StarStaX

StarStaX is a straightforward piece of software that allows you to blend two images with the same pixel configuration into a single picture.

Its main purpose is to help you merge a series of photos containing stars for creating consecutive images which look like star trails but you can also use the tool for general editing operations.

Since this is a portable program, it is important to mention that it doesn’t leave any traces in the Windows Registry.

You can copy it on any USB flash drive or other devices, and take it with you whenever you need to blend photos on the breeze, without having to go through installation steps.

StarStaX boasts a straightforward interface that allows you to upload images into the working environment using “drag and drop” operations or the built-in browse function.

The tool works with the following file formats: JPG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF. What’s more, you are allowed to switch to a full screen mode for a better focus on your work, preview the images, zoom in or out, and automatically remove the dark frames from images taken with a closed shutter.

StarStaX features several blending modes (e.g. lighten, darken, multiply, subtract, gap filling) and gives you the possibility to save the picture to the same file formats as the input ones. The gap filling mode lets you eliminate small gaps in start trails.

You can make the utility save the images after each frame is processed in order to create a video by providing details about the name, output format, and saving directory.

During our testing we have noticed that StarStaX carries out a task quickly, provides very good output results, and no errors showed up throughout the entire process. It doesn’t eat up a lot of CPU and memory, so the overall performance of the computer is not affected.

StarStaX proves to be a reliable application that bundles a handy set of parameters for helping you blend images. Although the layout is not quite intuitive, you can rely on the tootips and help menu for detailed information about each feature.