
User Guide changes for v.10.3.1

(1)
The paragraph on Grid Lines was rewritten as follows:

This function adds or removes horizontal and verticle lines across the 
image. The lines are useful when an image must be rotated for horizon 
alignment, or when an image is unbent or warped to straighten walls or 
other objects in the image. During a trim (crop) function, the line 
spacing changes to keep the lines equally spaced. Using two horizontal 
and vertical lines (3x3 tiles) is useful for trimming an image following 
the Rule of Thirds (Wikipedia).

(2)
The following was added at the end of the Trim Image paragraph:

The button [invert] exchanges the width/height ratio (2:1 becomes 1:2 etc).

(3)
The Keyboard Shortcuts table has two new entries:

T key    shortcut for menu Transform > Trim
B key    shortcut for menu Retouch > Brightness/Color

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User Guide changes for v.10.3

(1)
EXIF and tag functions are in separate top-level menus. The 
corresponding text paragraphs were rearranged to match, and the 
following addition was made for the View EXIF functions:

Basic EXIF Data
All EXIF Data
...
There are two menus for viewing EXIF data, Basic EXIF data and All EXIF 
data. Basic EXIF Data is a short report of the most commonly needed data, 
including the photo date and time, exposure data, focal length (real and 
35mm equivalent), user-assigned tags and star rating, and a history of 
Fotoxx edit functions that have been applied to the image. All EXIF Data 
reports all available data, including IPTC and other categories 
supported by the program exiftool.
...


(2)
The following paragraph was added to General Editing Procedure

Suggested Workflow: 
Convert RAW files to TIFF with 16 bits/color. The high color depth 
reduces the risk of visible "banding" from functions that can radically 
shift the brightness distribution (especially Flatten and Tone Mapping). 
When finished, convert the final TIFF to JPEG (quality level 70-90) to 
reduce the file size (from typically 50 MB to 2 MB). You will not be 
able to see a difference between the final TIFF and JPEG images. To 
preserve the possibility of re-editing the image later, keep the RAW 
file, which is much smaller than the TIFF file. Most of the time you 
can just edit the JPEG that comes out of the camera. Use this more 
time-consuming procedure only if you see banding.

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User Guide changes for v.10.2

(1)
General Editing Procedure (revised function of undo/redo buttons)

The image in the main window can be operated on with the edit menu 
functions. You can use these functions in any order, and the changes 
are accumulated for the current image and shown in the main window. 
The Toolbar [undo] and [redo] buttons can be used to review the 
before/after results for the last 99 edits of the current image. 
These buttons also work during an image edit to review the before/after 
results of the current edit function. When finished with an image, use 
[save] or [save-as] to replace the original file or save to a new file.


(2)
Tone Mapping (rewritten to be less technical)

Tone mapping increases the apparent brightness range of an image by 
increasing local contrast. It is especially useful to improve HDR images, 
but can also be applied to any image. HDR images often seem "flat" 
because the contrast between nearby pixels has been reduced to make the 
overall contrast fit within the available range (normally 8 bits per 
color). Tone Mapping increases the contrast between nearby pixels 
without increasing the overall contrast. It relies on the nature of 
human vision: contrast within a small angle is perceived more strongly 
than contrast over a large angle. Tone mapping also brings out subtle 
details (low contrast) that would otherwise be hard to notice.

Other methods can also be used: adjusting the brightness curve can 
increase contrast for a selected brightness range (possibly at the 
expense of others). Flattening the brightness distribution can spread 
the available contrast more evenly. Increasing color intensity and 
saturation can also bring out more detail. These methods operate 
globally: all pixels of a given color and brightness are processed 
the same. Tone mapping processes pixels differently depending on the 
brightness of surrounding pixels and is more effective at enhancing 
detail.

In the dialog, the graphic curve determines how much local contrast 
is increased depending on local contrast. The left end of the x-axis 
corresponds to low-contrast pixels and the right end high-contrast 
pixels. Normally the left side of the curve would be raised to increase 
the contrast of low-contrast pixels. The Constrain slider below the 
curve regulates the internal algorithmic calculation, from no 
constraint on the left to full constraint on the right. If moved too 
far to the left, the image will show artifacts (bright or dark "rays"), 
so push it right until these disappear.

The curve can be dragged with the mouse and its effect on the image 
will show up in a few seconds (depending on image or area size and CPU 
speed). The constraint slider also needs a few seconds to show up in 
the image. If more contrast is wanted, raise the curve. If uniform 
areas (e.g. sky) become mottled, pull the left end of the curve down 
to reduce amplification for low-contrast pixels. In some cases it 
will be best to select different areas of the image and process them 
separately, e.g. more conservative for sky, more aggressive for 
textured surfaces like stone walls.


(3)
View EXIF Data (table added)

Fotoxx uses the following EXIF keys:
  Date/Time Original   Edit Tags function - image date
  Keywords             Edit Tags function - image tags
  Rating               Edit Tags function - image stars
  Edit Status          history of fotoxx edits applied to the image


(4)
Edit EXIF data (new section)

A specific EXIF key can be added or revised. Enter the key name and 
press [fetch] to retrieve existing data, if any. Enter the new data 
and press [save] to save the new or revised data. Input the key name 
in lower case and without blanks, e.g. the key "User Comment" in 
View EXIF Data would be entered as "usercomment".


(5)
Delete EXIF data (new section)

This function allows deletion of a specified EXIF key, or all EXIF 
data at once. Input a key name in lower case and without blanks, e.g. 
the key "User Comment" in the View EXIF report would be entered as 
"usercomment".


