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BWStyler Changelog

What's new in BWStyler 2.11b

Nov 16, 2018
  • Affinity Photo:
  • Fixed control repositioning in Affinity Photo 1.6.4 when maximizing the window
  • Color dialogs are now displayed in Affinity Photo.
  • Bug Fix: The Preview check box on the Color dialog is not cut off anymore for hidpi settings
  • Standalone:
  • Support for the raw files of 35 new cameras based on MetaRaw 3.03.
  • Support for saving grayscale 8-bit images as PSD files
  • No more crash when reading the EXIF data from DNG files taken by the Huawei P20 (Pro).
  • Plugin Installer:
  • Works again under Windows XP
  • Support for the Microsoft Store version of Photoshop Elements 15

New in BWStyler 2.11 (Apr 24, 2018)

  • All tools can now be used if the preview zoom is 200% or higher
  • Bug Fix: The preview coordinates on the Info tab sheet are displayed correctly if the preview zoom is 200% or higher
  • Plugin:
  • You can now render the mask view (M buttons on the Mask tab sheet) to the image by pressing the OK button. Previously the mask view was automatically deactivated when clicking the OK button.
  • Bug Fix: No more error message and vanished controls when running the plugin with previously maximized window and brush or eraser tool selected
  • Plugin Installer: Supports the Microsoft Store version of Photoshop Elements 2018
  • Standalone:
  • Support for the raw files of 70 new cameras based on MetaRaw 3.01.
  • Bug Fix: Saving PNG files works again
  • Brush Mask: New "Open Bush Mask" and "Save Brush Mask" menu items on the Mask > Brush tab sheet for opening and saving a brush mask as JPEG, TIFF, PNG and PSD files.
  • Bug Fix: When drawing with the brush and closing the image, the brush mask of the previous image is not distorted and no crash happens anymore.
  • Bug Fix: When closing a second image with a brush mask, there is no more crash or error message on exit.
  • Bug Fix: Previously the brush mask of the first image was erased when opening a second image.
  • Bug Fix: When reopening raw files at full size, the brush mask is now automatically resized.
  • Installation: Bug Fix: The External Editor Installer previously crashed on some systems. This should not happen anymore.

New in BWStyler 2.10c (Oct 24, 2017)

  • Scrolling the preview with a maximized window on a 4K screen now works fluently. It also works faster on Full HD screens.
  • Plugin:
  • Affinity Photo Fixes: Bug Fix: No more crash when applying the plugin a second time to a 16-bit/channel image.
  • Bug Fix: When opening the maximized plugin window for the second time, the controls do not vanish anymore.
  • Plugin Installer:
  • Support for Paint Shop Pro 2018
  • Support for Corel Draw & Photo-Paint 2017
  • Fixed support for Corel Draw & Photo-Paint X5 and older
  • The Add Folder button now asks if you want to install the 64-bit versions of the plugins in the new folder. Previously the 32-bit plugins were automatically installed in the new folder.
  • Standalone:
  • Support for the raw files of 200 new cameras based on MetaRaw 2.54.
  • Support for the 16-bit PSD files created by ON1 Photo Raw, ON1 Photo 10 and OnOne Perfect PhotoSuite 9. Previously these files were displayed distorted. Now you can pass images from ON1 to the standalone as 16-bit per channel PSD files.
  • Bug Fix: The standalones do not produce TIFF files with empty IPTC meta data anymore, which are not supported by Lightroom.
  • The manual now includes instructions on using it in ACDSee, AfterShot Pro, Capture One, DxO Optics, Exposure, ON1 Photo RAW and Raw Therapee.
  • External Editor Installer: Support for Exposure X3

New in BWStyler 2.10 (Sep 6, 2017)

  • "The Plugin Site" sub menu does not appear at the top of the Filter menu anymore, because the leading space character was removed.
  • Bug Fix: No more error message or crash when running the plugin on images larger than 2 GB, but it is not possible to process such large images by clicking OK.
  • Standalone/Lightroom Version:
  • Bug Fix: The automatic image rotation previously produced strange results for 180 degree rotated JPEG, TIFF and PSD images.
  • Bug Fix: The EXIF orientation item was previously not adjusted when saving JPEG files, which resulted in wrong rotation when opening the saved file again.

