Saving

When you’re ready to commit a result to disk, click Save… in the top-right corner of the Develop view (or press ⌘S / Ctrl+S). The Save Stacked Result dialog opens.

What the Save dialog does

One dialog, one pass, one or more formats. Pick which formats to write, optionally add a watermark, hit Save. Macro Studio writes all selected formats from the same edit state — TIFF + JPEG + DNG in one click, no need to save three times.

Destination and naming

At the top of the dialog:

Folder — where to write the files. The Browse… button opens a standard folder picker.
Base name — the filename stem. Each format adds its own extension (mystack.tif, mystack.jpg, mystack.dng).
Prepend date — checkbox to automatically prepend a date to the base name. Two date sources:
- Date of photo — the capture date from EXIF (e.g. 2026-05-14_mystack.tif).
- Today’s date — when you’re saving.

The “date of photo” option is disabled if your source images have no EXIF capture date (rare but possible for some RAW workflows or processed inputs).

The preview labels next to each format show what the final filename will look like as you type:

TIFF 16-bit   →   2026-05-14_mystack.tif
JPEG          →   2026-05-14_mystack.jpg
DNG           →   2026-05-14_mystack.dng

Format choices

Check one or more formats. The Save button is disabled until at least one is checked.

TIFF 16-bit

Best for: Archival masters. Maximum tonal range, opens in anything (Photoshop, Affinity, GIMP, Capture One).

16-bit per channel, uncompressed by default.
All adjustments baked into pixels.
Watermark optional.
Use this for your “keeper” copy that you’ll go back to later for prints or re-edits in other tools.

JPEG

Best for: Web, social media, quick sharing.

8-bit per channel.
Quality is high (no harsh compression) but it’s still a lossy format — keep a TIFF or DNG alongside for archival.
Watermark optional.
Smaller file size — typically 1-3 MB for a macro shot vs. 50-100 MB for a TIFF.

DNG

Best for: Lightroom users whose catalog standardizes on DNG, or anyone who wants a slightly smaller alternative to TIFF.

16-bit, lossless.
All adjustments, masks, crop, and retouch are baked into pixels — same as TIFF/JPEG.
Generally smaller on disk than the equivalent TIFF.
Watermark output is not supported on DNG — the Apply-to row in the Save dialog disables the DNG checkbox.

DNG and TIFF carry the same image quality; pick whichever your downstream tools prefer.

Watermarks

Check Add watermark to bake a watermark into your TIFF and/or JPEG output. The watermark UI expands with:

Configure… — open the watermark editor, where you create and edit watermark presets (text, image, opacity, etc.).
Watermark dropdown — pick which preset to apply.
Apply to: — per-format checkboxes (TIFF, JPEG, DNG). DNG is always disabled — Macro Studio doesn’t write watermarks into DNG output.
H Offset / V Offset sliders — fine-tune watermark position within the placement zone.

The Save dialog includes a PREVIEW pane at the bottom that shows the watermarked image at the current settings — you can zoom (scroll), pan (drag), and reset (double-click) to inspect placement before committing.

Watermark placement

Watermark presets carry their own placement (top-left, bottom-right, etc.) and styling — text content, font, color, opacity, image overlays. Set those up once in Configure… and reuse the preset across many saves.

If the watermark’s placement is top_center or bottom_center, the H Offset slider is disabled (a top-or-bottom-center placement is, by definition, horizontally centered — no offset makes sense). V Offset still works to pull the watermark in from the edge.

What gets saved

The saved file reflects the current state of the active result in Develop view:

The stack (Pyramid, Depth Map, or whichever method produced this entry).
All adjustments on all masks.
Any crop applied.
Any retouch strokes applied.
The watermark, if you enabled it for the format.

What does not get saved:

The history strip — that’s per-session, in-memory.
Other unsaved results in history — each one needs its own Save click.
Source images — they remain untouched on disk. Saving never modifies your originals.

Recommended save patterns

”I want a master plus a shareable”

Check TIFF + JPEG. Add watermark, apply to JPEG only. One click produces:

Archival TIFF (no watermark, 16-bit, lossless).
Shareable JPEG (watermarked, 8-bit).

This is the safest pattern for someone with mixed downstream uses.

”I only need the file for Instagram”

Check JPEG only. Add watermark. Save. Done.

”I’m a Lightroom shooter who prefers DNG”

Check DNG. Add to your Lightroom catalog as a fully-baked image.

”I’m sending to a print lab”

Check TIFF only. No watermark. Save. Lab gets a maximum-quality, no-overlay file.

Tips

Confirm output dimensions. If you cropped to a small region, your saved file is at the cropped resolution, not the original. Check the preview to make sure.
JPEG quality is fixed — there’s no “quality 80 vs quality 95” slider. Macro Studio writes high-quality JPEG; if you need finer control, save TIFF and re-encode in another tool.
Watermark presets are reusable. Build a few in Configure (a subtle signature for archival prints, a bold watermark for social) and swap between them in the dropdown.
The Save dialog remembers your last folder and recent format choices, so the second save in a session is one click + Save.