Fall 2024 Update (Build 578)

Preview

New feature: AI Close-ups

A new AI Close-ups feature has been added to the top toolbar of the Manager’s Preview mode.

Explorer and Filmstrip

New features

Two new functions now appear on the toolbar for the Browser and Filmstrip: Autostack and Multiselect.

Filters

New feature

A new AI Remove Background feature is now available for use in the Manager and Editor modules. In the Manager, this feature can be reached from the top menu: Edit | Remove Background. It is also offered in the Batch Filter tool. In the Editor’s right panel, you can find this new feature under Adjustments | Adjust.

Develop Module

Camera and Lens | Chromatic Aberration

Before the latest update, this feature was offered via a checkbox, which could only be checked or unchecked. After the update, the feature offers three options—No Correction, Based on Profile, and Based on Image Analysis.

Basic adjustments | Color

This section now contains a new Color Reconstruction setting. This setting is only shown when you are working with photos in the RAW format. This feature ties into the enhanced blowout protection that is automatically applied to all photos adjusted in the Develop module.

AI Auto-enhance

This feature has been renamed. It was originally named Quick Fix, but now after the implementation of AI technology, it has the new name AI Auto-enhance.

Presets | Tool Actions – Three new AI presets

The Tool Actions section now contains three new presets for the Radial Filter—Lighten Faces, Brighten Eyes, and Enhance Mouth.

Tool masks

Within the Filter Brush, Smoothing Brush, Retouching Tools and Highlighter tools, there is a new option: Keyboard Shortcuts.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Working with presets

You can now newly add keyboard shortcuts to actions connected with presets.

New commands

In this update, there are now more possibilities for adding keyboard shortcuts to actions in the Manager and Develop modules.
Manager: favorite folders, Browser options, sorting, and more.
Develop: adjustment and tool settings, Quick Adjustments, favorite presets, and more.

Print Module

Work with movable objects

For easier work with composition and when placing movable objects onto a page, this update has added two new functions: Grid and Guidelines. They can be found at the top of the program window, above the project preview.

Video Module

Work with Transformation

This update has added a new function to ease your work with position and transformation settings: Transform in Place. The function is turned on if the Position and Transformation section is selected in the right panel. Lines and nodes are displayed around the active video clip in the project preview. Use these to control the clip’s position and transform its shape visually, directly “in place” within the preview.

Preferences

General

A new Remember open folders in Navigator tree option has been added.

Catalog

When you open the Options menu for a specific folder, you’ll also see a new Detect Faces feature.

Import – Options

Removed the Rotate images by EXIF ​​option.

Added an Autostack option.

Help

Highlight new features

A new Highlight New Features function has been added to the program’s top toolbar, under the question-mark button. This function displays a yellow exclamation point next to all the program’s newly added features.

Native Support

Below is a list of the cameras that are newly supported without the need for the DNG Converter to be installed:

 

Spring 2024 Update (build 533)

Preview

Icons in the top toolbar

In Preview mode in the Manager and Develop modules, the top toolbar now has a new HDR Display Mode button. By default, the displaying of content that falls within high dynamic range is turned on. See here for more information about the HDR feature.

Develop

Effects – New Features

Before this update, the Effects menu contained only the Add Vignetting and Add Grain effects. Two new effects have been added: Glow and Halation. Glow finds light sources in a photo and applies a glow effect to surrounding objects. Halation applies a colored stripe to the edge between light sources and objects, imitating a phenomenon that appears in analog film.

Effects – A Modernized Add Grain Feature

Before this update, this feature contained Quantity and Method options. The Method option has now been replaced with Size and Smoothness options. Also, the grain’s size is now automatically adapted to the picture resolution.

Defringe

A new Defringe feature has been added in the Camera and Lens section.

HDR

An HDR feature has been added in the Color Style section. Turning on HDR shows a new slider, named HDR White, as well as a new section, named SDR Adjustment, which includes a Show Preview option. Turning on Show Preview displays several new adjustment sliders: White Point, Black Point, Lights, Shadows, Whites, Lights – Clarity and Lights – Saturation.

3D LUT

Before this update, the Color Style section contained a feature named 3D LUT. The feature in this section is now named Style, and it works with the ProPhoto color space. At the end of the list of basic adjustments in the Develop module, you’ll find a new section named Effect 3D LUT, which works with the sRGB color space.

Tool Handles

Before this update, small rings (“tool handles”) were displayed under all circumstances during work with the Retouching Tools. Now you can set these handles to be hidden when hovering the mouse outside of the picture preview. Show Mask   has two new options for this: Always Show Tool Handles and Show Tool Handles on Hover.

