Introduction
Compatibility
Installation
General Usage
Step By Step Guide
Tips For Good Results

General Features
Modes
Reset, Undo & Presets
Cloak Mode
Key Shortcuts
Split Views

Special Features
Auto Features
Edges, Surface & Fix Tab
Mask Features
Glow Features

Compatibility

You need one of the following applications to use it:

Adobe Photoshop (Version 3 and higher)

Adobe PhotoDeluxe

Adobe After Effects (Version 4.1 and higher, but not animatable)

Adobe Illustrator (Version 7 and higher)

Adobe ImageReady (Version 2 and higher)

Picmaster (Version 1.25 and higher)

CDH Image Explorer Pro (Version 4 and higher)

CiEBV Photoline 32 (Version 5 and higher)

Corel Draw (Version 6 and higher)

Corel PhotoPaint (Version 9 and higher)

Corel Bryce (Version 4 and higher)

Corel/Metacreations Painter (Version 6 and higher)

Deneba Canvas (Version 6 and higher)

Discreet Combustion (Version 2and higher, but not animatable and preview is blueish)

Equilibrium DeBabelizer Pro (Version 5 and higher)

GIMP (Version 1.2.4 and higher, but preview doesn't work correctly, no color selection dialogs)

imageN (Freeware from www.pixoid.com)

IrfanView (Version 3.85 and higher, Freeware from www.irfanview.com)

Jasc Paintshop Pro (Version 4.12 and higher)

KnowledgeAdventure HyperStudio (Version 4.2 and higher, but no color selection dialogs)

Macromedia Freehand (Version 7 and higher)

Macromedia Fireworks (Version 2 and higher, but transparency isn't correctly displayed in the preview)

Mediachance PhotoBrush (But no color selection dialogs)

Megalux Ultimate Paint (Version 2 and higher)

Megalux Ultimate FX (Freeware from www.ultimatepaint.com/ufx/)

Microfrontier Digital Darkroom (Version 1.2 and higher)

Micrografx Picture Publisher (Version 8 and higher)

Microsoft Image Composer (Version 1.5 and higher, but dragging the preview isn't possible)

Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000

Microsoft Picture It! Digital Image Pro (Version 7 and higher, but preview dragging doesn't work fully and Cancel can cause a crash)

Newave Chaos Fx: Twilight'76 (Version 1.2 and higher)

Picmaster (Version 1.25 and higher)

Plugin Commander Pro (Version 1.5 and higher)

QFX / QFX LE (Version 7 and higher)

Right Hemisphere Deep Paint

Satori PhotoXL (Version 2.29 and higher)

Serif PhotoPlus (Version 7 and higher)

ThinkTank Ameri−Imager (Version 2 and higher)

Ulead Gif Animator (Version 4 and higher)

Ulead PhotoImpact (Version 4 and higher)

VCW Vicman's Photo Editor (Version 6.9 and higher, but no color selection dialogs and preview dragging causes crash) (Freeware from www.photo−editor.net)

WebSuperGoo Achroma

Xara X

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ColorWasher hasn't been tested, but should work with:

Ability PhotoPaint Studio

Adobe PageMaker (Version 6 and higher)

Adobe LiveMotion

BananaSoft TwistedPixel

CADlink SignLab (Version 5 and higher)

Corel/MetaCreations Painter 5.5

Corel/MetaCreations Art Dabbler

Corel Photo House (Version 2 and higher)

Corel Xara 2

DigisoftDirect ImagePro 2K1

Equilibrium DeBabelizer Pro (Version 4.5 and higher)

Fractal Design Detailer

Macromedia Director (Version 6 and higher)

MGI PhotoSuite (Version 4 or higher)

Newtek Lightwave (Version 5.6 or higher)

Newtek Inspire 3D

Newtek Aura (Version 2 and higher, but probably not animatable)

PM Imagic

Ulead PhotoExpress (Version 2 and higher)

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ColorWasher doesn't work with:

Adobe ImageStyler (Doesn't support filter plugins)

Adobe Premiere (Up to Version 5.1: Renders only black to image)

ArcSoft PhotoStudio 2000 (Up to Version 4.1: Does not support PhotoShop plugins)

Datatech ImageMan (crashes when dragging preview and crashes when applying effect)

discreet 3D Studio MAX (Up to Version 4.2: Background image isn't displayed; Color selection dialog doesn't work; Renders a distorted red/green pattern)

Macromedia xRes (Crashes on loading plugin)

Metacreations Painter 5 (Everything works except final rendering)

Microsoft Image Composer 1.0 (Does not recognize the plugin)

SPG ColorWorks: Web (Up to Version 4: Everything works except final rendering)

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Installation

Adobe Photoshop / Adobe Illustrator / Adobe ImageReady
Make sure you installed the FocalBlade plugin into the "Plugins" or "Plug-ins" sub folder inside the Photoshop, Illustrator or ImageReady folder. After restarting the application, you will find them in the Filter menu.

Adobe PhotoDeluxe
Make sure you installed the FocalBlade plugin into the "Plugins" or "Plug-ins" sub folder inside the PhotoDeluxe folder. After restarting the application, you need to make PhotoDeluxe display all menu items if you didn't already do that. To do that go to the Preferences sub menu of the File menu and choose the last item ("Extend Menu" or something similar) on the sub menu. You will find the FocalBlade plugin in the Effects menu.

Adobe PageMaker
Make sure you installed the FocalBlade plugin into Rsrc/.../Plugins/Effects folder inside the PageMaker folder. After restarting PageMaker, you will find them in the Element> Image> Photoshop Effects menu.

CiEBV Photoline 32
Choose 'File options' or 'Extended' from the Options menu, click on the 'Plug In Path' tab and select the folder where the FocalBlade plugin is located. After pressing OK, the plugins will appear at the bottom of the the Filter menu.

Corel Photo-Paint
Press <Ctl + J> to display the Options dialog, select Plugins from the list box on the left, press the Add button and choose the location of the FocalBlade plugin. The plugins will appear in the Effects menu right after the Options dialog disappeared.

Corel Photo House
Select Effects > Plug-in Effects > Add/Remove Plug-in Effects. Press the Add button and select the folder where the FocalBlade plugin is located. After pressing OK, the FocalBlade plugin will appear on the Effects > Plug-in Effects menu.

Deneba Canvas
Select "Preferences" from the File menu. In the Preferences dialog select the Paint tab. Press the Plug-ins button and select the folder where the FocalBlade plugin is located. After restarting Canvas, the Plugin Galaxy effects will appear on the Image > Filter sub menu.

imageN
Select "Plug-ins" from the Configure menu. In the appearing Plugins dialog press the Search button. After imageN has searched all your drives for plugins (which can take some time), the Plugin Galaxy effects will appear on the plugin list, too. To apply a plugin, select it from the list and press the Test buton.

