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User Interface


Navigation | The Filter Window | Maintaining Settings | Create Output in a New Layer above Current | Overall Intensity | UpToDate System | Resetting Settings to Factory Default | Keyboard Shortcuts

This section outlines the menus, buttons, settings, and other items in the Exposure user interface.

Navigation

Menus

Command menus are accessible when you launch any filter. Macintosh users will see the menus in place of their usual menu bar. Windows users will see the menus at the top of the filter preview window.

Edit Menu

The Edit menu provides an unlimited number of undoes and redoes. If you experiment with the sliders and find that you prefer a previous group of settings, select the Undo command from the Edit menu, or click +Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows machines) to back up as many times as necessary.

The Edit menu also lets you copy, cut, paste and delete values from parameter fields

Filter Menu

The Filter menu lets you switch between Exposure filters without leaving the user interface. Photoshop users should note that switching filters will make the Actions, History, and Last Filter Used functions behave oddly. These will record the filter initially selected, not the filter applied.

View Menu

The View menu lets you zoom the preview in and out. To display the entire image in the preview window, select Fit On Screen. To display the preview at 100% magnification, select Actual Pixels. See Keyboard Shortcuts for some nifty zooming shortcuts.

Help Menu

The Help menu leads to local documentation and online Web pages. Clicking Help>Filter Help accesses filter-specific documentation. The same assistance can be reached by pressing F1 (Windows) or Help (Macintosh).

To access a Table of Contents for the online Help file, click Help>Contents.

Color Selection Tools

Color Picker

Using the Color Picker, you can select colors based on several color models (RGB, CMYK, etc.). You can also specify colors by hexadecimal values or use Web safe colors. To launch the Color Picker, click the color swatch next to any color control.

If you don’t know how to use a color picker, consult your host program’s documentation.

Color Selector

To the right of the color swatch, you’ll notice a color selection tool, which offers the following options.

Eyedropper: Select the eyedropper to sample a color from anywhere in the preview window.

Foreground or Background Color: Choose either of the two.

Black or White: Choose either of these timeless colors.

Six Previous Colors: You can choose any of the six most recently chosen colors.

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The Filter Window

Title Bar (A): The title bar displays the currently selected filter, in addition to the currently selected setting (see Maintaining Settings, below).

Tabs (B): You can access the advanced controls for each filter by selecting one of the tabs above the settings area. Refer to the filter chapters for detailed control descriptions. You can click the Settings tab to return to the setting lists.

Show Original, Split, Move and Zoom (C): The Show Original, Move (hand), and Zoom (magnifying glass) buttons are found above the preview window.

The Show Original button toggles the preview between filtered and unfiltered versions of your image. Click and hold the button to view the unaffected image. Release the button to preview the effect. The original image is also displayed while the spacebar key is depressed.

Click the hand to enable the Move tool, then click and drag to move around the preview image.

Click the magnifying glass to enable the Zoom tool. Click in the preview window to zoom into your image. Option+click to zoom out (Alt+click for Windows users). Double-clicking the magnifying glass at any time resets the preview window to 100% magnification.

While in zoom mode, holding down the spacebar temporarily switches to the move cursor.

UpToDate Message Indicator (D): When you see this visual cue, you have a new message from Alien Skin Software. See the UpToDate Messages section for more details.

Split Screen Preview (E): Above the preview area is a menu of options for split screen previewing. When enabled, this feature shows the original image in half of the preview. The entries in the Split Screen menu specify the orientation of the split line or simply turn it off.

OK and Cancel Buttons (F): Clicking the OK button applies the filter with the current settings. Clicking Cancel closes the filter window without applying the effect.

Mouseover Help (G): Whenever you move your cursor over a user interface element, a short description appears in the bottom left corner of the window.

Preview Area (H): Preview the effect on your image here. Resize the filter window to make the preview area larger or smaller.

Navigation Thumbnail (I): Click and drag the movable red box to move the preview to any spot in the selected layer.

Progress Bar (J): The rectangle to the left of the magnification indicator displays the percentage of rendering completed.

Magnification Indicator (K): The current level of magnification is shown to the right of the render status bar at the lower right corner of the filter window.

Factory Settings (L): The settings that are included with the product are displayed in the factory settings list. Click on any of these settings to try them on your image.

User Settings (M): The user settings list contains settings that you create. See Maintaining Settings, below.

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Maintaining Settings

A setting is a snapshot of all of a filter’s controls. When you apply a setting, all of the controls on the filter are reset to their remembered values.

The Settings tab in each filter window lets you create, manage, and share your favorite settings.

There are two lists on the Settings tab. The top list contains factory settings. Factory settings are supplied with the product and can’t be changed. The bottom list contains user settings, which are settings you can create yourself.

Each settings list contains two types of item. A folder icon ( ) identifies a category. A category contains one or more settings. To open a category, click the disclosure indicator next to the folder icon. This will reveal all of the settings in that category. A setting item ( ) indicates a setting.

To apply a setting, simply click the desired setting.

Saving Settings

To save a setting, first adjust the sliders and other filter controls to your satisfaction. Then, click the save button at the bottom of the Settings tab. You can also save a setting by pressing +S (Macintosh) or Ctrl+S (Windows). The Save Setting dialog box will appear.