Export

The Format section has been supplemented with Dynamic Range, HDR Color Space, and Transparency options. The Dynamic Range  option is available for the JPEG, AVIF, and JPEG XL formats. HDR Color Space is only available for AVIF. Transparency is available for all available formats.

The spaces offered in the Color Space have changed as well. Before this update, it offered the sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB, Colormatch RGB, and Linear RGB color spaces. Now it offers sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB, Display P3, Rec.2020, and Linear RGB.

Video

Labels

Before this update, three buttons were shown in the blue slider on the timeline (the “playhead”): ,  , . Now the playhead contains a new button for adding a marker to the timeline. Double-clicking a marker opens a window for changing its color or duration or adding a name and comments to it.

Gradients

Before this update, the program’s Video module offered seven types of video transitions. It now offers 36.
Transitions can new be set as Favorites, by double-clicking the star in the top right corner of a transition’s animation. This moves the transition into the Favorites category.
Many of the new transitions offer extended editing options. After a transition has been added to the timeline, an Edit Transitions section appears, where you can adjust transitions’ length and speed, as well as any other parameters they offer (e.g. direction or effect strength).

Other changes

Preferences | General | Keyboard Shortcuts

The program’s feature for adding custom keyboard shortcuts has been completely redesigned. For more information, click here.

Preferences | Advanced | HDR

A new option to enable HDR adjustments in Develop by default for HDR photos has been added.

WEBP Format

Before this update, it was not at all possible to browse edit and files in the WEBP format in the program. The update adds experimental support for this format, but it is read-only support. It is possible to view WEBP files and even modify their contents. However, changes cannot be saved back to the WEBP format; the modified picture must be saved in another format.

Image Ratings

Before this update, pictures could only be given numerical ratings—from one to five stars. Now this selection has been expanded to include a Rejected  option.

In connection with this, a new Delete Rejected Files feature is now available in the top menu, under Information | Rating.

HDR in Thumbnails

If HDR has been turned on in the Color Style section of the Develop module, a button with the text “HDR” is shown at the top of each picture’s thumbnail.

Pre-print Color Preview and Gamut Check

Both of these features have been removed from Develop and the Editor. They will most likely be added back in later, but no timeline has been set yet.

Native Support

Below is a list of the cameras that are newly supported without the need for the DNG Converter to be installed:

Canon EOS R10
Canon EOS R8
Canon EOS R6 Mark II
Canon EOS R50
Canon EOS R100
Nikon Z8
Sony a9 II
Sony a6700
Sony a7R V
Fujifilm X-H2S
Fujifilm X-S20
Fujifilm GFX 100s
Fujifilm X-T5
Panasonic Lumix DC-GH6
Panasonic Lumix DC-S5 II
Panasonic Lumix DC-S5 II X
Panasonic Lumix DC-S1H
Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 II

Autumn 2023 Update (Build 490)

Manager

Browser

The region above the main area of the Browser newly includes a toolbar that, unless you change it, contains these items, left to right: 

  Display and Sorting – opens the Display and Sorting window.
Up One Level – takes you to the parent folder of the current folder.
box with absolute file path – shows the full path to the folder on your computer that contains the currently displayed files and lets you change or copy the file path.
Delete – deletes the selected file or files.
New Folder – creates a new folder.
Copy – copies the selected file or files. Cut, Copy To, and Move To functions are also available under the arrow next to this button.
Paste – pastes a copied file or files.
Rename – renames a single selected file. This button is not active when multiple files are selected.
Batch Filter – applies one or more filters of your choice at once to one or more pictures at once.
Variants – Creates a virtual variant of the selected picture.
Add to Stack – Add pictures to a stack. Stacks group pictures together. Only available when two or more pictures are selected.
 Share – offers tools for sharing to other platforms.
Export button – creates a copy of the original file, into which all of a picture’s non-destructive changes are then applied.

Tools in the right panel

Several icons that previously appeared here in the area beneath the Histogram have now been moved.

Icons and buttons here before the update:

   Export, Share
       

Icons and buttons here after the update:

     

Right-click on an empty part of the toolbar to see the Customize Toolbar… command. Use this command to open a customization window where you can add, remove, and reposition the commands on the toolbar. The buttons that have been removed from the right panel now appear in Browser mode at the top above the main Browser area and in Preview mode in the Filmstrip.

Editor

Vignetting

The Adjust | Vignetting function now has a Highlight Protection slider.