New in BWStyler 2.09 (May 18, 2016)

  • Support for HiDPI
  • The skins now use appropriate font and control sizes for high dpi settings.
  • The Standalone/Lightroom versions do not show a scaled up UI by default anymore.
  • The UI-Scaling-Preview-Cutoff problem in Photoshop CC 2014/2015 and Photoshop Elements 13/14 was fixed. However, the Soft Proof effect is not visible in the preview anymore if UI Scaling is active.
  • The preset thumbnail are bigger for high dpi settings, which means that they need more time to be rendered.
  • The histograms and curves are displayed larger.
  • The positions of some control were readjusted for high dpi settings.
  • Larger cursors and program icon
  • Bug Fix: With activated skin the controls were previously jumbled up when clicking above the first slider in Quick Edit Mode.
  • Bug Fix: Dragging one of the curve control points outside the diagram does not change the first control point anymore.
  • Standalone Bug Fix: When saving to a path, which contained a dot character, and the entered file name contained no extension, the file was previously saved to the wrong folder with a wrong file name.
  • Standalone Bug Fix: Previously a crash occurred when choosing "Fit" from the zoom combo box after opening an image for the first time.
  • Improved installation:
  • Three less clicks are necessary, because the language, start menu and ready pages are not displayed anymore.
  • There are no separate Start menu folders and desktop icons added for different versions anymore. So better uninstall previous and demo versions before installing new/full versions.
  • Under Windows 8 & 10 there are even less icons with better names installed on the All Apps section of the Start menu to avoid clutter.
  • Please uninstall from the Control Panel as the uninstall icon is not added to the Start menu anymore.
  • Plugin Installer supports HiDPI

New in BWStyler 2.08 (May 18, 2016)

  • Support for processing images larger than 30,000 pixels in witdh or height. Processing such big images usually only works with the 64-bit version and enough RAM.
  • Support for Paint Shop Pro 6 and earlier was restored
  • The Fit zoom option now uses zoom levels below 6% in order to fit very big images into the preview.
  • The hue values of the Red and Green presets of the BWFilter group were slightly changed to produce more than 20,000 (instead of 255) greyscale levels for 8-to-16-bit converted images.
  • The installation files, Standalone/Lightroom executables and Plugin Installer are now signed to avoid potential problems with security software.
  • The installation offers 46 instead of 21 languages.
  • Plugin Installer now supports the 64-bit version of Photoshop Elements 13 and displays "Photoshop CC 2014" instead of "Photoshop CC2".
  • Bug Fix: When clicking the Reset button the sliders at FX1 > Convert > BW update correctly.
  • Bug Fix: When switching from Advanced+ Mode to Quick Edit Mode with activated B&W effect, the top three sliders were positioned incorrectly.
  • Plugin Bug Fix: When using the Enter key instead of clicking the OK button, the settings were not saved.
  • Plugin Bug Fix: Canceling the plugin after clicking OK, previously sometimes caused a freeze if multiple cores were used for rendering.
  • Plugin Bug Fix: The scriptstring buffer is freed on exit.
  • Standalone Bug Fix: 8-bit TIFF files with a transparency channel can be opened now. The transparency infomation is ignored.
  • Standalone Bug Fix: Resizing the window with displayed Images tab caused preview to scale below the Images tab.
  • Standalone Bug Fix: When opening an image via command line does not work, that image does not appear on the Files tab anymore and the next command line image is automatically opened.
  • Standalone Bug Fix: The big icon with the product initials is now displayed in the task bar.

