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User Interface
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 undos and redos. 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 Command+Z (Control+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 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.
Common Tools
To limit redundancy in the filter chapters, we've adopted the policy of documenting common tools in one section of the manual. Conveniently, you have arrived at this magical place. Here you'll find explanations for how to use the Color Picker, and the Color Cube.
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 Cube
To the right of the color swatch, you'll notice a color selection tool, which offers the following options.
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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.
The Preview Window
Tabs (A): Tabs with sliders, color swatches, check boxes, and radio buttons appear along the left side of the window. These controls perform most functions in our filters. Click on a tab name to switch to that subset of controls. Refer to the filter chapters for detailed control descriptions.
Thumbnail Navigation (B): Click and drag the movable red box to move the preview to any spot in the selected layer.
Move, Zoom and Show Original (C): The Move (hand), Zoom (magnifying glass) and Show Original buttons are found above the preview window.
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. Command + click to zoom out (Alt + click for Windows users). Double-clicking the magnifying glass at any time resets the preview window to 100% magnification.
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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.
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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 String Area (G): Elements in each filter have mouseover help text. Whenever you move your cursor over a user interface element, a short description appears in the bottom left corner of the window.
Preview Window Area (H): Preview the effect on your image here. Clicking and dragging any corner or edge of the filter window resizes the preview area.
Progress Bar (I): The rectangle to the left of the magnification indicator displays the percentage of rendering completed.
Magnification Indicator (J): The current level of magnification is shown to the right of the render status bar at the lower right corner of the filter window.
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 unavailable when recording actions in Photoshop. Clear this checkbox when recording actions.
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.
UpToDate System
The UpToDate messaging system informs you about the latest Alien Skin Software products, special offers, software updates and other news.
When enabled, an unobtrusive visual cue announces, "Click here for new messages from Alien Skin Software." Click this link to read your new messages. See the interface example below:
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Customizing UpToDate Preferences
Receiving messages is optional. You can specify the intervals at which your UpToDate system checks for messages. To customize your UpToDate message preferences, use the following instructions:
- In any filter, Click Edit>Preferences.
- Select the frequency at which you would like the UpToDate system to check for new messages. If you don't want to receive messages, select Never.
Windows users: If you have a dial-up Internet connection, you should select the Ask me before making an Internet connection option. If not, your computer will make unexpected phone calls.
Macintosh users: If you have a dial-up Internet connection, deselect the Ask me before making an Internet connection option. You must establish an Internet connection before receiving UpToDate messages.
Resetting Settings to Factory Default
Every filter has a Factory Default setting. Clicking this setting resets the current filter parameters. You can also press the F5 key (Windows) or Command + R (Macintosh) to reset the filter.
That's it for the opening section. We've designed this software to be both fun and easy to use. We hope you enjoy using the filters.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Shortcut Function Macintosh Windows Next Editable Text Field Tab Tab Previous Editable Text Field Shift+Tab Shift+Tab OK Return Return Cancel Escape Escape Undo Command+Z Control+Z RedoCommand+Y
Control+Y Cut Command+X Control+X Copy Command+C Control+C Paste Command+V Control+V Next Filter Command+] Control+] Previous Filter Command+[ Control+[ Zoom In Command++ Control ++ Zoom Out Command +- Control + - Actual Pixels Option+Command+Zero Alt+Control+Zero Restore Default Settings Command+R F5 Load Last Used Settings Command+L Control+L Save Setting Command+S Control+S Switch to Move Tool (hand) H H Switch to Zoom Tool Z Z Zoom In (with zoom enabled) Mouse Click Left Mouse Click Zoom Out Option + Mouse Click Alt + Mouse Click 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 Command+/ OR Help F1