User manual ACDSEE ACDSEE PRO PHOTO MANAGER

Credits and acknowledgements Portions of this software are based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group. This software contains portions of imaging code owned and copyrighted by Pegasus Imaging Corp., Tampa FL, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CD/DVD recording software developed under license from Padus, Inc. - www.padus.com MPEG 1 codec provided by MainConcept AG. Copyright © 1999/2000-2005 MainConcept AG. Portions utilize Microsoft Windows Media Technologies. Copyright (c) 1999-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved RealSystem(r) technology is provided under license from RealNetworks, Inc., copyright (c) 1995-2001 RealNetworks, Inc. and/or its suppliers. 2601 Elliott Avenue, Suite 1000, Seattle, Washington 98121, U.S.A. Patents Pending. All rights reserved. RealNetworks and RealSystem are registered trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. TIFF support based on LibTIFF, Copyright (c) 1988-1997 Sam Leffler, Copyright (c) 1991-1997 Silicon Graphics, Inc. This notice must appear in all copies of the Software and related documentation. The names of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics may not be used in any advertising or publicity relating to the software without the specific, prior written permission of Sam Leffler and Silicon Graphics. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL SAM LEFFLER OR SILICON GRAPHICS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE, AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. Windows, Windows Explorer, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Microsoft DirectX are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. ii Contents Chapter 1 Welcome .............................................................................................................1 Welcome to ACDSee Pro .........................................................................................................................1 Key features in ACDSee Pro ...................................................................................................................2 Manage your photographs ...........................................................................................................2 Streamline your workflow ..............................................................................................................3 Accelerate your productivity ........................................................................................................4 Chapter 2 Getting started ..................................................................................................7 Starting ACDSee Pro .................................................................................................................................8 About the ACDSee user interface ........................................................................................................8 The Browser ........................................................................................................................................8 iii ACDSeeTM Pro User Guide The Viewer ...........................................................................................................................................9 Edit Mode ............................................................................................................................................9 Using the Browser .....................................................................................................................................9 About Browser panes ................................................................................................................... 10 Working with Browser panes .................................................................................................... 11 Using the Viewer ..................................................................................................................................... 13 Viewing images in full screen mode ....................................................................................... 14 Using the Viewer panes ............................................................................................................... 14 Returning to the Browser ............................................................................................................ 15 Using Edit Mode ...................................................................................................................................... 15 Editing images ................................................................................................................................ 15 Working in Edit Mode .................................................................................................................. 16 Closing Edit Mode ......................................................................................................................... 18 Getting photos with ACDSee ............................................................................................................. 18 About removable devices ........................................................................................................... 19 Organizing and managing files in ACDSee ................................................................................... 19 Searching with ACDSee ....................................................................................................................... 20 Sharing images with ACDSee ............................................................................................................ 20 Chapter 3 Getting Help .................................................................................................... 21 Using the ACDInTouch Service .......................................................................................................... 22 Using myACD ........................................................................................................................................... 22 Contacting ACD Systems ..................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 4 Getting photos ................................................................................................ 25 About the Device Detector ................................................................................................................. 26 Using device profiles ............................................................................................................................. 26 Configuring a device .................................................................................................................... 27 Custom settings for destination and naming options ..................................................... 28 Custom settings for device storage options ........................................................................ 28 Getting photos from a profiled device ........................................................................................... 29 Updating or deleting a device profile ............................................................................................. 30 Getting photos from a digital camera ............................................................................................ 30 Getting photos from a scanner (TWAIN) ........................................................................................ 31 Getting photos from a mass storage device ................................................................................ 32 Getting photos from a CD ................................................................................................................... 32 Getting photos from a mobile phone ............................................................................................. 33 Creating a renaming template .......................................................................................................... 34 Taking a screen capture ....................................