Develop

Toolbar – Export

Before this update, the Export button was located in the top part of the right panel. After the update, it is located in the Filmstrip when Preview mode is active, and in the top right area of the main program window if Browser mode is active.

Toolbar – Processing

Before this update, it was possible to switch to older processing methods using the  button. This possibility has now been removed and is no longer available.

Main adjustments menu – Color Style

The top part of the main adjustments menu now contains a new group of Color Style options. Use these options to set whether a picture is in color or black-and-white; use the new 3D LUT function here for further adjustments to how a picture’s colors are represented.

Main adjustments menu – Color

Before this update, the Color section contained a checkbox that could be used to change a picture to black-and-white. This option has now been moved and replaced with the Color Style settings group.

Before this update, when black-and-white mode was active, the Method option was displayed in the Color section. After the update it has a new name, Channel Mixing. 

Main adjustments menu – Effects

The Vignetting section contains a new Highlight Protection slider.

Camera and Lens tool

This section contains a new option, Tone Curve.

Gradient Filter, Radial Filter, and Filter Brush tools

These sections now contains new settings: White Balance, White Point, Black Point, Vibrance, Polarization, Tone Curve, Color Correction, Split Toning, and Noise Reduction.

Settings Groups

Before the update, the header for each settings group contained four buttons. Now there is a fifth button, , which shows a menu with new options. The options vary depending on whether you are currently working with a RAW file in Develop or not.

If there is a RAW open here, the menu contains these items:

• Paste Adjustments from Previous File
• Apply Adjustments to Following Files
• Apply Adjustments to All Files
• Set Adjustments as Default for <camera model>
• Restore Default Adjustments
• Manage Default Adjustments…
• Reset Adjustments
• Expand All
• Collapse All
• Reorder Groups

If there is not a RAW open here, the menu contains these items:

• Paste Adjustments from Previous File
• Apply Adjustments to Following Files
• Apply Adjustments to All Files
• Expand All
• Collapse All
• Reorder Groups

Top Menu – Edit

The Edit menu contains several new items: Reset Adjustments, Manage Default Adjustments, and Set Newest Processing Version. Use the Manage Default Adjustments option when you want to set different default (starting) adjustments for RAW file from different camera models.

Preferences window

Appearance section

Two options have been removed: Thumbnail Background Color and Icon Size. 

RAW Format section

A new option has been added, Manage Default Adjustments.

Integration Section

The Check for Updates on System Startup option has been removed. The installer checks for updates independently of ZPS X.

Video

Export

The Export button has been renamed to Export Project.

Keyframes

Hold down the Ctrl key and click points in the keyframe editor to select multiple points and then move them at the same time.

You can also now use keyframes to control the video playback speed.

Thumbnails

If you add a file to a project and then adjust it on disk in some other way, the change will also be reflected in the file’s thumbnail in the project. Previously the file’s thumbnail was not updated.

Print

Export

The Export button has been renamed to Export to Bitmap.

Thumbnails

If you add a file to a project and then adjust it on disk in some other way, the change will also be reflected in the file’s thumbnail in the project. Previously the file’s thumbnail was not updated.

Filmstrip

Filmstrip Display

After this update, if the Filmstrip is closed, it is now also displayed when you run the mouse over the bottom edge of the program window. Before the update, this Filmstrip and side-panel behavior was only active when full-screen display was active.

 

Spring 2023 Update (build 440)

Video

Keyframe Editing
You can newly use keyframes on a clip’s timeline to set a gradual change over time for a given setting. This feature’s controls are located in three places:

1. A new Show Keyframes icon appears in the menu on the left.
2. A “dot” icon appears in the right panel next to every setting for which keyframe editing is available.
3. In the timeline, under each clip and for every edited setting, a keyframe editor is displayed if the showing of keyframes has been turned on using the icon from point 1.

Right toolbar
The addition of keyframes has brought new elements and a reorganization here.

Before the update, there were and icons at the top of the right-hand panel; they were used for adding text and transitions to the timeline. All the various tools for editing a selected clip were under these icons in a single column.

Now multiple icons appear at the top of the right panel; which ones appear changes depending on what kind of clip is currently selected:

| – no clip has been selected.

 | – an image clip has been selected.

  | – a video clip has been selected.

| – a text clip has been selected.

 | – an audio clip has been selected.

 | – a transition has been selected.

tab Position and Transformation
A new Position and Transformation tab has been added; it contains several new functions: Scale X and Y, Position X and Y, Rotation, Pitch, Yaw, and Anchor Point X and Y. Also added here is a Crop section, which contains new functions for various cropping types: Top, Right, Bottom, Left, and Crop after Transformation. Another section has been added as well: Primary Transformations. It lets you set a Fill Type (Zoom to Fit, Fill, Stretch, or Original Size), and several icons have been moved to here: Rotate 180°, Flip Horizontally, and Flip Vertically.

