Editor Overview
After Macro Studio finishes a stack (or when you press Return/Enter to edit a single frame), the window switches to the Editor. This is where you refine the result: masks, adjustments, crop, retouch, defringe, source cloning, compare, and finally save.
Press E from anywhere to jump to the Editor; press L to go back to Library.
Not sure which tool to use? See Improving Your Image — a problem-by-problem guide to which tool fixes what, and when to use each Adjustment slider.
Standard and Advanced modes
Section titled “Standard and Advanced modes”The Editor has two experience levels, switched with the Standard / Advanced toggle in the top-right of the mode bar:
- Standard keeps the surface minimal — the center canvas, Compare, Save, the Species Identification panel, and your history strip. It’s the default for new installs.
- Advanced adds the full toolkit on top of that: the Masks and Adjustments panels in the right sidebar, plus the Crop, Retouch, Defringe, and Source Cloning buttons in the header.
Flip to Advanced whenever you want the power-user tools; the choice is remembered between launches. The rest of this page describes the Advanced layout, since that’s where every tool lives.
The layout
Section titled “The layout”The Editor has four regions:
- Header toolbar at the top — Compare, Crop, Retouch, Defringe, Source Cloning, Save.
- Center canvas — your image, with zoom/pan.
- Right sidebar — Masks, Adjustments, Species Identification.
- History strip at the bottom — every stack and edit you’ve produced this session.
The header toolbar
Section titled “The header toolbar”Six buttons live at the top of the Editor:
| Button | Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Compare | C | A/B-compare two history entries side by side. See Compare and history. |
| Crop | — | Open the crop + straighten editor. See Crop. |
| Retouch | — | Open the spot-removal brush. See Retouch. |
| Defringe | — | Brush out chromatic-aberration color fringing on out-of-focus highlights. See Defringe. |
| Source Cloning | S | Paint pixels from an aligned source frame into the result — useful for thin features the stacker softened. See Source Cloning. |
| Save… | ⌘S / Ctrl+S | Open the Save dialog. See Saving. |
Compare, Crop, Retouch, Defringe, and Source Cloning are disabled until a result loads (i.e. immediately after a stack starts, they’re greyed out; they enable when the stack completes). Source Cloning additionally requires a multi-frame stack produced by v2026.5.27 or later — single-frame edits and older stacks keep it greyed out.
To the left of these buttons, a small green status label appears during certain operations (Building mask… with an animated …) and disappears when ready. If something goes wrong, the same label position shows the error in red.
The center canvas
Section titled “The center canvas”The center area shows your active result — the one currently selected in the history strip. You can:
- Scroll to zoom in/out (centered on the cursor).
- Click-drag to pan when zoomed in.
- Double-click to reset zoom to fit.
- Pinch (trackpad) to zoom.
When you enter a sub-mode like Crop, Brush, or Retouch, the center canvas swaps to that editor and the rest of the Editor dims slightly to keep your attention focused.
The right sidebar
Section titled “The right sidebar”The right sidebar holds three sections, top to bottom:
Six mask buttons in two rows — Global, Subject, Background on top; Radial, Linear, Brush below — choose which pixels your adjustments affect. The eyeball icon to the right of the buttons toggles a visualization overlay so you can see exactly what’s masked.
The button below the cluster adapts to the active mask: Refine Mask for an auto-detected Subject/Background mask, Open Brush for the freehand Brush mask, and Reset Mask for a Radial or Linear gradient. The two gradients are positioned with handles right on the canvas — Lightroom-style radial and graduated filters.
See Masks for the full guide.
ADJUSTMENTS
Section titled “ADJUSTMENTS”Twelve sliders for exposure, color, tone, and sharpness. They apply to whichever mask is currently selected. The eyeball icon at the top of the panel toggles the entire adjustment effect on and off — useful for a quick before/after.
Double-click any slider to reset it to default. The Reset All button at the bottom resets every slider in one shot.
See Adjustments for what each slider does.
SPECIES IDENTIFICATION
Section titled “SPECIES IDENTIFICATION”Identify your subject and generate a draft caption for social posts. The panel shows EXIF metadata, lets you pick a kingdom (Plant / Insect / Mushroom), runs an AI species-ID lookup, and offers a Draft Social Post button that builds a caption with the species name and your custom tags.
See Species ID and social posts for details.
The history strip
Section titled “The history strip”The bottom of the Editor is the history strip — every result you’ve produced in this session.
Each thumbnail carries a short label so you can tell variants apart at a glance — a summary for stacked results, or the filename for a single-image edit. Click any thumbnail to make it active.
In-progress jobs show a green progress bar overlay; right-click them for Cancel Stack and View Source Images.
See Compare and history for the full picture.
A typical edit flow
Section titled “A typical edit flow”- Stack completes; you land in the Editor with the result loaded.
- Crop if needed — straighten and remove the edges chewed up by alignment.
- Source Cloning if the stacker softened any thin features (antennae, hair, wing edges) you want to restore from a single frame.
- Adjust — exposure, contrast, color. Start with everything on the Global mask, then refine with the Subject/Background or Radial/Linear gradient masks if needed.
- Retouch any blemishes or dust spots, or Defringe any color fringing on out-of-focus highlights.
- Save — pick formats, optionally a watermark, hit Save.
Most edits don’t need all six steps. A clean stack with good exposure often just needs Crop + Save.