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 5 Browsing ......................................................................................................... 37 Browsing files in the File List pane ................................................................................................... 38 Sections of the File List pane ..................................................................................................... 38 Maximizing the File List pane .................................................................................................... 39 iv Contents Browsing files in one or more folders .............................................................................................. 39 Selecting multiple folders ........................................................................................................... 40 Creating and managing folders ................................................................................................ 40 Browsing files by category, rating, or classification ................................................................... 40 Selecting multiple categories, ratings, and classifications ............................................. 41 Organize pane classifications .................................................................................................... 41 Browsing files by date ........................................................................................................................... 42 Calendar pane toolbar buttons ................................................................................................ 42 Navigating in the Calendar pane ............................................................................................. 43 Calendar pane shortcuts ............................................................................................................. 43 Browsing favorite files ........................................................................................................................... 44 Creating a shortcut ........................................................................................................................ 44 Creating a new folder ................................................................................................................... 44 Deleting a shortcut or folder ...................................................................................................... 45 Browsing RAW files ................................................................................................................................ 45 Changing view modes .......................................................................................................................... 45 View modes ...................................................................................................................................... 46 Customizing the Details view mode ....................................................................................... 46 Sorting files ............................................................................................................................................... 47 Sorting files using column headers ......................................................................................... 48 Custom sorting files ...................................................................................................................... 48 Filtering files ............................................................................................................................................. 48 Selecting files ........................................................................................................................................... 49 Previewing images ................................................................................................................................. 49 Gathering images in the Image Basket ........................................................................................... 50 Chapter 6 Viewing ............................................................................................................ 51 Zooming images ..................................................................................................................................... 52 Zooming an image ........................................................................................................................ 52 Setting the zoom level ................................................................................................................. 53 Automatically shrinking or enlarging images ..................................................................... 53 Displaying a thumbnail of a magnified image .................................................................... 55 Panning a magnified image ....................................................................................................... 55 Magnifying specific areas of an image ................................................................................... 55 Viewing and configuring a slide show ............................................................................................ 56 Starting a slide show automatically ................................................................................................. 59 Viewing images with Auto Advance ................................................................................................ 60 Displaying text on images in the Viewer ........................................................................................ 61 Hiding image text .......................................................................................................................... 62 Viewing RAW images ............................................................................................................................ 62 Synchronizing the Viewer to a folder .............................................................................................. 63 Viewing offline images ......................................................................................................................... 63 Rebinding Photo Discs ................................................................................................................. 64 v ACDSeeTM Pro User Guide Viewing images in another application ......................................................................................... 65 Creating a desktop screen saver ....................................................................................................... 65 Setting an image as the desktop wallpaper ................................................................................. 67 Chapter 7 Playing ............................................................................................................. 69 Playing audio and video files ............................................................................................................. 70 Automatically playing audio and video files ....................................................................... 70 The Media toolbar ......................................................................................................................... 70 Selecting part of a media file .............................................................................................................. 71 Saving video frames as images ......................................................................................................... 71 Adding or editing image audio ......................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 8 Editing ............................................................................................................. 75 Using the undo/redo system ............................................................................................................. 76 Previewing changes to images ......................................................................................................... 76 Resizing an image .................................................................................................................................. 