IrfanView (Version 3.85 and higher)
Make sure that an image is displayed in IrfanView. Then select Image > Effects > Adobe 8BF filters. In the appearing dialog press the "Add 8BF filters" button and choose the folder where you installed FocalBlade. FocalBlade will now appear in the list on the left. To run FocalBlade double click on the FocalBlade entry or select it and press the "Start selected filter" button.

Jasc Paintshop Pro 4 - 6
Choose "Preferences" from the File menu, press the Plug−in Filters tab and select the folder, where you installed the FocalBlade plugin, in the Plugin Filters tab of the Preferences dialog. After pressing OK, the plugins will appear on the Plugin Filters sub menu of the Image menu.

Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7
Choose Preferences > File Locations from the File menu, press the Plug-in Filters tab and select the folder where you installed the FocalBlade plugin. After pressing OK, the FocalBlade plugin will appear in the Plug-in Filters sub menu of the Effects menu.

Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8
Choose Preferences > File Locations from the File menu, select the Plug-ins item from the list box, press the Add button, press the Browse button and select the folder where you installed the FocalBlade plugin. After pressing two times OK, the FocalBlade plugin will appear in the Plug-in Filters sub menu of the Effects menu.

Macromedia Freehand
Make sure you installed the FocalBlade plugin into the English/Xtras sub folder inside the Freehand folder. After restarting Freehand, you will find the Plugin Galaxy effects in the Xtras menu.

Macromedia Fireworks
Choose "Preferences" from the File menu and activate the Photoshop Plug-ins checkbox in the Folders section of the Preferences dialog. Then select the folder, where you installed the FocalBlade plugin, by pressing the "..." or Browse button. After restarting Fireworks the plugins will be displayed at the bottom of the Xtras menu.

Megalux Ultimate Paint
Choose "Preferences" from the Options menu, click on the Plugins tab and select the folder where the FocalBlade plugin is located. After pressing OK, the plugins will appear in the Adobe sub menu of the Image menu.

Metacreations Painter / Fractal Design Detailer
Choose Preferences > Plugins... from the Edit menu and select the folder where the FocalBlade plugin is located. After restarting Painter/Detailer, the plugins will appear on the Effects menu.

Microfrontier Color It!
Make sure you installed the FocalBlade plugin into the "Plug-ins" sub folder inside the ColorIt! folder. After restarting the application, you will find them in the Filter menu.

Microsoft Photodraw 2000
Select Tools > Options and press the Plug-in tab. Press the Browse button and select the folder where the FocalBlade plugin is located. Finally press OK on the Options dialog. Choose Format > Effects > Plug-ins and select the FocalBlade plugin in the combo box at the top of the Plug-ins dialog.

Micrografx Picture Publisher
Make sure you installed the FocalBlade plugin into the "Plugins" sub folder inside the Picture Publisher folder. After restarting Picture Publisher you will find them in the Effects menu.

Right Hemisphere Deep Paint
Select File > Preferences > Directories and press the Browse button next to the Photoshop Plugins text box. In the file dialog, select the folder where the FocalBlade plugin is located and press OK. Then press OK on the Directories dialog. After restarting Deep Paint, you will find the FocalBlade plugin in the Filters menu.

SPG Colorworks: WEB
Choose "Preferences" from the File menu and select the folder, where you installed the FocalBlade plugin, at the bottom of the Preferences dialog. After pressing OK the plugin will be accessible from the Plug−in Filter Selector dialog which is available from the Effects menu.

Ulead Photo Impact
Choose "Preferences" from the File menu and select the folder, where you installed the FocalBlade plugin, in the Plugins tab of the Preferences dialog. After restarting Photo Impact the plugins will be displayed at the bottom of the Effect menu.

Ulead Gif Animator
Choose "Preferences" from the File menu, click on the Plugin Filters tab and select the folder where the FocalBlade plugin is located. After restarting Gif Animator the plugins will appear in the Filters menu.

Ulead PhotoExpress
Choose "Preferences" from the File menu and select the folder, where you installed the FocalBlade plugin, in the Plug−Ins tab of the Preferences dialog. After restarting PhotoExpress the plugins will be displayed in the Photo menu.

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General Usage

Before using FocalBlade you have to start your preferred image editing application and open an image or photo. Please note that FocalBlade presently only works with RGB and Grayscale images (8bit and 16bit). If your image has 256 colors or less, is a CMYK image or is in any other image mode, you have to convert it in your image application to RGB 8 bit (24 bit) or RGB 16 bit (48 bit) or "16 million colors" before you can work on it with FocalBlade.

To run FocalBlade please open the menu that leads to the plugin filters (usually the "Filter", "Effects" or "Image −> Plug−ins" menu) and choose "FocalBlade" from the " PhotoWiz" sub menu.

To make the FocalBlade window as large as the screen, please double click the "FocalBlade" letters in the title bar. To minimize the window to its previous size, please repeat that action.

The Text Box
There is a text box located on the right bottom of the FocalBlade window. This feature was built in to make it easier for beginners to get started and makes it possible to use FocalBlade without a glance at the manual. If you move the mouse over a certain control, the text box will display some explanations and hints about that control.

After you know all about FocalBlade, you can deactivate these explanations by deactivating the check box at the right bottom of this text box. But we recommend that you keep it nevertheless activated. It may remind you of something that you already forgot or missed reading.

The Preview
On the left hand side of the dialog box there is a preview box that shows you how the final effect will look like. If only a part of the image is displayed in the preview, the image can be moved by holding down the right mouse button and moving the mouse. While being moved, the original image is shown and after you release the right mouse button the preview is recalculated.

FocalBlade lets you draw a so−called sample area on the preview when you hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse. Please don't confuse this sample area with an image selection as it is known from graphics applications. The sample area marquee may look like a selection marquee, but it is used to measure the sharpness of the area it surrounds and not for selecting a certain part of the image. For more information, please read the Auto Features page.

If the image isn't fully displayed in the preview and you want to display another part of the image, you can move the image by right clicking on the preview and dragging. Alternatively if you can hold down the ALT key and drag the image with the left mouse button.

If one of the Split Views is activated, you can select one of the split areas by holding down the Shift key and clicking on it. For more information, please read the Split View page.

The Zoom Buttons and Zoom Check Box
At the right bottom of the preview box you can see a '+' and '-' button with a percentage label in between. These zoom buttons let you adjust the size of the image in the preview box. 100% means that the original size of the image is displayed.

By default when starting FocalBlade, the zoom rate will be automatically set to 100%, because at that setting you can best preview the sharpening effect. The Fitted zoom option fits the image completely into the preview. The Optimal zoom option on the other hand fills the preview almost completely while probably hiding a small part of the image.

