Filters & Adjustments

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Paint Forge includes over 50 filters and adjustments that can be applied in two ways: destructively via the Properties panel (Filters tab) on a raster layer, or non-destructively as adjustment layers that can be toggled, reordered, and edited at any time. All filters follow a fixed pipeline order, so the final result is always predictable regardless of which order you change settings.

A split-view mode lets you drag a vertical divider across the canvas to compare the original image with the filtered result in real time.

Open the Command Palette with Ctrl+K and type a filter name to jump straight to it. Use Ctrl+R to re-apply the last filter you used.

The editor showing a colorful plasma-textured raster layer with a Curves adjustment layer stacked above it in the Layers panel. — A Curves adjustment layer stacked above a raster layer. Adjustment layers are non-destructive — toggle the eye icon to compare the original and edited result, drag them to a different stack position to change which layers they affect, or right-click to clip the adjustment to the single layer immediately below.

Preset Filters

One-click presets that apply a curated combination of adjustments. Great for quick stylistic looks without tweaking individual sliders.

Preset	Description
Grayscale	Converts the image to neutral black-and-white by desaturating all color channels.
Sepia	Applies a warm, brownish tone reminiscent of aged photographs.
Invert	Inverts all color channels, producing a photographic negative effect.
Vintage	Faded colors with warm tint and slight vignette for a retro film look.
Cold	Shifts the overall color balance toward cool blue tones.
Warm	Shifts the overall color balance toward warm orange/yellow tones.
Dramatic	High-contrast look with deepened shadows and boosted highlights.
Fade	Lifts black levels and reduces contrast for a washed-out, matte appearance.
Vignette	Darkens the corners and edges, drawing the eye toward the center of the image.
Film Grain	Adds random luminance noise to simulate analog film grain texture.
Duotone	Maps the image to two colors based on luminance, creating a striking two-tone effect.

Tonal Adjustments

Controls for the overall brightness, contrast, and tonal distribution of the image. These are applied early in the filter pipeline and form the foundation of most editing workflows.

Adjustment	Range	Description
Levels	Input 0–255, Output 0–255, Gamma	Remaps the tonal range with input/output sliders and a gamma control. Histogram-based for precise tonal correction.
Curves	Per-channel control points	Per-channel lookup table via monotone cubic Hermite spline. Interactive curve editor with 5 built-in presets: S-Curve Contrast, Fade/Matte, Cross Process, High Key, and Low Key.
Exposure	-5 to +5 EV	Adjusts overall image exposure in exposure-value (EV) stops, simulating camera exposure compensation.
Highlights	-100 to 100	Recovers or boosts detail in the brightest areas of the image.
Shadows	-100 to 100	Lifts or deepens detail in the darkest areas of the image.
Dehaze	0 to 100	Removes atmospheric haze using a dark channel prior algorithm, restoring contrast and color depth.
Brightness	-100 to 100	Uniformly increases or decreases the lightness of all pixels.
Contrast	-100 to 100	Expands or compresses the tonal range around the midpoint.

Levels and Curves are applied first in the pipeline, making them ideal for corrective tonal work before creative color adjustments.

Color Adjustments

Fine-tune color balance, saturation, hue, and per-channel mixing. These controls follow the tonal adjustments in the pipeline.

Adjustment	Range	Description
Saturation	-100 to 100	Increases or decreases the intensity of all colors uniformly.
Vibrance	-100 to 100	Intelligent saturation that boosts muted colors more than already-saturated ones, protecting skin tones.
Lightness	-100 to 100	Adjusts perceived lightness in HSL color space.
Temperature	-100 to 100	Shifts the white balance along the blue-to-yellow axis.
Tint	-100 to 100	Shifts the white balance along the green-to-magenta axis.
Hue	-180° to 180°	Rotates all colors around the hue wheel by the specified number of degrees.
Color Balance	RGB shifts per tonal range	Applies separate red/green/blue shifts to shadows, midtones, and highlights independently.
Selective Color	Per-hue CMYK	Adjusts cyan, magenta, yellow, and black amounts within 9 color ranges (reds, oranges, yellows, greens, cyans, blues, purples, magentas, neutrals). Supports relative and absolute methods.
Channel Mixer	3×3 RGB matrix + constant offset	Remaps each output channel as a weighted mix of all input channels. Includes a Monochrome preset for precise B&W conversions.
Split Toning	Hue, Saturation, Balance	Applies separate color tints to highlights and shadows with a balance slider to control the crossover point.
Gradient Map	Color stops with blend strength	Maps image luminance to a custom color gradient. Ships with 5 presets (Classic B&W, Warm Sunset, Cool Twilight, Vintage Sepia, Duotone Blue).
Desaturation	Mode, Strength 0–100	Converts color to grayscale using one of 5 algorithms: Luminosity (Rec. 709), Average, Maximum, Lightness, or Custom RGB weights. Blend strength mixes with the original at partial values.

Detail Adjustments

Sharpen, smooth, or extract detail from the image. These adjustments are applied after color adjustments in the pipeline.