76 Rotating an image .................................................................................................................................. 78 Flipping an image .................................................................................................................................. 78 Cropping an image ................................................................................................................................ 79 Resizing the crop window .......................................................................................................... 79 Adding text to an image ...................................................................................................................... 80 Adding a watermark to an image ..................................................................................................... 82 Selecting part of an image .................................................................................................................. 83 Saving or discarding changes in Edit Mode ................................................................................. 84 Saving tool settings ............................................................................................................................... 85 Repairing images .................................................................................................................................... 85 Removing flaws .............................................................................................................................. 85 Reducing red-eye ........................................................................................................................... 87 Straightening crooked photos .......................................................................................................... 87 Correcting perspective distortion .................................................................................................... 88 Correcting barrel, pincushion, and fisheye distortion .............................................................. 89 Correcting shadows and highlights ................................................................................................ 90 Adding light to shadows ............................................................................................................. 90 Adding shadows to highlights .................................................................................................. 90 Adding color to pale areas of a photo .................................................................................... 91 Tips for adjusting the shadows and highlights in your photos .................................... 91 Adjusting image light levels ............................................................................................................... 92 Automatically adjusting exposure .......................................................................................... 92 Adjusting image brightness ...................................................................................................... 92 Adjusting image levels ................................................................................................................ 93 Adjusting brightness curves ...................................................................................................... 94 Adjusting image color .......................................................................................................................... 95 Using the Histogram ..................................................................................................................... 95 Applying Auto Color ..................................................................................................................... 95 vi Contents Removing a color cast .................................................................................................................. 96 Changing image color depth ..................................................................................................... 96 Changing HSL values .................................................................................................................... 97 Changing RGB values ................................................................................................................... 97 Sharpening and blurring an image .................................................................................................. 98 Using the Sharpness tool ............................................................................................................ 98 Using the Unsharp Mask tool .................................................................................................... 98 Blurring an image ........................................................................................................................... 99 Adding and removing image noise ...............................................................................................100 About noise and noise reduction ...........................................................................................100 Removing noise from an image ..............................................................................................101 Adding noise to an image .........................................................................................................102 Batch editing ..........................................................................................................................................103 About batch editing ....................................................................................................................103 Converting multiple images to another file format ........................................................104 Rotating or flipping multiple images ....................................................................................105 Resizing multiple images ..........................................................................................................106 Adjusting exposure for multiple images .............................................................................108 Changing the color profiles of multiple images ...............................................................109 Using the Batch Processor ........................................................................................................110 RAW image processing .......................................................................................................................125 About RAW image processing ................................................................................................125 Processing a RAW image ...........................................................................................................126 Processing a batch of RAW images .......................................................................................130 Sharing RAW processing settings ..........................................................................................131 Removing RAW processing settings .....................................................................................131 Editing RAW images ....................................................................................................................132 Applying special effects filters .........................................................................................................132 About special effect filters ........................................................................................................132 Applying a Bathroom Window effect ...................................................................................132 Applying a Blinds effect .............................................................................................................133 Applying a Bulge effect ..............................................................................................................134 Applying a Colored Edges effect ............................................................................................135 Applying a Contours effect .......................................................................................................135 Applying a Crayon Drawing effect .........................................................................................136 Applying a Crosshatch effect ...................................................................................................136 Applying a Dauber effect ..........................................................................................................136 Applying an Edge Detect effect ..............................................................................................137 Applying an Emboss effect .......................................................................................................137 Applying a Furry Edges effect .................................................................................................138 Applying a Glowing Edges effect ...........................................................................................139 Applying a Granite effect ..........................................................................................................139 vii ACDSeeTM Pro User Guide Applying a Mirror effect ............................................................................................................140 Applying a Negative effect .......................................................................................................140 Applying an Oil Paint effect .....................................................................................................141 Applying the Old effect .............................................................................................................141 Applying an Outline effect .......................................................................................................142 Applying a Pencil Drawing effect ..........................................................................................142 Applying a Pixel Explosion effect ...........................................................................................142 Applying a Pixelate effect .........................................................................................................143 Applying a Posterize effect ......................................................................................................144 Applying a Radial Waves effect ..............................................................................................144 Applying a Rain effect ................................................................................................................145 Applying a Ripple effect ............................................................................................................146 Applying a Scattered Tiles effect ............................................................................................147 Applying a Sepia effect ..............................................................................................................147 Applying a Sheet Metal effect .................................................................................................148 Applying a Shift effect ................................................................................................................148 Applying a Slant effect ...............................................................................................................149 Applying a Sobel effect .............................................................................................................150 Applying a Solarize effect .........................................................................................................150 Applying a Stained Glass effect ..............................................................................................151 Applying a Sunspot effect ........................................................................................................151 Applying a Swirl effect ...............................................................................................................152 Applying the Threshold effect ................................................................................................153 Applying a Topographic Map effect .....................................................................................153 Applying a Vignette effect ........................................................................................................154 Applying a Water effect .............................................................................................................155 Applying a Water Drops effect ................................................................................................156 Applying a Waves effect ............................................................................................................157 Applying a Weave effect ...........................................................................................................158 Applying a Wind effect ..............................................................................................................158 Creating a custom special effect filter ..................................................................................159 Chapter 9 Organizing .................................................................................................... 161 Copying and moving files .................................................................................................................162 Copying images ....................................................................................................................................163 Pasting files and folders .....................................................................................................................163 Replacing or overwriting files ..........................................................................................................163 Renaming a file or folder ...................................................................................................................164 Renaming multiple files .....................................................................................................................164 Tagging images ....................................................................................................................................166 Creating categories ..............................................................................................................................167 Assigning categories and ratings ...................................................................................................168 Removing files from classifications .......................................................................................169 viii Contents Comparing images ...............................................................................................................................169 Viewing file properties in the Viewer ............................................................................................172 Using the Properties pane .................................................................................................................172 Properties pane areas .................................................................................................................173 Changing the date and time properties of images ..................................................................175 Creating and assigning keywords ..................................................................................................176 Adding database, EXIF, and IPTC information to multiple files ...........................................176 Removing IPTC keywords and supplemental categories .......................................................178 Backing up your files to another computer ................................................................................179 Updating or deleting a synchronization ..............................................................................179 Running a saved synchronization ..........................................................................................180 Creating archives of your files ..........................................................................................................180 Managing database information ....................................................................................................181 About the ACDSee database ...................................................................................................181 Excluding folders from the database ....................................................................................182 Cataloging files in the database .............................................................................................182 Converting an older database .................................................................................................183 Importing database information ............................................................................................184 Importing file information from other sources .................................................................184 Exporting database information ............................................................................................186 Generating file lists ......................................................................................................................186 Backing up your database ........................................................................................................187 Restoring database information from a backup ...............................................................188 Maintaining the database .........................................................................................................189 Optimizing the database ...........................................................................................................190 Rebuilding thumbnails ..............................................................................................................190 Quarantining files ........................................................................................................................190 Chapter 10 Searching .................................................................................................... 191 Using the Quick Search bar ...............................................................................................................192 Using the Search pane ........................................................................................................................193 Search pane areas ........................................................................................................................193 Files and Text .................................................................................................................................193 Properties area ..............................................................................................................................194 Searching with file name patterns .................................................................................................195 Finding duplicate files .........................................................................................................................196 Finding images quickly .......................................................................................................................196 Using selective browsing ...................................................................................................................197 Setting selective browsing criteria ........................................................................................197 Tips for selective browsing .......................................................................................................198 Hiding the Selective Browsing pane .....................................................................................198 ix ACDSeeTM Pro User Guide Chapter 11 Sharing ........................................................................................................ 199 E-mailing images ..................................................................................................................................200 Sharing slide shows and screen savers .........................................................................................200 Creating a PDF .......................................................................................................................................202 Creating a CD or DVD ..........................................................................................................................202 Creating video files and VCDs ..........................................................................................................204 Creating an HTML album ...................................................................................................................204 Creating a contact sheet ....................................................................................................................206 Publishing images to TiVo .................................................................................................................207 Creating a SendPix album .................................................................................................................208 Chapter 12 Printing ....................................................................................................... 209 Printing images in ACDSee ...............................................................................................................210 Creating custom print formats ...............................................................................................210 Setting printer options .......................................................................................................................211 Setting image size and positioning ...............................................................................................212 Adding text to pages ..........................................................................................................................212 Setting contact sheet printing options ........................................................................................213 Ordering prints online ........................................................................................................................214 Chapter 13 Customizing ................................................................................................ 215 Setting options ......................................................................................................................................216 Setting the General options .....................................................................................................216 Setting Browser options ............................................................................................................217 Setting the Quick Search options ..........................................................................................218 Setting File List pane options ..................................................................................................218 Setting the Thumbnail Display options ...............................................................................220 Setting the Thumbnail Ratio options ...................................................................................222 Setting the Details View options ............................................................................................222 Setting the Preview pane options .........................................................................................223 Setting the Folders pane options ..........................................................................................224 Setting the Organize pane options .......................................................................................224 