If you hold the Shift key when pressing one of zoom buttons, the zoom factor will be set to the highest (100%) or lowest acceptable value (fitted zoom). If you hold the CTRL key when pressing one of the zoom buttons, the zoom factor will be set to the highest (100%) or lowest possible value (6%). With the Alt and - keys you can decrease the zoom ratio and with the Alt and + keys you can increase the zoom by one step. Some very old applications (e.g. Corel Photopaint 7 or Corel Xara 2) don't support preview zooming. In this case the + and - buttons are grayed out.

To jump from one preview zoom rate to another you can use the zoom combo box which is located between the two zoom buttons.

Modes
FocalBlade offers various modes for special tasks. The Novice Mode should be used when using FocalBlade for the first time or if you are not in need for very precise sharpening effects. In Expert Mode, on the other hand, you can achieve almost all effects of the various modes. For more information, please read the Modes page.

Split View
FocalBlade offers some split views for comparing the original with the sharpened image and for comparing and selecting various sharpening settings. For more information, please read the Split View page.

The B/W Button
The B/W button displays the image in the preview grayscaled. This can be somewhat helpful to see the sharpening effect more clearly. If you want the B/W effect to be applied to the image, you have to hold down ther Ctrl key when clicking on the OK button.

Sliders
Sliders can be used to select a certain value within a specific value range. To do that you can drag the slider knob with the mouse (or arrow keys), enter a numerical value in the white text box at the right of the slider bar, click somewhere on the slider bar for large value steps or use the two arrow buttons for small value steps.

OK, Cancel and ?
Clicking on the OK button exits FocalBlade and applies the correction to the image. The current settings are saved and restored when you use FocalBlade again. CTRL clicking the OK button will render the visual clues (sample area, split view, B/W etc.) to the image.

"Cancel" simply exits FocalBlade without changing the image. Depending on the application you are using, the current settings will be lost immediately or kept as long as your image application is running. If you hold down the CTRL key while clicking on Cancel, you will be prompted for Cloak Mode. In Cloak Mode the current settings will be applied to the image without displaying the FocalBlade dialog. For more information, please read the Cloak Mode page.

The Context Menu
Right clicking on the window background displays a context menu with three sub menus called File, Auto Settings and Help. The Auto Settings sub menu is explained on the Auto Features page, because it also appears alone when right clicking on one of the auto features. The File menu offer Open Preset, Save Preset, OK and Cancel options whereas the Helop menu lets you display the manual, the About box, visit our web site and contact us via email.

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Step By Step Guide

Quick Approach

1. Please resize the image to its final size before using FocalBlade.

2. Set the preview zoom to 100% otherwise you won't see the sharpening effect precisely.

3. Choose "Novice Mode" if it isn't already set.

4. Click the Reset button to set the default values.

5. Click on the Print button if you want to print the image or the Screen button if you want to use the image for screen display.

6. If you don't like the result, try other settings from the three Auto combo boxes.

7. Click on OK to apply the correction.

Advanced Approach

1. Please resize the photo to its final size before using FocalBlade. If you want to print it, make sure that its pixel size matches the print size.

2. Set the preview zoom to 100% otherwise you won't see the sharpening effect precisely.

3. If the image is larger than the preview, right click on the preview and drag to make the part of the image visible that contains the most important object.

4. Choose "Expert Mode" if it isn't already set.

5. Click the Reset button to set the default values.

6. Click on the Print button if you want to print the image or the Screen button if you want to use the image for screen display.

7. Try different settings from the three Auto combo boxes until you are satisfied.

8. To make more subtle changes please use the control of the Edges and Surface tab.

9. Click on OK to apply the correction.

Expert Approach

1. Please resize the photo to its final size before using FocalBlade. If you want to print it, make sure that its pixel size matches the print size.

2. Set the preview zoom to 100% otherwise you won't see the sharpening effect precisely.

3. If the image is larger than the preview, right click on the preview and drag to make the part of the image visible that contains the most important object.

4. Choose "Expert Mode" if it isn't already set.

5. Click the Reset button to set the default values.

6. Click on the Print button if you want to print the image or the Screen button if you want to use the image for screen display.

7. Draw a sample area on the preview that encloses the most important part of the image. By doing so you make sure that this part of the image gets optimally sharpened.

8. Try different settings from the three Auto combo boxes until you are satisfied.

9. To make more subtle changes please use the controls of the Edges and Surface tab. For controlling which areas of the photo will be sharpened with the Edges tab settings and with the Surface tab settings you can use the four Mask sliders. The Mask Display options lets you see which areas belong to the edges and which are surface.

10. Click on OK to apply the correction.

Split View

1. Please resize the photo to its final size before using FocalBlade.

2. Set the preview zoom to 100% otherwise you won't see the sharpening effect precisely.

3. Click the Reset Button to set the default values.

4. Activate the "Sharpen Vert." or "Sharpen Horiz." Split View mode. Activating the Multiple check box usually lets you better compare the different Split View areas.

5. Right click on the preview and drag to center the most important image area in the preview.

6. Try different settings of the three Auto combo boxes, adjust the controls of the Edges and Surface tabs or even draw a sample area on the preview until you are satisfied. For every change the Split View areas will be updated and display the new setting. The current settings are displayed in the middle area while the other areas display -/+ 50% variations of it.

7. Finally deactivate the Split View mode or alternatively hold down the Shift key and click on one of the Split View areas to apply its values to the controls of FocalBlade.

8. Click on OK to apply the correction.

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Sharpening with a Brush

... in Photoshop

1. Open your image.

2. Choose Layer > Duplicate Layer or alternatively select "Duplicate Layer" from the menu of the Layer palette.

3. If you want to remove the sharpening effect from a few image areas, please choose Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal All. If you want to brush the sharpening effect only to a few image areas, please select Layer > Add Layer Mask > Hide All.

4. A second white or black thumbnail will appear on the layer bar in the Layers palette and will be automatically selected. Click on the left thumbnail to select the image again.

5. Apply Filter > PhotoWiz > FocalBlade to the image.

6. Click on the layer mask thumbnail on the layer bar in the Layers palette to activate the layer mask.

7. Select the brush tool and choose appropriate brush size and options.

8. To remove the sharpness effect from some areas of the image please choose a black color in the foreground color box of Photoshop's tool palette. To add the sharpness effect to some image areas please choose a white color in the foreground color box of Photoshop's tool palette.

9. Brush over the image areas where you want the sharpness effect removed or revealed.

10. When you are done, you can flatten the image with Layer > Flatten Image.

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... in Paint Shop Pro

1. Open your image.

2. Choose Layers > Duplicate which will add a new layer called "Copy of Background" in the Layer palette.

3. If you want to remove the sharpening effect from a few image areas, please choose Layers > New Mask Layer > Show All. If you want to brush the sharpening effect only to a few image areas, please select Layers > New Mask Layer > Hide All.

4. The new mask layer in the Layer palette will now be selected. Please click on the "Copy of Background" item to select the image again.

