Editor Overview

When a stack finishes, Macro Studio switches to the Editor. You also land here when you press Return / Enter to edit a single photo. Press E for the Editor and L for the Library.

Not sure which tool to use? See Improving Your Image.

Standard and Advanced modes

The Standard / Advanced switch in the top-right corner sets how many tools you see. Macro Studio remembers your choice.

• Standard is the default for new installs. It shows Compare, Crop, Save, the StackScore, Look and Species Identification panels, and the history strip.
• Advanced adds the Masks, Adjustments and History panels, and the Retouch, Spot Correct and Defringe buttons. History appears once the result has edits.

If you switch to Standard while you crop, your crop stays in progress. Any other open tool is canceled. The rest of this page describes Advanced mode.

The layout

The Editor has a toolbar at the top, your image in the center, a sidebar on the right, and the history strip at the bottom.

The header toolbar

Button	Shortcut	What it does
StackCheck	—	Checks this stack’s frames again and says if any are worth dropping. A blue dot means a suggestion or notice is waiting. See StackCheck.
Compare	C	Shows two results side by side. See Compare and history.
Crop	R	Crop and straighten. See Crop.
Retouch	T	Paints detail back in from one of your source photos. See Retouch.
Spot Correct	—	Removes spots with a brush. See Spot Correct.
Defringe	D	Brushes out color fringes on out-of-focus highlights. See Defringe.
Save…	⌘S / Ctrl+S	Opens the Save dialog. See Saving.

Every button is grayed out until a result loads. Retouch also needs a stack of more than one frame, made with version 2026.5.27 or later. StackCheck needs a stack of at least four frames. Single-photo edits and stacks from older versions keep it grayed out.

Banners

Bigger messages, like a failed stack or a memory warning, appear in a banner below the tabs. A banner stays until you click its X, or until a newer one replaces it. Hover over a long message to read all of it. Small hints go away by themselves after about 6 seconds.

If a “stack failed” message takes itself back

On a slow drive, a stack that’s still working can look stuck. You then see Stack failed unexpectedly, followed by an amber banner when the stack finishes after all. Trust the second message. Your image is in the history strip as normal.

This only works if you don’t start another stack first, so wait a couple of minutes before you restart. If it happens often, check your scratch disk.

The center canvas

• Scroll or pinch to zoom. Drag to pan.
• Double-click to fit the image in the window.
• Press Z or Space to switch between Fit and 100%.
• Press ⌘= / Ctrl+= and ⌘- / Ctrl+- to zoom in steps.

The zoom readout

The small pill in the bottom-left corner shows the zoom level. Click it to pick Fit or a size from 25% to 300%. At 100%, one image pixel fills one screen pixel. Zoom stops at 800%. The same readout is in the Library preview and in the Retouch, Spot Correct, Defringe and mask brush editors.

The square button just right of the pill switches to full screen.

The coordinate readout

A second pill shows the pixel under your pointer, like (4210,980), counting from 0,0 at the top left. To copy it, for example to report a problem, right-click the canvas and choose Copy coordinates. To hide the pill, use the same menu or turn off Show cursor coordinates in Preferences → General.

Full screen

To see your image as large as your screen allows, press ⌘⇧F / Ctrl+Shift+F, choose View → Full Screen, or click the full-screen button next to the zoom readout. It works in the Library and the Editor, and in Retouch, Spot Correct, Defringe, Crop and the mask brush.

Everything but the image goes away, and the image opens at Fit. Move the mouse to bring back the zoom readout and the button.

To go back, press Esc or ⌘⇧F / Ctrl+Shift+F, or click the button. Your zoom and position come back too, so you return to the spot you were working on.

While you’re in full screen:

• Zoom, pan and that screen’s keys still work. You can keep painting in Retouch, Spot Correct and Defringe.
• In Retouch, only the result shows. The arrow keys and F still change the source frame, and its name shows at the bottom of the screen. Hold S to see that frame.
• Esc only leaves full screen. It doesn’t cancel the tool you have open.
• Switching between the Library and the Editor, opening or closing a tool, Compare, Stack and Save take you out of full screen first.

The right sidebar

• STACKSCORE grades how well the stack was shot, from 0 to 100, and says what to change next time. It shows for stacks, not single photos. See StackScore.
• LOOK sets the base look of the stack, from Natural to Enhanced. See Look.
• MASKS picks which part of the image your adjustments change. See Masks.
• ADJUSTMENTS has fourteen sliders for exposure, color, tone and sharpness. See Adjustments.
• HISTORY lists every edit on the current result. Click a step to go back to it. See Edit history.
• SPECIES IDENTIFICATION identifies your subject and drafts a caption for social posts. See Species ID and social posts.

Collapsing a sidebar section

Click a section’s header to fold it shut, and click again to open it. Macro Studio remembers which sections you closed.

The history strip

The strip at the bottom holds every result from this session, each labeled with the name it would save as. Click one to show it. See Compare and history.

See also

• Improving Your Image: which tool fixes what, in a good order.
• Edit history: undo and the HISTORY panel.
• Saving: formats, names and watermarks.