Setting the Calendar pane options .......................................................................................225 Setting the CD/DVD Management options .......................................................................226 Setting the Properties Pane options .....................................................................................227 Setting File Management options .........................................................................................227 Setting the Color Management options .............................................................................228 Setting the Database options .................................................................................................231 Setting Viewer options ..............................................................................................................232 Setting the Viewer Display options .......................................................................................233 Setting RAW Image Preview options ....................................................................................234 Customizing and configuring ..........................................................................................................235 Creating custom Browser layouts ..........................................................................................235 Auto-hiding panes and panels ...............................................................................................236 x Contents Using the Custom tab in the Properties pane ...................................................................236 Using the Task Pane ....................................................................................................................237 Using the Context Sensitive toolbar .....................................................................................238 Customizing toolbars .................................................................................................................238 Customizing the Edit Panel ......................................................................................................240 Configuring image editors .......................................................................................................241 Customizing keyboard shortcuts ...........................................................................................241 Chapter 14 Shortcuts ..................................................................................................... 243 Browser keyboard shortcuts .............................................................................................................244 Viewer keyboard shortcuts ...............................................................................................................247 Viewer mouse shortcuts .....................................................................................................................252 Appendix A Plug-ins ................................................................................................... 255 Types of plug-ins ...................................................................................................................................256 Managing plug-ins ...............................................................................................................................256 Disabling a plug-in ......................................................................................................................257 Changing the plug-in order .....................................................................................................257 Viewing plug-in properties and getting help .............................................................................257 Appendix B File formats ................................................................................................ 259 Supported file formats ........................................................................................................................260 Supported RAW formats ....................................................................................................................265 Associating files .....................................................................................................................................267 Appendix C System requirements ............................................................................... 269 Glossary .......................................................................................................................... 271 Index ............................................................................................................................... 285 xi ACDSeeTM Pro User Guide xii Chapter 1 Welcome Welcome to ACDSee Pro Welcome to ACDSee Pro Photo Manager, and congratulations on choosing the industry-leading digital photo management software. ACDSee is the essential application for acquiring, organizing, viewing, enhancing, and sharing your digital photos and other media files. ACDSee's Browser lets you copy photos from your camera to your computer, categorize and rate your files, and manage photo collections of any size - from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand. Choose to view thumbnail previews of any size, or use a detailed list of file properties to sort your files. 1 ACDSeeTM Pro User Guide Can't find a particular photo? No problem - ACDSee includes a variety of powerful searching tools and a Compare Images feature to eliminate duplicates. ACDSee's full-featured image viewer and media player quickly generates high-quality displays of your images and media files. You can run slide shows, play embedded audio, and display multiple-page images in any of the more than 50 image and multimedia file formats. Also, ACDSee includes a wide variety of image editing tools you can use to create, edit, and touch-up your digital images. Use tools such as red-eye reduction, crop, sharpen, blur, and photo repair to enhance or correct your images. Image management tools, such as exposure adjustment, convert, resize, rename, and rotate, can be performed on multiple files at the same time. The user interface is completely customizable, and provides quick access to tools and features. You can customize the screen layout, the order of images, toolbar display, and many other options to suit your preferences. ACDSee contains extensive context-sensitive Help to assist you as you move through the application. ACDSee Pro Photo Manager is a fast, powerful, and easy-to-use image management system that everyone from beginners to professionals can use and enjoy. Related topics · · · Starting ACDSee Pro About the ACDSee user interface Getting photos with ACDSee Key features in ACDSee Pro Manage your photographs View all your RAW files faster than ever before. ACDSee Pro supports DNG (Digital Negative Specification)-the widely available archival RAW format, guaranteeing you'll be able to access and view your RAW images quickly and trouble free. It also guarantees you'll be able to view your RAW files in the future, despite changes made to industry software and camera technology. You'll never have to worry again about not being able to view your images in their native RAW formats. Why? Pro also supports a wide range of RAW formats from Nikon, Canon, Konica-Minolta, Olympus, Fuji, and Pentax cameras, including popular new DSLR models like the Nikon D2X, Nikon D70S, Canon EOS1Ds Mark II, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, and the Olympus E-300. Powerful RAW processing gives you precision, control, and a creative edge. Process your RAW images the way you want. Experiment and fine-tune image development settings to ensure each of your images look great. Get full control over your images with precision tools for 2 Chapter 1 Welcome adjusting exposure, white balance, sharpness, and noise, taking your digital photography to a whole new level. · · · Save settings so you can use them repeatedly. Process multiple RAW images in a single step. View RAW files faster than ever before. Batch processing allows you to manage thousands