5. Apply Effects > Plugins > PhotoWiz > FocalBlade to the image.

6. Click on the Mask layer in the Layer palette to activate the mask layer.

7. Select the brush tool and choose appropriate brush size and options.

8. To remove the sharpness effect from some areas of the image please choose a black color in the foreground color box. To add the sharpness effect to some image areas please choose a white color in the foreground color box.

9. Brush over the image areas where you want the sharpness effect removed or revealed.

10. When you are done, you can flatten the image with Layers > Merge > Merge All (Flatten).

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... in Other Applications

The procedure works similar in other aplications if they have a layer mask fearture.

Deblurring Photos

1. Please resize the image to its final size before using FocalBlade.

2. Switch to the "DeBlur" or "DeBlur Pro" mode.

3. Try various settings for the Sharpen and Radius slider(s) until you are satisfied. Choosing the right method may help, too. However, if the image is too blurry, you will only be able to make it somewhat less blurry, but not fully sharp again.

4. Click on OK to apply the correction.

Fixing Oversharpened Photos

1. Please resize the image to its final size before using FocalBlade.

2. Choose "Expert Mode" if it isn't already set.

3. Set the Sharpen sliders of the Edges and Surface tabs to zero.

4. Increase the value of the Soften slider of the Surface tab until you are satisfied with the result. Also try different Radius slider settings.

5. To soften the edges, too, please decrease the value of the Intensity slider. Try various settings for the Method combo box if you are still not satisfied.

6. Click on OK to apply the correction.

Creating a Glow Effect

1. Switch to Glow mode or to Expert mode. In Expert mode set both Sharpen sliders to zero if you don't want additional sharpening to be applied.

2. Adjust the Glow slider to your preferred value and change the glow color by clicking on the color box left to the Glow slider.

3. To change the look of the glow effect you can use the Intensity, Smoothness and Remove sliders.

4. Click on OK to apply the correction.

Creating a Soft Focus Effect

1. Switch to Soft Focus mode or to Expert mode. In Expert mode set both Sharpen sliders (of at least that of the Surface tab) to zero if you don't want additional sharpening to be applied.

2. Set the Soften slider to a value between 50 and 75 and set the Radius slider of the Surface tab to a value of around 8.0.

3. Try different Method box settings.

4. In Expert mode you can additionally use the Intensity and Remove sliders to selectively soften or unsoften certain image areas. Additionally you can use the Highlights and Shadows sliders from the Fix tab to remove the effect from the highlights and shadows.

5. In Expert mode you can also use the Glow slider to add a nice effect.

4. Click on OK to apply the correction.

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Tips for Good Results

Here you will find a few tips for using FocalBlade more effectively.

In-Camera Sharpening vs FocalBlade
Digital cameras usually apply a more or less simple sharpening effect on photos. Sophisticated and time-consuming sharpening algorithms aren't used, because digital cameras don't have such fast processors as PCs and manufacturers try to reduce the time between two shots. Side-effects of this simple in-camera sharpening are increased noise and artifacts in the photos, especially on photographs taken in low light conditions.

If you shoot RAW files with your digital camera, there is no sharpening applied to them. But sharpening is usually applied by RAW conversion tools when converting the RAW files to JPG or TIFF files. Unfortunately many of these RAW conversion tools apply a similar bad sharpening as digital cameras do.

FocalBlade offers much more sophisticated sharpening methods than digital cameras or many RAW conversion tools. So we generally recommend that you deactivate in-camera sharpening or at least set it to the lowest possible value. That way you will achieve much better results when using FocalBlade later on them. Unfortunately many low budget cameras don't allow you to deactivate in-camera sharpening. In such a case you have to live with it or buy a camera that offers such a feature. In the case of RAW conversion, you should also deactivate the sharpening option if you want to use FocalBlade later on them.

Of course if you don't have the time to edit your photos on your PC with FocalBlade, it is sometimes better to use the bad in-camera sharpening on daylight shots than no sharpening at all. However, on night shots you will be more happy if you have in-camera sharpening deactivated, even if you don't plan to sharpen your photos on your PC.

When To Use Focal Blade in your Work Flow
The photo correction process usually involves several steps. It is recommended that you use FocalBlade at a later stage to achieve a good sharpening effect.

You should not use it before one of the following steps:

• Image Resizing
• Noise Reduction
• Lens Correction
• Perspective Correction

These correction steps have the side-effect that they slightly blur the photo. So applying FocalBlade before these steps will decrease its effect or even wipe it out completely. Of course there may be some special cases when it makes sense to use FocalBlade before one of these steps.

It is also recommended to use Focal Blade after one of the following steps:

• Color Correction (if it involves a change of brightness)
• Contrast Correction
• Brightness Correction
• Highlights/Midtones/Shadows Correction

If the photo doesn't need a very strong color, contrast and brightness correction, you could also apply FocalBlade before these steps if there is no other way. But strong color, contrast and brightness corrections can increase or decrease the sharpening effect of Focal Blade which is probably not what you want.

It is best to apply FocalBlade as one of the last steps during photo correction. For some images it can help to adjust saturation after sharpening.

Keep the Preview Zoom at 100%
To achieve good results, please always keep the preview zoom at 100%. Only with this setting will you see the sharpening effect as it will be applied to the image. Additionally at settings lower than 100% the auto sharpening of FocalBlade may not work perfectly.

Backup the Unsharp Versions of your Photos
It is highly recommended to keep the unsharp versions of the images as backups. So you should save your edited photos with another file name and not overwrite the original files. Another backup possibility is to sharpen a duplicate layer and save the untouched as well as sharpened layer as one file. You may need the unsharpened version in future again, because an new version of FocalBlade with better sharpening became available or you want to apply a different sharpening effect for printing on a different device.

Non-Destructive Sharpening
Although you should always keep a backup of your original photo, it may be useful to store the original image together with the sharpened image in one file. To do that you can duplicate the original image layer in your graphics application and only apply FocalBlade to the dublicate layer. This also allows you to blend the sharpened layer with the unsharp original to adjust the sharpening intensity. You can also add more new layers and sharpen them for different output devices or papers, but for different output sizes you should better save different files. The disadvantage of this method is that the size of the saved file gets larger with each new layer.

Another option is to save the FocalBlade settings as a preset files. For example if an image is called IMG_1001.tif, the output size is 2048x1536 pixel and the output device is an inkjet printer, you could name the FocalBlade preset file as IMG_1001_2048_inkjet.fbp. However, it would be better to create standard FocalBlade presets for different sizes and devices, so you don't need to create a new preset files for every new image. The advantage of this method is that you don't need to save big files. You just need to open the original image or edited unsharp file and apply the same sharpening again by opening the preset file in FocalBlade.

Unfortunately Photoshop doesn't support adjustment layer plugins, otherwise it would be much easier to solve this problem without having to save big files with a lot of layers or creating different FocalBlade presets.

