

• AirDrop
• AirDrop a .monopluspack from iPhone directly to your iPad. Opens automatically.
• iCloud sync
• Same iCloud container as the Mac Companion and iPhone. Looks, borders, and scripts arrive on iPhone identically.
• Orientation
• Portrait and landscape both supported. Landscape gives the most comfortable two-panel view.

Notes

• Real-time render
• Everything processes live. What you see is what captures. No post-processing step.
• Portrait only
• mono+ is engineered for vertical framing. Landscape is not supported.
• Polaroid forces 1:1
• Selecting Polaroid or Polaroid Aged switches to square. Switching to another border does not revert the ratio.
• HUD on photo
• HUD renders to video only. Photo captures are always clean. Watermark is also suppressed on photos while HUD is active.
• Imprint position
• The vertical position of Film Imprint is randomised per capture. This is intentional — a fixed position is not available.
• B&W resets Bleed and Fade
• Switching to any B&W filter clears Bleed and Fade automatically. Other decay settings are preserved.
• Print Tone overwrites
• Applying a Print Tone preset replaces Shadow and Highlight hue and strength. Set tone first, refine manually after.
• Text Overlay needs a border
• Text Overlay only renders when a border is active. Enabling it with no border selected has no visible effect.
• Text Overlay font
• Space Mono. Single line only. Position is fixed at the bottom of the border margin — varies slightly by border style.
• Frame counters
• The film imprint frame counter persists per filter across sessions. Changing filters resets the counter for the new filter.
• Watermark and Imprint
• Mutually exclusive. Enabling Film Imprint suppresses the watermark. They cannot appear simultaneously.
• Decay in video
• All decay parameters animate temporally during video — each frame varies slightly, producing organic film-like movement.
• BORDER section visibility
• A custom border that arrives is registered and auto-selected immediately. Expand the BORDER section to see it in the grid.
• AE/AF lock clears
• Focus and exposure lock clears on camera flip, mode change, and at the start of any recording. Tap elsewhere on the viewfinder to clear it manually.
• Exposure slider
• Appears after tap-to-focus. Stays visible while AE/AF is locked. Resets to 0 EV on camera flip and mode change.
• Torch
• Rear camera only. Disables automatically on flip and when video recording stops.
• Booth forces 1:1
• Selecting Booth mode switches the aspect ratio to square. Your previous ratio is restored on exit.
• Auto-save in Companion
• Saves 1.5 seconds after your last adjustment. No manual save required.
• iCloud timing
• Typically under 10 seconds on a good connection. If a send does not arrive within a minute: same Apple ID, iCloud Drive enabled, no VPN on iPhone.
• VPN
• Disable VPN on iPhone before sending or receiving. Active VPN breaks both AirDrop and iCloud sync.
• Pack format
• .monopluspack files are plain JSON. Open in any text editor. Custom border PNGs embed as base64 within the JSON.
• Deleted system presets
• Deletions persist across launches. Reinstalling the app restores all system presets.

Requirements

• mono+ for iPhone
• iOS 16.0 or later.
• Mac Companion
• macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later.
• iPad Companion
• iPadOS 16.0 or later.
• iCloud sync
• iCloud Drive enabled. All devices on the same Apple ID. Active internet connection.
• AirDrop
• Bluetooth and WiFi both on. Devices within approximately 9 metres. VPN disabled.