of images at once. Simultaneously resize, change color depth, convert to sepia, crop, rotate, reduce noise (grain), sharpen, change exposure, rename, add text, add copyright, copy, move, and convert the format of images all in a single operation. You can then save these settings for future use. Insert IPTC information in batches too, including captions, keywords, copyright, credit, origin, and others. This feature allows you to apply unique information to one file, or the same information to multiple files, in one operation. The benefits of setting IPTC information in batches are speed and efficiency. Setting IPTC information also makes it easy to find and identify the photographer, similar sets of photos, or a single specific photo. Streamline your workflow Personalizing your desktop workspace is essential to creating a streamlined workflow. With ACDSee Pro, it's easy. You can tailor a wide range of functionality to suit your personal preferences, making it easier and faster to the use the application in your daily workflow. · · · · Customize the buttons to display on the File List toolbar. Customize the workspace layout to suit each of your workflows. Save each layout and then quickly load that workspace for a specific task. Customize the image/media decoder to use for a specific file extension. Customize the Properties tab and create custom Info Tips. Configure both the properties and the Info Tips information to display in the Choose Properties dialog. The Choose Properties dialog is where you select information from EXIF, IPTC, ACD Database, and File Properties. Preview images in the Browser with a histogram and essential properties information. Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly assign categories and sort files. You can also customize your own keyboard shortcuts. Create and save contact sheet print settings. Use the new feature on the Status bar in the Viewer to set ratings or tag your photographs. · · · · 3 ACDSeeTM Pro User Guide Accelerate your productivity Add text captions. Write descriptive text captions, insert the filename, or add the photographer's name using styles and special effects. Styles include talk and thought bubbles, as well as drop shadows. Add up to 13 special effects such as Blur, Ripple, Shift and Twirl. Include the photographer's name and the date, company logo, and indexing information that stay with the photograph in transit, allowing you to work with more efficiently with clients and colleagues. Add watermarks to your photographs. Now you can easily add watermarks to your photographs to properly reflect copyright and ownership laws, or to mark specific photographs or images with pertinent business related information like logos and graphics. Use powerful lens correction tools. Easily fix common lens distortions such as barrel, pincushion, and fish-eye. You can also fix perspective distortions. Fine tune your images with shadows and highlights adjustments. While most other editing functions such as "brightness" and "levels" tend to affect all areas of the image in the same way, the Shadows and Highlights tool allows the user to enhance only the shadows, or only the highlights, or both shadows and highlights independently. If your subject is placed in front of a bright background, such as a sky, this often results in a sky that is too bright or a subject that is too dark. Shadows and Highlights allows you to make the subject brighter and make the sky darker whereas other functions such as brightness or levels only allow you to brighten or darken the photograph as a whole. Shadows and Highlights also allows you to increase or decrease the color saturation of the photos when you make adjustments. Take advantage of improved HTML albums. Choose from several HTML album templates designed to suit your professional needs, or customize them by adding your contact information and company logo, and so give your Web pages a look and feel appropriate for your business. Get fully integrated color-management support. View and print accurately with full color management support for ICC and ICM color profiles. For increased productivity, remove or convert the color profiles of multiple files simultaneously. 4 Chapter 1 Welcome Quickly identify your best photos with the new tagging feature. When you acquire photographs from a fashion photo shoot, for example, you can tag each image with a mark that denotes whether or not you wish to keep it. Tagging is a fast, and time-efficient way to sort through preferred photographs, helping you keep your hard drive and memory cards uncluttered by making image deletion a simpler process. With a single keystroke you can tag and un-tag images from within the Browser or the Viewer. Tagged images appear with a check mark and remain tagged across sessions. A tagged category in the Organize pane allows you to search and view all your tagged images whenever you want. Selecting and unselecting tagged images is a single click operation. Use the histogram to adjust your photographs with pinpoint accuracy. Now you can view a histogram when browsing through thumbnails, viewing full size images, or editing your photographs. The Histogram displays a graphical representation of the distribution of intensity levels of pixels for each color channel in an image, so you can immediately identify what aspects of the image need to be edited as you browse through your thousands of photographs. With the Histogram you can make adjustments to brightness curves. Use the Curves tool to change the tonal range of an image in the Histogram, which displays a visual representation of the color information levels in the image, based on the selected channel. Click and drag the line to manipulate the curve. Simply click and drag the line to manipulate the curve. Select the RGB color channel to adjust the entire range of the image, or select a specific color. Quickly edit and retouch images with professional tools. ACDSee Pro provides all of the most common photo editing tools in one single application, so you don't have to import images to a more difficult editing software just to make necessary changes to your photographs. Remove noise from images with the new hybrid Median Noise Reduction tool, all using 48-bit (16 bits per channel) editing functionality. Be creative with over 15 new special effects like vignette, old, stained glass, and more. 5 ACDSeeTM Pro User Guide 6 Chapter 2 Getting started The ACDSee user interface has three main functional areas; the Browser, the Viewer, and Edit Mode. The Browser displays your photos and files as a list of thumbnail previews that you can resize, customize, tag, organize, or sort in many ways. The central File List is surrounded by customizable toolbars and panes, each designed to help you organize and streamline your workflow. With the Viewer, you can view your photos and media files at actual size, or at any magnification. The Edit Mode is a powerful image editor where you can quickly fix common problems like red-eye, color cast, exposure and more. You can also enhance images by adding text and watermarks, or using a variety of special effects. Many of these editing functions are available in the Batch Processor, a powerful tool that you can use to apply multiple edits to multiple files, simultaneously. 7 ACDSeeTM Pro User Guide Starting ACDSee Pro After you install ACDSee Pro Photo Manager on your computer, an application icon is placed on the desktop and in the Start menu. To start ACDSee Pro: Do one of the following: · · Double-click the ACDSee Pro icon on the desktop. Click Start, and select Programs | ACD Systems | ACDSee Pro. About the ACDSee user interface The ACDSee user interface provides easy access to the various tools and features you can use to browse, view, edit, and manage your photos and media files. ACDSee consists of three main parts: the Browser, the Viewer, and Edit Mode. The Browser The ACDSee Browser is the main browsing and managing component of the user interface, and is what you see when you start ACDSee using the shortcut icon on your desktop. In the Browser, you can find, move, preview, and sort your files, and access organization and sharing tools. 8