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Sharpening Tips for Landscape, Portrait and Night Photos

Here are some recommeded settings:

Sharpening Twice
The Auto Feature of FocalBlade is intended to be used on photos that have only been slightly sharpened or that have a soft look. If you use FocalBlade's Auto features on photos that are quite sharp, FocalBlade will sharpen these photos too much with a "Medium Sharp" setting. In this case please use a "Light Sharp" setting or manually set the two Sharpen sliders.

Two or three very weak sharpening applications, won't reduce the image quality, nevertheless sharpening twice doesn't work better. You don't have so much control of the effect and it needs more time. When sharpening twice the risk to add too strong halos is larger, especially if you change the brightness and contrast of your image after sharpening. So better apply FocalBlade as the last step with appropriate settings.

Some people still prefer to sharpen photos right after they scanned them or transferred them from their camera. Doing that lets you remove the low pass filtering (blurring) - that was applied by the scanner or camera - to see the quality of the photo more clearly. Nevertheless you also have to sharpen the photo again at final print size. In such a case it is recommended to apply a very light sharpening at the beginning, e.g. by using a "Very Fine Details" setting or low radius of 0.2 to 0.5 pixel. Additionally you should better use "Light Textured" setting or low surface sharpen value for both sharpening steps to avoid too much noise in the surface areas.

Undoing Sharpening
Sometimes you may want to undo a too extreme sharpening effect in a photo that you received or that has been sharpened with another tool in the past. This can be done manually by using the Blur or Selective Blur modes in FocalBlade. If the edges as well as surfaces of the image were oversharpened, you should try to blur the whole image. But don't overdo it with a too strong setting and a too large radius. If only the surface areas were oversharpened, you can keep the edges untouched and only smooth the surface in Selective Blur mode. To do that in Expert mode set the two Sharpen sliders to zero and use the Soften slider from the Surface tab. Another possibility for slightly oversharpenened images is to activate the Antialias check box and to set both Sharpen sliders to zero.

Reducing Halos
Although FocalBlade doesn't produce the extreme halos of other sharpening tools, FocalBlade produces slight halos if you want to apply a very strong sharpening. Here are some tips on how to remove these halos:

1. A too strong JPG compression creates halos. So JPG files saved with a high compression are bad for sharpening. So please only produce JPG files with a strong compression after you sharpened them.

2. Please reconsider if you really want to apply such a strong sharpening effect. Decreasing the value of the Sharpen slider of the Edge tab or choosing a lower Auto Sharpen setting often removes the halos.

3. Setting the Smoothness slider to a higher value sometimes makes the halo less visible, but at the same time it also enlarges the edge area, so this method is often not useful.

4. Reducing the value of the Intensity slider can help. It has a similar effect as reducing the value of the Sharpen slider of the Edge tab, but it might be more effective without decreasing the overall sharpness.

5. Another good method for reducing halos is to increase the Radius slider of the Edge tab. This may sound paradoxical, because doing that in other tools amplifies halo, but in FocalBlade it reduces halos. A side effect is that it emphasizes larger details.

6. Last, but not least, use the two Halo sliders from the Fix tab to reduce the halo. They also let you reduce the white halo more than the black halo or vise versa.

After all, even if halos aren't desirable, especially if they are too strong or wide, the mechanism that produces them is essential for the sharpening. Sharpening basically means increasing the contrast between edges and surfaces in photos. So visible halos occur if the contrast adjustment is too extreme. They are more or less a sign that the sharpening applied by FocalBlade is too strong.

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Speed Issues
FocalBlade may need up to 6 seconds to update the preview on a 400 MHz computer. But as FocalBlade uses several buffers to store pre−calculated image data, subsequent calculations need only a small fraction of that time that is needed when you first run FocalBlade. Some calculations don't need to be done for every slider change, so FocalBlade's buffer strategy helps a lot to speed up the preview rendering.

If you want to do several adjustments and avoid that the preview is rendered with every control change, you can deactivate the Auto Preview check box and activate it again after your have done the changes.

Additionally if you do the following steps you can increase the rendering speed of FocalBlade:

1. Deactivate the Precise check box.

2. Keep the Soften slider at a value of zero.

3. Keep the Auto Details setting at "Very Fine" or "Fine" or use a very low value for the two Radius sliders.

4. If you don't use the Auto Details feature, you can also save render time by making sure that the Radius slider on the Edges tab and the Radius slider on the Surface tab have the same value.

Additionally you can speed up the preview update by doing the following steps at first:

1. Choose your preferred image area in the preview.

2. Set the values of Auto Details box or Radius sliders.

3. Make sure that the Radius of the Edges and Surface tab have the same value.

4. Set the value of the Smoothness slider.

If you don't change these settings anymore and only adjust the other sliders and features, you will be able to work a lot faster with FocalBlade if you have a slow computer. Especially changing the image area in the preview forces FocalBlade to recalculate all image data.

Memory Issues in Photoshop
Version 1.0 of FocalBlade had some memory problems in Photoshop when trying to apply it to images that were larger than 45% of your physical RAM. Since Version 1.01 FocalBlade processes images in tiles which means that it needs almost no memory to process very large images. Version 1.02 of FocalBlade doesn't need any additional memory anymore for generating the preview, so images of all sizes can be previewed at 100% zoom. Nevertheless here are some tips that may also be helpful even if you have memory problems with other plugins.

Photoshop uses its own virtual memory system and never requests virtual memory from your operating system. This makes Photoshop quite powerful, but it can also cause problems with some plugins. To solve them you can change the percentage value in the Memory & Image Cache Preferences. By doing so you can influence how much physical RAM Photoshop is using. If you don't run other applications in the background that need very much RAM, you should set this value as high as possible, especially if you are working with very large images.

If memory problems should occur with a plugin, you can try to fix them by testing various Memory Usage settings. You could try a 100%, 75%, 50% and 25% value in the order they were mentioned. For FocalBlade 1.01 I would recommend a value between 75% and 90%. Values lower than 75% may slow down Photoshop while values higher than 90% may slow down FocalBlade a bit.

Don't forget to restart Photoshop after you changed the Memory Usage value.

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Modes

When you run FocalBlade for the first time, you are asked if you want to start in Novice Mode. If you don't have very much knowledge about photo correction, you should follow this invitation. But even if you are a a pro and don't know FocalBlade yet, it may be a good idea. If you are used to FocalBlade, you should choose the Expert Mode, because it lets you create all the effects of the other modes (with the exception of the DeBlur modes).

Novice Mode
In Novice Mode you are only presented with the three combo boxes of the Auto feature. They quickly let you produce a sufficient sharpening effect by experimenting with their settings. If you have no idea or about sharpening or know which settings are best, please leave them at the medium setting.

For more detailed information, please read the Auto Feature page.

Sharpen
Using the Sharpen Mode is not recommended for photos that contains the slightest noise or artifacts, because it doesn't distinguish between edges and surface like some of the other modes and therefor may amplify them. In this respect it works similar to traditional Unsharp Mask filters. However, it still doesn't produce halos if the Compensate check box is active and it doesn't amplify color noise.