New in BWStyler 2.0b (May 18, 2016)

  • Scroll through all preset thumbnails with the cursor left/right keys.
  • Plugin Installer now supports Paint Shop Pro X6 64-bit.
  • Bug Fix: The Brush and Mask controls do not vanish anymore when displaying them in Advanced+ Mode.
  • Bug Fix: The controls vanished previously when starting up with a maximized window and the brush tool selected.
  • Bug Fix: No more empty space at the right hand-side of the thumbnails when "Show All" is not selected at startup.
  • Bug Fix: German localization previously produced error message in 64-bit plugin and standalone
  • Bug Fix: Fixed preset name problems in German localization
  • Bug Fix: Previously when using the Cursor Left/Right keys for collapsing a preset group, it was not possible to continue with the cursor keys.

New in BWStyler 2.0 (May 18, 2016)

  • Seven new effects and more than 60 new effect options
  • A total of 680 presets, 470 of them are new. Many old presets were improved.
  • The presets can be viewed as image or icon thumbnails.
  • Improved simulation of film types, film grain, polarizer lens, ND grad lens, development strategies, paper, color toning, vignetting and framing.
  • Enhanced masking options and new masking brush
  • Support for smart filtering and action recording
  • Runs up to four times faster by fully supporting multiple cores and hyperthreading.
  • New 64-bit Standalone/Lightroom version
  • Many UI enhancements
  • New Skin feature that imitates the user interface of Lightroom, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and PaintShop Pro.
  • New one-step Undo/Redo feature as arrows near the Mode combo box. Using the Ctrl+Z and Crl+Y key shortcuts is also possible.
  • Three Preview tab buttons for simultanously working on three different effect settings.
  • Up to 3200% zoom and navigator tool
  • New menu bar in the top left corner.
  • Support for preset files from BWStyler 1. In some cases the effect will be similar, but not 100% identical.
  • New Effects & Improvements:
  • New Average method for B&W conversion
  • New Polarizer effect, which also includes the old Color Contrast slider.
  • New Dynamic contrast effect for bringing out small image details
  • New Tonal Look effect for simulating the look of famous photographers
  • New Aging effect for adding dust, vapur, spots, stains and drops to the image.
  • New ND-Grad effect with Shadows/Highlight sliders.
  • New Colorkey effect for bringing back up to seven colors at the same time.
  • New cross tool for setting the center of various masks and gradient-based effects, e.g. the vignette effect.
  • Gray image areas can be selectively adjusted on the Select tab sheet. There are also general Intensity and Tolerance sliders for all selective adjustments.
  • New curve tools on the Main tab sheet offer possibilities for brightness, contrast and color adjustments.
  • The Diffusion and Glow effects can be applied at the same time. Both have new options for more flexibility.
  • Color, brightness, saturation and gradient masks can now be used at the same time.
  • New Shape slider for the Vignette effect, which produces rounded rectangles.
  • The look of the Grain effect was improved.
  • New Highlights protection slider for the Paper effect
  • The Frame effect was enhanced with a new edge shaping feature.
  • New Fade sliders for adjusting the overall effect
  • UI Changes:
  • The 15 simple modes were combined into one Easy Mode.
  • New Advanced+ Mode that allows switching between all effects with a combo box.
  • The old B/W Quick Mode was renamed to Quick Edit Mode and additionally offers selective Contrast and Colorkey effects.
  • The Channel Mixer conversion method was removed. You can achieve very similar results by using the Color Filter method.
  • The old Colorize > Standard/Enhanced effects can be reproduced with the new Color or RGB curves.
  • The old Colorize > Partial Toning effect is now located as a Partial check box near the Color curve.
  • The old Colorize > Split Toning effect can be reproduced with the Bicolor curve.
  • The Impact slider was renamed to Tolerance.
  • The Mist effects were renamed to Glow.
  • The old Prefs > On Reset options are now located on the Reset arrow menu in the top right corner.
  • The bottom tab control can be moved to the top and back by clicking the arrow icon.
  • Larger histogram display with new No Gaps option.
  • New option for changing the preview background color.
  • Standalone/Lightroom Version:
  • 64-bit version which runs up to 30% faster and can use more RAM. Only the 32-bit or the 64-bit Standalone/Lightroom executables are installed depending on your system.
  • Recent Files sub menu was added
  • Support for newer raw files