There’s also an Effects section here—the new home for the Pan&Zoom options.

Icons under Video Previews
There is a new Link icon on the left; it becomes active when multiple clips are selected on the timeline. Use it to link the selected clips together. When clips are linked, selecting one of the linked clips also selects the other clips in the group.

There is also a new Fast Preview icon on the right; use it to set whether a full quality video preview is shown, or a preloaded fast preview at lower quality is shown instead.

Interactive Thumbnails
If a folder containing videos has been indexed in the ZPS Catalog, the videos in that folder will have interactive thumbnails. Run the mouse over a video’s thumbnail from left to right to see stills (a total of 360 per video) for the different spots in it.

Selecting Transitions
In the past it was not possible to select multiple transitions on a timeline. Now you can do so—by holding down Ctrl and clicking them.

Develop

Gradient Filters and Radial Filters
These two functions now each contain a Rotation filter, which can be used to fine-tune the function’s rotation on a specific mask.

Radial Filter
Before the update, clicking somewhere in the picture created a new mask. By pressing Ctrl while clicking, the current mask changed its position. After the update, this behaviour is switched: clicking somewhere in the picture changes the position of the current mask and pressing Ctrl while clicking creates a new mask.

Camera and Lens
Before the update, lens profiles were only accessible after downloading and installing Adobe DNG Converter. A profile database is now built directly into each installation of ZPS X, and therefore for many lenses there is no need to use profiles from Adobe.

Preferences

Catalog Section
Several options – Picture indexing mode, Video indexing mode, Preload previews for offline use, Download online files from OneDrive, and Automatic Reindexing Mode – are only available after clicking the Settings button in the row for a given cataloged folder.

Thumbnails Section
Two new options are newly available in the Thumbnail Icons section – Pin File and Rotation.

General Section
Before the update, rolling the mouse wheel always changed settings; this could not be turned off. Now this behavior is turned off by default and can be turned on using the Use mouse wheel for changing values in controls option.

Manager

Work with Multi-page Files
An option for creating PDFs in a square format has been added.

Renamed Feature
The Image Information [Ctrl+Shift+Enter] feature available under Information has been renamed to File Information.

Browser’s Context Menu
Right-clicking a folder in the Browser shows a context menu—and this menu now has a new option: Include Parent Keywords When Assigning Keywords.

Preview Options
In Preview mode, the Preview Options now include a new option: After changing a rating or label, advance to the next one.

General

Zonerama
Zonerama’s web interface newly lets you enable your clients, etc. to highlight the photos in an album they are interested in. To turn on this option, open an album, click on Sharing Options and then on the option for client selection.

Using Two Monitors
This feature behaves completely differently since the update. Before the update, the arrangement of windows onto the two monitors could not be changed. Now windows can be moved over freely.

Information Display Settings
In connection with the change to the two-monitors feature, some options have been added to the Configuration section of the Information Display Settings window: Manager – Second Preview for One Picture, Manager – Second Preview for Multiple Pictures, Develop – Second Preview for One Picture, and Develop – Second Preview for Multiple Pictures.

Tabs
Before the update, the order of the tabs at the top of the program window could not be changed. Now you can click and drag them to rearrange them.

 

Autumn 2022 Update (build 402)

Native RAW Support
Support was added for the following camera models:

Canon EOS R3
Canon EOS R5
Canon EOS R5 C
Canon EOS R6
Canon EOS R
Canon EOS Rp
Canon EOS M50
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Canon EOS 5D Mark II (+sRAW1, +sRAW2)
Canon EOS 6D Mark II
Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Canon EOS 80D
Fujifilm X100F
Fujifilm X-E4
Fujifilm X-T2
Fujifilm X-T3
Fujifilm X-T4
Nikon Z9
Nikon Z7
Nikon Z7 II
Nikon Z6
Nikon Z6 II
Nikon Z5
Nikon Z50
Nikon D7500
Nikon D5100
Nikon D5
Nikon D500
Nikon D750
Nikon D780
Nikon 850
Olympus E-M1X
Panasonic Lumix DC-S1
Panasonic Lumix DC-S1R
Panasonic Lumix DC-S1H
Panasonic Lumix DC-S5
Panasonic DMC-GH5 II
Panasonic DMC-GH5S
Panasonic DMC-GH6
Sony A1 (ILCE-1)
Sony Alpha A9 (ILCE-9)
Sony Alpha A9 II (ILCE-9M2)
Sony Alpha A7 (ILCE-7)
Sony Alpha A7 II (ILCE-7M2)
Sony Alpha A7 III (ILCE-7M3)
Sony Alpha a7 IV (ILCE-7M4)
Sony Alpha A7R II (ILCE-7RM2)
Sony Alpha A7R III (ILCE-7RM3)
Sony Alpha A7R IIIA (ILCE-7RM3A)
Sony Alpha a7R IV (ILCE-7RM4)
Sony Alpha a7R IVA (ILCE-7RM4A)
Sony Alpha A7S (ILCE-7S)
Sony Alpha A7S II (ILCE-7SM2)
Sony Alpha A7S III (ILCE-7SM3)
Sony Alpha A7c (ILCE-7CL)
Sony Alpha A6300 (ILCE-6300)
Sony Alpha A6400 (ILCE-6400)
Sony Alpha A6600 (ILCE-6600)

The View | Preferences | RAW Format | RAW-loading mode to use for unadjusted RAW files control now has a new option: Automatic.
Native Support for RAW Formats in ZPS X

Buttons on the Manager module’s top toolbar
Before this update, the top toolbar contained two options: “Browser” and “Preview.” The “Browser” option could be expanded to show the Manager’s other viewing modes (Browser; Map; Compare; Two Browsers Side by Side; and Two Browsers, Stacked). The browsing modes are now expanded next to each other on the top bar: Map, Browser, Preview, and Full View. To the right of these are buttons for the Browser’s display modes: One Browser; Two Browsers, Stacked; Two Browsers Side by Side.
The Compare mode has been removed.
A new Full View mode has been added.
Full View: More Space for Working with Your Photos

Buttons on the Develop module’s top toolbar
Before this update, the top toolbar contained two options: “Browser” and “Preview.” Clicking “Browser” or any of the modes after clicking the option switched you out into the Manager module. Now the modes are expanded side-by-side. Clicking the Browser no longer switches you into the Manager module; you remain in the Develop module.
Browser Mode in Develop

Buttons on the Editor module’s top toolbar
Before this update, the top toolbar contained two options, “Browser” and “Preview.” Clicking “Browser” or any of the modes after clicking the option switched you out into the Manager module. Now none of these options are available in the Editor.

Compare Images
This function has been completely removed from the program. It is no longer available as a mode in the Manager, nor can it be found in the Preferences window. But pictures can still be compared in ZPS – use the Preview function for this.

Full View
This newly-added function is available as a mode in the Manager and Develop modules. See here for more information.
Full View: More Space for Working with Your Photos

Metadata Tokens
Most of the controls for “variable text” have seen deep changes to how they look and work: they now use “metadata tokens” instead. Thus at present, the program uses variable text in some places, and metadata tokens in others. See here for more information.
Metadata Tokens

System icon
In the spring 2022 update (build 371), the View | Preferences | Thumbnails window lost the Show icons for pictures’ Default Programs in their thumbnails option, and it was no longer possible to show these icons in the program. The autumn update has restored this function. It is now located in View | Preferences | Thumbnails, under a new name: System Icon.

Folder Display and Sorting
New options controlling how folders are sorted have been added to the Display and Sorting window. Before the update, only file sorting was available. Also, you can now have different file sorting options for every folder. See here for more information.
Customized Folder Settings

Changes to How Files in Projects Are Replaced
If you have created a project in the Print or Video module and in the meantime some of its files have been moved to a new location, the program alerts you to this.

Drawing Circles and Squares in the Editor
The Editor’s object placement tools now offer one-click placement of a geometrically precise circle or square. For more information, click here.

Automatic Photo Rotation
Vertically-shot photos are now automatically displayed vertically in Print Photos projects within the Print module.

Picture Cropping
Print Photos and Contact Sheets projects in the Print module now provide a small toolbar at the top left for changing how a picture in the project is cropped.

Filmstrip Scrolling
Before this update, items in the Filmstrip could only be scrolled horizontally. Now a vertical scrollbar can be shown in the Filmstrip, using an option in the Display and Sorting window.

The Display and Sorting Window
Some of the functions in this window now differ depending on whether you have entered it from the Browser or from Preview mode. This is true in both the Manager and the Develop module. In Preview mode, this window now offers functions for the Filmstrip.