It offers two of the three Auto combo boxes, a Sharpen and Radius slider and a Method combo box.

Sharpen Edges
Sharpen Edges is similar to the Sharpen Mode with the difference that it only sharpens the edges and not the surface. This mode is nice for landscape photos or photos with objects that have a flat surface. For photos of people or textured objects, please use one of the Selective Sharpen modes.

Selective Sharpen
The Selective Sharpen mode lets you sharpen edges and surface independently. This mode already gives you a lot of control over the sharpening process with a minimum amount of controls. If you mastered the Novice Mode, need a bit more control and still find Expert Mode too confusing, you should use this mode.

For more detailed information, please read the Auto Feature section and the Edges & Surface Tab section

Selective Sharpen Pro
Compared to the Selective Sharpen mode the Selective Sharpen Pro mode additionally offers the Mask features. This Mode is very similar to Expert Mode. It only misses the Soften slider from the Surface Tab, the Fix tab and the Glow slider.

For more detailed information, please read the Auto Feature section, Edges & Surface Tab section and the Mask Features section

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Blur
The Blur Mode lets you apply gaussian, cosine, circular, linear and median blurs with a certain radius.

Selective Blur
Selective Blur only blurs the surface in the photo while the edges remain as they are. This mode can be used for reducing too strong sharpening effects that were produced by other tools or for giving the photo a more soft look.

Selective Blur Pro
Unlike the previous mode the Selective Blur Pro mode offers additional Mask Features. They let you enlarge or reduce the surface area to which the blur effect is applied to. The Fix tab offers the Highlights and Shadows sliders for reducing the blurring in the highlight and shadows areas.

For more detailed information, please read the Mask Features section

Soft Focus
Soft Focus is basically like the Blur mode, but offers an additional Soften slider. It lets you create different soft focus effects. More sophisticated soft focus effects can also be created with the Selective Blur Pro mode by using a lower Sharpen value and a higher Radius value.

Glow
The Glow mode was designed for special glow effects.

For more detailed information, please read the Mask Features section and the Glow Features section

DeBlur
The DeBlur Mode is similar to the Sharpen Mode with the difference that there are no Auto Features and that the Sharpen slider has an extended range for producing more extreme sharpen effects. Please only use this mode on strong blurred images that aren't tackled by one of the Sharpen modes. For more control over the deblurring process, please use the DeBlur Pro mode.

DeBlur Pro
DeBlur Pro lets you deblur edges and surface separately. It also offers the Mask features for defining edges and surface areas. If the photo was blurred artificially by a flat blur algorithm, choose "Linear" from the Method box. If it was blurred with a Gaussian Blur filter, choose "Gaussian". If the blurring was introduced by incorrect focusing when taking the photo, using "Circular" may help. Otherwise please keep the default "Gaussian" setting of the Method box.

For more detailed information, please read the Edges & Surface Tab section and the Mask Features section

Expert Mode
Expert Mode lets you produce all the effects of the other modes and many more at the same time. This mode is only recommended if you have at least a rough idea what all the controls are for. However, Expert Mode doesn't offer the extended ranges of the Sharpen sliders that the two DeBlur modes offer. So for deblurring photos you still have to switch to the DeBlur Pro mode.

For more detailed information, please read the Auto Feature section, Edges & Surface Tab section, Mask Features section and the Glow Features section

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Reset, Undo & Presets

Using the Undo Button
Pressing the Undo button will restore the previous control settings and sample area in case you didn't like your latest adjustment. Undo only works one step backwards and doesn't restore the preview zoom setting.

Opening Presets
The Open Preset button lets you open files with the .fbp file extension that were previously saved with the Save Preset button in FocalBlade. FocalBlade already includes several presets that can be used as a starting point for creating various effects.

Saving Presets
You can save a preset, which means all current control settings, by clicking on the Save Preset button. Please save presets into the Presets sub folder within the FocalBlade folder which is displayed by default in the file dialog. The saved preset can later be opened with the Open Preset button to apply that particular effect again on the same or another photo.

Preset Naming Conventions
When saving a preset, please use the following naming conventions:

•When saving a preset for sharpening, start the name with "Sharpen − ".
•When saving a preset for producing a blur or soft focus effect, start the preset name with "Blur - ".
•When saving a preset for producing a glow effect, start the preset name with "Glow - "·

The rest of the name should consist of one or two descriptive words. Here are some examples of suitable preset names:

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Cloak Mode

In Cloak Mode FocalBlade doesn't display its dialog and immediately starts rendering a predefined setting to the image. Cloak mode is useful if you want to quickly apply the same settings to a series of photos.

Activating Cloak Mode
To activate Cloak Mode please hold down the CTRL key and click on the Cancel button. You will get a message with some information and for confirming Cloak Mode. After pressing YES, the current settings are saved and FocalBlade is exited without rendering an effect to the image. Now when you run FocalBlade again by choosing it from the Filter menu of your image application, the dialog of FocalBlade won't show up and the previous settings will be rendered immediately to the image.

If you want to apply FocalBlade in Cloak Mode to a series of photos with basically the same softness or sharpness, you can test FocalBlade on one or more of them and adjust the settings to match all or most of the photos. If you create a sample area and switch to Cloak Mode, only the sharpness value that was sampled will be applied in Cloak Mode. The same area won't be sampled for each photo, because that would lead to bad results in most cases.

If you want to apply FocalBlade in Cloak Mode to photos with different softness or sharpness, please make sure that the Auto features are activated before CTRL-clicking on the Cancel button. This will make FocalBlade automatically sharpen during Cloak Mode.

Leaving Cloak Mode
After you processed your series of photos in Cloak Mode you can uncloak FocalBlade again. To do that hold down the Shift key when selecting FocalBlade from the filter menu in your image application. This will display the FocalBlade dialog again and exit Cloak Mode. Alternatively you can also delete the file Cloakfb.ini in the FocalBlade folder. But this is just an emergency strategy.

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Batch Processing in Cloak Mode in Photoshop
Photoshop offers a Batch feature on its File > Automate menu. This feature lets you batch process a series of images with the help of a Photoshop Action. So if you want to batch process images in Photoshop you only need to record an action that contains FocalBlade.

To record an action with FocalBlade, please do the following:
1. Open an image in Photoshop.

2. Switch to the Actions palette at the right and create a new action by using the New Action button or the pop-up palette menu.

3. Choose FocalBlade from the Filter menu and press OK. You don't need to adjust any setting or enter Cloak mode yet.

4. Press the Stop button on the Action palette. Now you have your FocalBlade action that you can use with File > Automate > Batch.

To batch process a series of images with FocalBlade please do the following:
1. Open one of the images from the image series.

