Prefs Tab

The Prefs tab contains some options for defining the behavior of BWStyler.

On Start Up

The default On Start Up control is "Previous Settings". This option will load the settings that were previously applied to an image with BWStyler. The "Default Settings" option will set all controls back to default values, which deactivates all effects but still applies a basic B/W conversion. The "Logged Settings" option will automatically open the settings that were applied the last time to the same image. It only works if you previously had the Log Settings check box activated and if you use Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro (see below for more information).

On Reset

The behavior of the Reset button can be defined by the On Reset combo box. If it is set to "Default Settings" and you click the Reset button, most controls will be deactivated.

If On Reset is set to "Previous Settings", clicking Reset will load the settings that were used for correcting the previous image. If you select "Own Defaults", you will be prompted to select an existing preset file. So, if you want the Reset button to revert all controls back to your preferred settings, you must first save these settings to a preset file. See below the following page for more information about saving preset files.

If you press the Reset button after setting On Reset to "Logged Settings", BWStyler will look in the logfiles sub folder inside the BWStyler folder to see if a preset with the name of the current image has been saved there. This preset may have been automatically saved by BWStyler, because the Log settings check box was activated and you already applied a correction to this image (or an image with the same file name). If BWStyler can find a preset file, it will immediately open it. If BWStyler doesn't find one, nothing will happen.

Language

Here you can choose the interface language. The help texts will also be displayed in the chosen language.

Skin

The Skin combo box lets you choose between 15 skin types. Skinning means that the user interface receive a new look. There are different options for imitating the user interface of Lightroom, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and PaintShop Pro. There is also a dark version of Aero (the default UI style of Windows Vista/7), a special PhotoWiz skin style as well as an option to only skin the sliders. Each skin sets its own preview background color, but you can change it again with the Preview color box that is discussed next. The None option of the Skin combo box recreates the standard controls and deactivates skinning, which requires restarting BWStyler.

Multi-CPU Off (x CPUs)

If you encounter any problems, you can deactivate the support for multiple processors and hyperthreading processors with this check box. But this usally also make the rendering much slower. The number in brackets displays how many CPUs are used by BWStyler. For example, for a hyperthreading quad core processor you will see "8 CPUs" displayed. If you only have a non-hyperthreading, single core processor, this check box will disabled by default.

Instant Preview

If the Instant Preview check box is activated, the preview is updated while you drag a slider. Additionally the dragging of the split view separation line is done interactively. Instant Preview may work too slowly on computers with an older processor. You can also get the same effect if you hold down the Shift key while dragging a slider.

Vertical Sliders (Windows only)

The Vertical Sliders check box will rotate the seven sliders of the B/W Films mode (as well as the same sliders on the Selective tab sheet in B/W Quick Mode and Expert Mode) by 90 degrees and orientate them vertically.

Histo Zoom

Activating the Histo Zoom check box in the Prefs tab cuts off peaks for some images when displaying a histogram in the Histo tab sheet. This avoids a flat histogram display where only a few high spikes are visible. That's also how Photoshop displays histograms. This option is activated by default.

Log Settings

With the Log Settings check box activated BWStyler automatically saves a preset file in the logfiles sub folder of the BWStyler folder when you press the OK button. In Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro the presets are named with the file name of the image. In other applications a random number is used, because these applications don't supply the file name of the image to plugins like BWStyler. If you apply BWStyler a second time to the same image and have Log Settings activated, the previous preset file will be overwritten.

At least with Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro this feature allows you to easily find the settings that you applied to certain images by looking into the logfiles sub folder. For other applications you can only look at the file date and guess which preset file was used for which image.

In connection with the Logged Settings option of the On Start Up combo box (see above), you can use the Log Settings check box to automatically make BWStyler start up with the settings that were applied the last time to the same image. So if you need to correct the same image again, you will automatically be presented with the same settings that you used the last time.

In case you don't want to start up BWStyler with the logged settings or forgot to activate that option, you can also open the logged settings by right clicking on the Reset button and choosing "Logged Settings" from the context menu.