Zoner Photo Studio

Zoner Photo Studio

Zoner Photo Studio 12 screenshot
Developer(s) Zoner Software
Stable release 17 / 26 September 2014[1]
Operating system Windows[2]
Platform Intel Pentium (32-bit / 64-bit)
Available in English, German, Czech, Slovak (older versions were available in more languages)[2]
Type Image organizer
License Proprietary
Free edition: Freeware
Other editions: Shareware
Website www.zoner.com

Zoner Photo Studio is a software application developed by the Czech-founded company Zoner Software. This bitmap editor and image file manager is one of the most widely used programs for editing digital photographs in its country of origin, and is also widely used around the world.[3][4]

This software is currently available only for the Windows operating system.

History

This software line was originally published under the name Zoner Media Explorer. In 2004, it was renamed to Zoner Photo Studio, because the product focus switched to strictly digital photography only. A new version has been published each year during the software’s history.

Key changes brought by recent versions:

Version 12 of Zoner Photo Studio introduced the program’s division into "modules": a Manager, Viewer, Editor, and RAW module, to increase the ease of working with photo management/editing/etc. simultaneously. This was also the first version with a default charcoal gray interface, intended to ease photo viewing. Version 13 brought support for dual monitors and 64-bit versions of Windows. Version 14 brought support for batch upload to the developer’s Zonerama web gallery service and for GPU acceleration via CUDA and OpenCL. Version 15 added the new Import module. Version 16 completed the Editor’s switch to using the Side Panel. Version 17 revamped the RAW module and made the Catalog more central to the Manager.

Interface

This is all-in-one photo software, that is, its has features for all of a photo workflow, rather than e.g. only editing. The interface is divided into what the company calls “modules,” each addressing a certain major task in that workflow, such as viewing, editing, managing, or “importing” (downloading) photos.

Import module—downloading photos onto a computer

The program’s Import module is used for copying or moving photos from a camera, a card, or other external media onto a computer. It offers various automatic actions during download, such as assigning keywords and other metadata.

Manager module—organizing photos

The program’s Manager module is for organizing photos. It can display “metadata,” that is, information about pictures, stored in the Exif, IPTC, and/or XMP standard. This metadata includes titles, descriptions, author info, keywords, audio notes, digital signatures, GPS data, ratings, colored labels, etc. Metadata can also be edited here, or used for filtering. The Manager supports batch work. The program works with image files on disk directly—they are not imported in and later exported out. However, it does have a Catalog database that serves as a “card catalog” for metadata. The Manager has several different views—besides the standard “Browser,” these are “Preview,” “Map,” and “Compare.” Their purposes match their names.

Viewer—full-size picture viewing

The Viewer is for quick full-size picture browsing.

Editor—photo editing

The Editor is used for photo editing. This is a classic bitmap editor, built for retouching purposes only and thus without full layer support (just a temporary layer upon which edits “float” until they are applied). This editor offers selections and a selection mask.

RAW module—RAW file development

The progam’s RAW module enables conversion of RAW-format data into files in standard bitmap formats. The native support does not cover all the newest cameras at any given moment, but can be expanded to support them by integrating a free DNG convertor. Version 17 of the program added support for automatic lens defect corrections during development using LCP profiles.

Photo Studio 15

Zoner Photo Studio was released in October 2012.

Features Added in Version 15

Import Module—photo downloading

The photo-download process was completely redesigned for version 15.

Side Panel introduced

The Side Panel was first added to the Editor in this version, where it already replaced the major editing dialogs (for e.g. colors, brightness, white balance, etc.). Version 15 is thus also when full-screen previewing first replaced small preview panes for most edits. This version saw the addition of “Quick Filters,” designed for quickly applying multiple edits at once to give a certain look (e.g. “Polaroid,” “Cross Process,” “Lomo”).

Automatic Backups of Original Version

Each photo is automatically backed up to a local database the moment a user first edits that photo in the program. The program offers a “Restore Original” function powered by this database. This function is optional, but on by default.

Synchronization

A tool that synchronizes photo collections in multiple locations against each other.

Tilt-shift

This feature works like a Tilt-shift lens, that is, it blurs a picture’s background (with controls for where and how much to blur).

Zonerama

Zonerama is a web gallery service run by the developer of Zoner Photo Studio. Zoner, Inc. provides it for free to both users and non-users of the program. Albums can have configurable privacy, visibility, etc. Version 15 introduced integration between the program and this service, although version 15’s integration is outdated today. This integration includes e.g. editing of Zonerama pictures directly from the program.

Zoner Photo Studio 16[5]

This version was released in October 2013.

Improved touch-controls support

Version 16 improves the program’s usability on tablet PCs and with touch monitors.

Manager

This version saw the Manager’s main area split into several views—the traditional Browser, plus Preview for quick full-size viewing, Map for work with pictures’ GPS coordinates, and Compare for visually comparing photos side-by-side. Version 16 added a miniature map to the Manager’s Side Panel, along with support for drag-and-drop of GPS coordinates.

Editor

This version saw the vertical toolbar brought from the left side to the right side, and absolutely all edits moved to the Side Panel. Editor features added in this version included a “Content-aware Resize” that preserves the size of important content during shrinking.

Photo Studio 17

Zoner Photo Studio 17 was published in September 2014.

Features added in version 17

Import

This version added the ability to assign keywords and rename pictures during import.

Manager

In this version the Manager’s Side Panel was expanded to include a small picture preview. Photo ratings were changed from numbers to stars, and the ability to batch-keyword-tag photos in the Information pane was added. As of this version, the Catalog indexes pictures in the background (i.e. it is non-blocking) and auto-indexes the Windows Pictures library, and the Catalog section holds a more prominent place in the folder list on the left. The Catalog section also contains the controls for the DLNA capabilities added in this version. A tool for finding and deleting duplicate files was added in this version.

RAW

This version saw a full reworking of the RAW module’s interface, with some elements removed and some added; one addition is an Automatic button that auto-suggests settings. The most important newly adjustable development settings here are for histogram curves. As of this version, Manager thumbnails immediately reflect changes in the RAW module. This version also adds support for lens defect correction using LCP profiles during RAW development.

System requirements[6]

References

[3] [4] [7] [8]

References

  1. ↑ "Updates". Zoner.com. Zoner Software.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "System Requirements". Zoner.com. Zoner Software. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Sen o světové IT firmě" (in Czech). Euro. 30 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-27.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Nejlepší program na úpravu fotek" (in Czech). Živě.cz. 12 February 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-27.
  5. ↑ "Photography Blog". Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  6. ↑ "Zoner Photo Studio 17". Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  7. ↑ "Přehled novinek ZPS 15 a trial verze ke stažení" (in Czech).
  8. ↑ "Zoner Photo Studio 15 – snadný import a rychlé úpravy" (in Czech). DigiArena.cz. 9 October 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-27.

External links

    This article uses a translation of Zoner Photo Studio from Czech Wikipedia.