2. Run FocalBlade and adjust its settings.

3. Enter Cloak Mode by holding the CTRL key and clicking on the Cancel button.

4. Select File > Automate > Batch.

5. In the Batch dialog make sure that your FocalBlade action is selected.

6. Set the other batch options and click on OK to run it.

If you want to batch process another series of images with other FocalBlade settings, please uncloak FocalBlade as mentioned above, adjust the settings and return to Cloak Mode again. You don't need to create another action for that purpose as you would need to do for other plugins.

If you want to apply individual FocalBlade settings to each image during batch processing, don't activate Cloak mode and run the action nevertheless. Then for each image the FocalBlade dialog will pop up for adjusting the settings. To apply them just click on OK.

Batch Processing in Cloak Mode in Paint Shop Pro 8 and higher
Paint Shop Pro 8 and higher offer a Process feature on the File >Batch menu for batch process a series of images with the help of a PSP script. Recording such a script is quite easy.

To record a PSP script with FocalBlade, please do the following:
1. Open an image in PSP.

2. Select File > Script > Start Recording.

3. Choose FocalBlade from the Filter menu and press OK. You don't need to adjust any setting or enter Cloak mode yet.

4. Select File > Script > Start Recording and save the script. Now you have your FocalBlade action that you can use with File > Batch > Process.

To batch process a series of images with FocalBlade please do the following:
1. Open one of the images from the image series.

2. Run FocalBlade and adjust its settings.

3. Enter Cloak Mode by holding the CTRL key and clicking on the Cancel button.

4. Select File > Batch > Process.

5. In the Batch Process dialog choose your FocalBlade script with the Browse button from the Script frame.

6. Set the other batch options and click on the Start button to run it.

If you want to batch process another series of images with other FocalBlade settings, please uncloak FocalBlade as mentioned above, adjust the settings and return to Cloak Mode again. You don't need to create another script for that purpose as you would need to do for other plugins. If you want to apply individual FocalBlade settings to each image during batch processing, don't activate Cloak mode and run the script nevertheless. Then for each image the FocalBlade dialog will pop up for adjusting the settings. To apply them just click on OK.

Batch Processing in Cloak Mode in other applications
There are some other applications that support batch processing with the help of plugins. For example, Equilibrium Debabilizer supports it and some other applications like Plugin Commander Pro may support it in future. Basically batch processing in other applications works the same as in Photoshop. You have to activate Cloak Mode in FocalBlade and select the FocalBlade plugin for batch processing in the batch feature of these applications.

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Key Shortcuts

FocalBlade lets you use a few key shortcuts for performing certain tasks. Professional users usually prefer using key shortcuts as they help to achieve some tasks much faster. The shortcuts are indicated by an underlined letter in the button label. Here is a list of all shortcuts that can be used in FocalBlade:

If the input focus is not resting on a combo box, slider box or button, you can press the mentioned keys without the ALT key. But to avoid confusion, please always hold down the ALT key for these key shortcuts.

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Split Views

The various Split View options let you compare various sharpness settings and apply them. The Split View options split up the preview into two or five areas that show the original and corrected version or various sharpening intensities.

The Multiple check box
If this check box is activated, each split area will display the same image section. That makes it very easy to compare the different settings. To make another image section visible right click on the preview and drag. If the Multiple check box is deactivated, different effects will be applied to different image sections and the image will be fully displayed in the preview.

Using Left, Right, Bottom and Top View
These four split views let you compare the original image with the modified version side by side. The corrected image will be displayed at the left, right, top or bottom of the preview as the names indicate. Unlike the other split views, you can't select anything by Shift clicking.

Choosing the Sharpen Amounts
The two Sharpen split views let you compare different Sharpen settings as well as choose one of them. The effect of the five settings is displayed as vertical or horizontal stripes on the image. The middle area displays the current setting, while the other areas display variations of the current setting in -/+ 50% steps. The outer left or top area displays the original image.

Instructions:
1. Select "Sharpen Vert." or "Sharpen Horiz." from the Split View box. Activate the Multiple check box for a better comparison.

2. While being in Split View mode, you can create a sample area and use all available controls. The Split View areas will update accordingly.

3. Finally you can switch off Split View or alternatively hold down the Shift key and click the split area that you like best. In this case the Split View will be switched off, the Sharpen sliders of the Edges and Surface tabs will be set to your chosen values and the image will be displayed with this setting. It makes no sense to shift click on the outer left or top split view areas as that will set the two Sharpen sliders to zero.

Choosing the Edge Sharpen Amount
The two Edges split views let you compare the different edge sharpening settings as well as choose one of them. The effect of the five settings is displayed as vertical or horizontal stripes on the image. The middle area displays the current setting, while the other areas display variations of the current setting in -/+ 50% steps.

Instructions:
1. Select "Edges Vert." or "Edges Horiz." From the Split View box. Activate the Multiple check box for a better comparison.

2. While being in Split View mode, you can create a sample area and use all available controls. The Split View areas will update accordingly.

3. Finally you can switch off Split View or alternatively hold down the Shift key and click the split area that you like best. In this case the Split View will be switched off, the Sharpen slider of the Edges tabs will be set to your chosen value and the image will be displayed with this setting.

Choosing the Surface Sharpen Amount
The two Sharpen split views let you compare the different surface sharpening settings as well as choose one of them. The effect of the five settings is displayed as vertical or horizontal stripes on the image. The middle area displays the current setting, while the other areas display variations of the current setting in -/+ 50% steps.

Instructions:
1. Select "Surface Vert." or "Surface Horiz." From the Split View box. Activate the Multiple check box for a better comparison.

2. While being in Split View mode, you can create a sample area and use all available controls. The Split View areas will update accordingly.

3. Finally you can switch off Split View or alternatively hold down the Shift key and click the split area that you like best. In this case the Split View will be switched off, the Sharpen slider of the Surface tab will be set to your chosen value and the image will be displayed with this setting.

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Auto Features

FocalBlade's auto features provide standard sharpening settings that work with most images. There are three combo boxes with sharpening parameters (Auto Sharpen, Auto Details and Auto Surface) and two buttons (Screen and Print) for selecting the purpose of sharpening. The same settings don't produce the same sharpening on each image, because an internal algorithm automatically analyses the image and assigns optimal values to these settings.

Screen & Print Buttons
Images that are intended to be printed require a much stronger sharpening than images for screen display. During the printing process the image is softened again, so the image needs to be sharper from the very beginning. That's why FocalBlade sharpens an image much more if you have the Print button activated. The final printed result will look somewhat softer than what you see on your screen.

With the Screen button activated FocalBlade will apply a much weaker sharpening effect suitable for screen display. That avoids that hidden noise and artifacts are amplified too much and become visible.