In the Setting Name box, type a name for your new setting.

The Category radio button allows you to specify a category for your new setting. If you don’t want a category, choose the None button. If you want to use an existing category, choose the Existing button and then select the category in the list to the right. If you want to create a new category, choose the New button and type the name of the new category in the box to the right.

Settings are always saved in the User Settings list.

Renaming User Settings

To rename a setting:
1. Right click (Ctrl+Click for Mac users) the setting you want to rename.
2. Choose Rename or Change Category
3. Type a new name for the setting in the Setting Name box.
4. Press OK.

Changing the Category of a User Setting

To move a setting to another category, or to remove its category completely:
1. Right click (Ctrl+Click for Mac users) the setting whose category you want to change.
2. Choose Rename or Change Category
3. Choose the appropriate category option.
4. Press OK.

Deleting a User Setting

To delete a setting:
1. Right click (Ctrl+Click for Mac users) the setting whose category you want to change.
2. Choose Delete.
3. Click Yes to confirm the deletion.

E-Mailing a User Setting

When you e-mail a setting, Exposure packages the recipe in a tiny file and attaches it to an e-mail message that you can send to a friend. The E-Mail function only works with Microsoft Outlook on the Windows platform and with Apple Mail on the Macintosh platform.

To e-mail a setting:
1. Right click (Ctrl+Click for Mac users) the setting you want to e-mail.
2. Choose Send By E-Mail
3. Type the recipient in the mail window which appears.
4. Press Send.

Exporting a User Setting

When you export a setting, Exposure saves the setting to a folder you specify. You can use the export feature to back up settings that you cannot live without or to share settings with a friend.

To export a setting:
1. Right click (Ctrl+Click for Mac users) the setting you want to export.
2. Choose Export
3. Navigate to the location where you want to store the settings file.
4. Click OK.

Importing Settings

Importing a setting into Exposure is as easy as locating it in your OS file view and double clicking it. You can also download settings directly from the web. We occasionally post new settings on our forum at www.alienskin.com/forum.

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Create Output in a New Layer above Current

Applying a filter with this option enabled renders your image in a new layer above the working layer (in Photoshop and Elements only). This checkbox is located on the Color tab for both the Color Film and Black and White Film filters. Note that switching filters within Exposure disables the output in new layer feature. If you want to apply a filter in a new layer, make sure you start with the filter you plan to apply.

Also, Create Output In New Layer Above Current is not compatible with Photoshop actions. Please clear this checkbox when recording an action.

In addition, the new layer feature is not compatible with Photoshop CS3’s Smart Filters feature. Please clear this checkbox when using Exposure as a Smart Filter.

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Overall Intensity

This slider appears below the New Layer checkbox. Any value less than 100 reduces the effect of the filter. This feature essentially mixes the filtered image with the original image. Overall Intensity provides an easy way to tone down an effect without having to touch a bunch of sliders. Be warned, however, that if Overall Intensity is left at a low value, you may wonder why Exposure isn’t doing much to your images. We recommend you leave this slider at 100% most of the time.

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UpToDate System

The UpToDate messaging system informs you about the latest Alien Skin Software products, special offers, software updates and other news. When messages are waiting, an unobtrusive visual cue announces, Click here for new messages from Alien Skin. Click this link to read your new messages.

Receiving messages is optional. See the Preferences section for information on disabling UpToDate.

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Resetting Settings to Factory Default

Every filter has a Neutral setting. Clicking this setting resets the current filter parameters. You can also press the F5 key (Windows) or +R (Macintosh) to reset the filter.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Function Macintosh Windows
Next Editable Text Field Tab Tab
Previous Editable Text Field Shift+Tab Shift+Tab
OK Return Enter
Cancel Escape Escape
Undo +Z Ctrl+Z
Redo +Y Ctrl+Y
Cut +X Ctrl+X
Copy +C Ctrl+C
Paste +V Ctrl+V
Next Filter +] Ctrl+]
Previous Filter +[ Ctrl+[
Zoom In ++ Ctrl++
Zoom Out +- Ctrl+ -
Actual Pixels Option++Zero Alt+Ctrl+Zero
Fit on Screen +Zero Ctrl+Zero
Load Neutral Setting +R F5
Load Last Used Setting +L Ctrl+L
Save Setting +S Ctrl+S
Switch to Move Tool (hand) H H
Switch to Zoom Tool Z Z
Preview Move (with zoom enabled) Space Bar+Drag Space Bar+Drag
Zoom In (with zoom enabled) Mouse Click Left Mouse Click
Zoom In (with move enabled) +Click Ctrl+Click
Zoom Out Option + Mouse Click Alt + Mouse Click
Drag preview (with zoom enabled) – also displays original image Hold spacebar while dragging Hold spacebar while dragging
Zoom to Actual Pixels Double-click Zoom Tool Double-click Zoom Tool
Increase/Decrease Slider by 1 Up/Down Arrow Up/Down Arrow
Increase/Decrease Slider by 10 Shift+Up/Down Arrow Shift+Up/Down Arrow
Access Online Help +/ or Help F1
Open Preferences Dialog +K Ctrl+K

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