New in BWStyler 1.06b (May 18, 2016)

  • Support for newer camera raw formats
  • Support for external editing in ACDSee. The installer automatically adds it to the External Editors menu of ACDSee and ACDSee Pro.
  • No preview flicker when switching between images
  • The Colors histogram is better visible on a white tab sheet background.
  • The Prefs > Histo Zoom check box zooms 1.5 times stronger
  • The Reset button now activates the Preview check box.
  • Bug Fix: Entering a minus sign in a slider edit box does not changes the zoom anymore.
  • Bug Fix: Resizing the window with displayed Images tab caused preview to scale below the Images tab.
  • Bug Fix: The ND combo items in Photography Mode were truncated
  • Bug Fix: The split view items were renamed to correctly indicate the position of the actual effect
  • Bug Fix: No control mess up anymore when starting up in Photography Mode or Quick Mode.

New in BWStyler 1.06 (May 18, 2016)

  • Plugin improvements:
  • Avoids artifacts when processing 16-bit/channel images in PSP X3 SP3.
  • The plugin now appear on "The Plugin Site" sub menu of the Filters menu (and not on the "PhotoWiz" sub menu anymore).
  • The window cannot be made smaller than 800x600 pixel.
  • No more black check box backgrounds in PSP X2 and X3.
  • Standalone improvements:
  • Support for newer camera raw formats
  • Opening a logged preset with "Logged Settings" works now.
  • The Log Settings function is performed after each image saving. Previously it happened on exit.
  • Batch processing does start anymore in the case of an nonexistent output folder.
  • Wrong error message texts were displayed on some occasions.
  • UI improvements:
  • Shift clicking on a tab button resets all control of the tab sheet to default values.
  • New standard tab controls instead of custom ones
  • New standard title bar instead of a graphical one. The last opened is displayed in the title bar.
  • The window width was reduced by a few pixels.
  • Smoother and faster window resizing
  • The position of the + and - zoom buttons were swapped to be conform with Photoshop.
  • New Fit and 100% zoom buttons
  • Press and hold flick under Vista/7 is deactivated
  • The arrow menus are now positioned correctly under Vista/7
  • Selected color boxes have a better visible frame
  • The Instant Slider check box is deactivated by default again.
  • When typing in the edit box of a slider the preview is updated after half a second.
  • Double clicking a slider label only updates the preview if the slider value was changed. Additionally the focus is set to the slider.
  • New label on Info tab sheet which displays image size and bit depth.
  • Help texts are now displayed when moving the mouse over labels and edit boxes of slider controls.
  • Improved visual color box selection in Expert Mode > Selective > Expert.
  • New image for the arrow down buttons.
  • The number of CPUs was added to the "Multi-CPU Off" check box on the Prefs Tab sheet.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • The settings were previously saved when canceling the plugin without changing the Prefs controls.
  • Pressing the ESC key sometimes caused the plugin to not update the preview anymore.
  • Double clicking the appropriate slider label now resets the color of the color box.
  • Double clicking the slider label while the edit box was in focus did not update the edit box value.
  • No progress bar flashing anymore.
  • Zero division error when Amount slider of Lab > Posterization effect was set to zero
  • Zero division error when Intensity slider of Grain effect was set to zero
  • German locale: Deactivating the Kontrast check box displayed "H-Kontrast" instead of "L-Kontrast".
  • Installation:
  • One installation for the 32-bit and 64-bit plugins.
  • Plugin Installer now detects PSP X2 Ultimate, XnView, FixFoto, Imagelys Picture Styles as well as Photoline 32-bit on a 64-bit system.
  • The installation now creates a new folder, start menu group (and desktop icon) for each new version. This makes it easier to have multiple versions installed and allows you to remove older versions without problems after installing a newer one. Please manually remove older versions from the Start > All Programs > The Plugin Site menu.
  • The installation now supports 8 more languages and a total of 46 languages.