The auto feature will sharpen for a screen viewing distance of 30 inches of an average PC user. If your head is closer than 30 inches away from your monitor you may perceive the sharpening effect as too strong. Onthe other hand if you are farther away than 30 inches you may perceive the result as too soft. If you only sharpen the image for display on you own monitor, you can adjust the Auto Sharpen option to match your taste. However, if you plan to publish the image on the Internet, it is recommended that you keep the default "Medium Sharp" setting.

Using the Sample Area
The Auto features set the values of various sliders and readjust them when you move the preview. So the auto feature analyses only the image area that is displayed in the preview. So it is better to display the most important image area in the preview. You can also make the auto features analyse a much smaller image area by drawing a rectangular sample area on the preview.

To draw a sample area hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse over the preview. Releasing the mouse button again, displays the sample area as a b/w marquee on the preview. The sample area should be drawn around the most important part of the image, e.g. a face, a whole person or another important object. By doing so FocalBlade will apply the optimal sharpness for that area whereas other areas in the photo will be less sharp or sometimes too sharp. If the sampling area technique still doesn't produce a satisfying result, you have to create a selection of that object in your image application and use FocalBlade to sharpen it with a different setting than the rest of the image.

To remove the sample area please hit the Reset button. Don't just left click on the preview to remove the marquee, because that creates a one pixel lage sample area which can produce unpredictable results.

Auto Sharpen
The Auto Sharpen combo box offers five settings from "Soft" to "Extreme Sharp". With the Screen button activated the "Soft" setting doesn't sharpen the edges, but only the surfaces. The "Medium" setting is sufficient for most images that haven't been sharpened already. If you apply FocalBlade to an image that was sharpened already, but not sufficiently, you should try the "Light" setting. The "Heavy" and "Extreme" settings are usually only recommended in connection with an activated Print button for the purpose of printing photos that have to be viewed at a larger distance, but sometimes you need to use them for very soft or blurred photos. If the photo still looks too blurred at the highest setting, you should try one of the two DeBlur modes.

The Auto Sharpen setting determines the value of the Sharpen slider of the Edges tab.

Auto Surface
The Auto Surface slider lets you define the balance between edges and the surface. For photos with a lot of sky, skin and walls you had better choose a "Even" or "Light" setting which doesn't sharpen them at all or only slightly. Regular photos need a "Medium" setting and photos with a lot of texture details (and no noise and artifacts) look better with a "Heavy" or "Extreme" setting.

Another factor that you should take into account when adjusting the Auto Surface setting is image quality. The better the image quality, the higher the setting you can choose. You should use a "Even" or "Light" setting for photos with a lot of noise and artifacts. It also helps to use the Soften slider from the Surface tab if you don't mind the sharpness decrease.

The Auto Surface setting sets the value of the Sharpen sliders of the Surface tab in relation to the value of the Sharpen slider of the Edges tab.

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Auto Details
Auto Details lets you set the size of details that are dominant in the photo. For most photos that show people or objects at a larger distance you should use the "Very Fine" or "Fine" setting. Photos of people that occupy a large part of the photo will usually only need a "Fine" or "Medium" setting. For close-up photos and portraits a "Rough" setting will sometimes be sufficient. If the edges of the objects in the photo are noise, a "Rough" or "Very Rough" setting will produce a better result.

The Auto Details setting determines the value of the Radius sliders of the Edges and Surface tab. The Screen and Print buttons don't influence this setting.

The Context Menu
By right clicking on one of the auto controls you an display a context menu with four options. Each of these options sets the Auto Sharpen, Auto Surface and Auto Details settings to special values that are suitable for landscape, portrait, nightshot or regular photos.

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Edges, Surface & Fix Tabs

The values of the controls of the Edges and Surface tab sheets are automatically set by the Auto features. However, if you need finer control of the sharpening you can also use them directly. Changing the values of these controls will automatically deactivate the appropriate Auto feature(s) to avoid that the values are reset again. Additionally the Fix tab lets you reduce white and black halos.

Edges
The controls of the Edges tab sheet apply their values only to the edges in the image. With edges the lines that lie between two areas of different brightness and color are meant. If you imagine a photo as a pencil drawing, the black lines would represent the "edges".

The Sharpen slider determines the intensity of the sharpness effect that is applied to the edges. The Radius slider on the other hand lets you choose the size of the details that are emphasized in the edge areas. If you multiply the Radius value by 2 you get the pixel size of the affected details. Details that are smaller than the Radius * 2 will be sharpened to a smaller extent.

The Method box lets you choose between various sharpening methods. "Cosine" and "Circular" usually produce a slightly stronger sharpening effect than "Gaussian". "Linear" is similar to "Gaussian", but not that sophisticated. The default "Gaussian" option is usually the best choice.

With the Compensate check box activated you can avoids halos at higher Radius values. It is not recommended to deactivate it unless you want to produce halos or want to increase sharpness without caring about side effects. It also keeps the sharpness constant when changing the Radius slider. The auto features automatically activate this check box, so if you deactivate it, the auto features are deactivated, too.

The Antialias check box applies an antialias effect that removes grain and artifacts. By using this effect you can apply a stronger sharpening without making grain and artifacts visible. It can also be used to make oversharpened images less sharp.

Surface
The controls of the Surface tab sheet are very similar to those of the Edges tab sheet. However, they only apply an effect to the surface areas in the image. The surface consists of the uniform areas in an image which have a very similar color and brightness. If you imagine a photo as a pencil drawing, the white background would represent the "surface".

The Sharpen slider determines the intensity of the sharpness effect that is applied to the surface of objects. The Radius slider lets you choose the size of the details that are emphasized in the surface areas. If you multiply the Radius value by 2 you get the pixel size of the affected details. Details that are smaller than the Radius * 2 will be sharpened to a smaller extent.

The Soften slider which isn't available in the Edges tab lets you smooth the surface areas. This can help to reduce noise in these areas, to weaken a sharpening effect or to give the image a softer look. If both the Sharpen and Soften sliders have a value larger than zero, each will weaken the effect of the other. Nevertheless the effect of the slider with the larger value will prevail.

The Method box lets you choose between various sharpening methods. "Cosine" and "Circular" usually produce a slightly stronger sharpening effect than "Gaussian". "Linear" is similar to "Gaussian", but not that sophisticated. The default "Gaussian" option is usually the best choice. 'Median' should only be used in connection with the Soften slider, because of its rough effect.

With the Compensate check box activated you can avoids halos at higher Radius values. It is not recommended to deactivate it unless you want to produce halos or want to increase sharpness without caring about side effects. It also keeps the sharpness constant when changing the Radius slider. The auto features automatically activate this check box, so if you deactivate it, the auto features are deactivated, too.

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Fix
The Fix tab sheet offers four sliders called "White Halo", "Black Halo", "Highlights" and "Shadows". The two Halo sliders let you reduce the intensity of too strong halos that are produced by the sharpening process. With their help you can produce a very strong sharpening effect without unwanted side-effects. These two sliders let you influence the white and black part of the halos independently. Usually whit