New in BWStyler 1.05 (Sep 30, 2010)

  • Standalone and Lightroom versions of B/W Styler are now available. Both can open multiple images and support images with 8-bit and 16-bit/channel.
  • The Lightroom version can be used as an external editor in Adobe Lightroom 1, 2 and 3.
  • The Standalone version is a program that runs on its own. It offers a batch processing feature and opens the following image formats: Camera RAW (including DNG), JPEG, TIFF, PSD, PNG, BMP, TGA, PCD, PCX, WMF. It can save JPEG, TIFF, PSD and PNG files.
  • Selections are shown in the preview. This means that the effect is not applied to pixels outside the selection in the preview.
  • The split view line and focus point can be moved smoother and faster over the preview.
  • Please move your self-saved presets to the Presets sub folder at the following location to make them appear on the arrow-down menu:
  • 2000/XP: c:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\ThePluginSite\BWStyler\
  • Vista/7: c:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\ThePluginSite\BWStyler\
  • To avoids write permission conflicts the .ini, preset and log files are now saved in this folder.
  • To unify the UI of all PhotoWiz plugins the following changes were made:
  • A new tool bar above the preview for choosing the following tools: hand, eyedropper and split view.
  • New maximize and exit buttons on the title bar. When maximizing the window the task bar is respected. When clicking the maximize button again the normal window size correctly is restored. Double clicking the title bar logo does not maximize the window anymore.
  • The Instant Preview check box is now activated by default. No cursor flicker anymore when moving sliders with Instant Preview activated.
  • New key shortcuts: H/Space for the hand tool, I for the eyedropper and S for the split view tool, + and - for zooming, R for reset. If the input focus is on an edit or combo box, you need to additionally hold down the Alt key to make the shortcut work.
  • The key shortcuts now also work all the time and not only if the mouse is positioned over of the preview.
  • Double clicking the label of a slider resets it to its default value.
  • No cursor flicker anymore when moving sliders with Instant Preview activated.
  • The Reset button now deactivates the Show Blown Highlights check box.
  • On the Info tab sheet only 8-bit pixel values are shown (even for 16-bit images).
  • Under Vista and 7 the height of the sliders is slightly larger to avoid cutting off the arrows buttons.
  • A size grip was added in the bottom right corner.
  • The "Auto Preview" check box was renamed to "Preview".
  • The "Multiple" check box was renamed to "Multi"
  • "Deactivate Multiprocessor Support" was renamed to "Multi-CPU Off".
  • If you change something on the Prefs tab sheet and press Cancel, all settings are saved. Previously you needed to press OK to save changes on the Prefs tab sheet, which meant that you would need to apply the effect to the image even if you did not want that.
  • The preset icons are displayed faster.
  • The rendering time is measured more accurately.
  • Bug Fix: A scroll bar was added to the Film combo box in Photography Mode
  • Bug Fix: Several sliders are not colorized anymore when visual styles are active
  • Bug Fix: Deinstalling the demo version after the full version was already installed, causes no problems for the full version anymore.
  • Bug Fix: When the Histo tab sheet was displayed, the preset icons vanished after resizing the window
  • Bug Fix: Preset icons are now redrawn after a file dialog was displayed
  • All files are now installed in the "The Plugin Site" sub folder of the Program Files folder by default. Additionally "The Plugin Site" sub menu of the Start menu is now used for installation items.
  • Support for silent installation: If you run the installer with the /silent or /verysilent command line parameter, the installation will run automatically and require no click. Plugin Installer will then automatically install the plugin in every supported application that it can find.
  • Plugin Installer supports more applications, e.g. Sagelight and Fireworks CS2 to CS5, and displays less options during installation.

New in BWStyler 1.03 (Jan 29, 2010)

  • A 64bit version of B/W Styler is available. It can be used with the 64bit version of Photoshop CS4.
  • The plugin file size was reduced to 50% of the previous version.
  • The installer now supports a total of 38 languages. Plugin Installer supports Photoshop Elements 8, localized versions of Photoshop CS2 and CS3 and several new applications.
  • The demo version renders less opaque watermarks faster to the image.