Adjustment	Range	Description
Clarity	0 to 100	Enhances midtone contrast to bring out structure and texture without affecting global contrast.
CLAHE	Tile size 3–16, Clip limit 1–10, Strength 0–100	Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization. Boosts local contrast tile-by-tile while clipping the histogram to limit noise amplification — strong for recovering detail in flat or hazy regions.
Sharpen	0 to 100	Standard unsharp-mask sharpening applied uniformly to the entire image.
Smart Sharpen	Amount 0–100, Radius 1–10, Threshold 0–50	Edge-aware sharpening that only sharpens pixels above the edge threshold, avoiding halo artifacts on smooth areas.
Denoise	0 to 100	Reduces noise using a 3×3 median blend, smoothing random pixel variation while preserving edges.
High-Pass	Radius 1–100, Strength 0–100	Extracts fine detail and texture by subtracting a blurred copy from the original, centered at 128 gray. Essential for frequency-separation retouching workflows.
Median Filter	Radius 1–10, Strength 0–100	Edge-preserving noise reduction that finds the median color value in a neighborhood per channel. Unlike blur, it removes noise while keeping hard edges sharp. Strength blends with the original.

High-Pass at a low radius (2\u20135 px) is excellent for skin retouching when used on a separate layer with Overlay or Soft Light blend mode.

Effects

Creative and stylistic effects ranging from blur and noise to artistic simulations like oil painting and halftone printing.

Effect	Controls	Description
Blur	0 to 100	Standard Gaussian-style box blur applied uniformly across the image.
Motion Blur	Angle 0–360°, Distance 0–100 px	Directional blur along a specified angle, simulating camera or subject motion.
Radial Blur	Zoom or Spin mode, Amount, Center	Blur radiating from a center point. Zoom mode creates speed lines; Spin mode creates rotational blur.
Lens Blur	Radius 1–12, Aperture (disk/hexagon/pentagon/star), Aspect, Angle, Highlight threshold/boost, Chromatic aberration	Photographic depth-of-field blur with a shaped aperture for realistic bokeh. Bright pixels above the highlight threshold bloom into bokeh disks, and optional chromatic aberration adds color fringing.
Tilt-Shift	Focus position, Width, Blur, Feather, Angle	Simulates shallow depth-of-field with an adjustable in-focus band. Configurable position, width, blur intensity, feather softness, and rotation angle.
Noise	0 to 100	Adds random luminance noise to the image.
Pixelate	0 to 100	Reduces the image to larger square blocks, creating a mosaic effect.
Halftone	Mode (dots/lines/dither), Dot size 2–20, Angle 0–180°, Strength 0–100	Three halftone modes: Dots renders luminance-proportional circles in a rotated grid; Lines renders variable-thickness lines; Dither uses a 4×4 Bayer matrix for ordered dithering.
Posterize	0 to 100	Reduces the number of color levels per channel, creating flat color bands.
Threshold	0 to 255	Converts the image to pure black and white at the specified luminance cutoff.
Vignette	Strength, Radius, Softness, Roundness, Center X/Y	Parametric edge darkening (or lightening with negative strength) with configurable shape, softness, and center offset.
Emboss	Strength 0–100, Angle 0–360°, Depth 1–10	Applies a 3×3 directional convolution kernel to create a raised/embossed surface effect. Light direction controlled by angle.
Oil Painting	Radius 1–10, Intensity 2–20	Kuwahara-style filter that groups neighborhood pixels by luminance and outputs dominant bin averages, simulating thick oil paint brush strokes.
Edge Detection	Strength 0–100, Mode (edges/overlay)	Sobel 3×3 convolution kernels for horizontal and vertical gradients. Edges mode outputs white lines on black; Overlay mode composites edges on top of the original image.
Solarize	Threshold 0–255, Blend 0–100	Inverts color channels above the threshold value, creating a classic darkroom solarization effect.
Bloom	Threshold 0–255, Intensity 0–100, Radius 1–50	Extracts bright pixels above the luminance threshold, blurs them, and composites back with additive blending to create a dreamy cinematic glow on highlights.
Glitch	Red/Blue X/Y offset ±50 px, Scan line intensity/gap	Displaces the red and blue color channels independently while keeping green fixed. Optional scan lines with configurable intensity and gap for a retro digital distortion look.
Chromatic Aberration	Amount	Simulates lens fringing by shifting color channels outward from the center of the image.
Morphological	Mode (erode/dilate), Radius 1–10	Erode shrinks bright regions (minimum filter); Dilate expands them (maximum filter). Uses a circular structuring element applied per RGB channel. Useful for expanding/shrinking selections and creative effects.

Distortion Filters

Geometric distortion effects that warp pixel positions using backward mapping with bilinear interpolation for smooth results.

Filter	Controls	Description
Lens Distortion	Mode (barrel/pincushion/fisheye), Strength, Center X/Y	Simulates optical lens distortion. Barrel pushes edges outward, pincushion pulls them inward, and fisheye applies an extreme wide-angle warp.
Distortion	Mode (bulge/pinch), Strength, Radius, Center X/Y	Localized displacement around a center point. Bulge pushes pixels outward; Pinch pulls them inward.
Twirl	Angle, Radius, Center X/Y	Rotational displacement that twists pixels around a center point, with the effect fading toward the radius edge.
Wave	X/Y Amplitude 0–100, Frequency 1–50, Phase 0–360°	Sinusoidal displacement along independent X and Y axes with per-axis amplitude, frequency, and phase controls.
Ripple	Amplitude 0–50, Frequency 1–30, Damping 0–100	Concentric radial displacement emanating from a center point, simulating a water ripple. Damping controls how quickly the effect fades toward the edges.

Auto Corrections

One-click automatic adjustments that analyze the image histogram or color distribution and apply corrections. Found in the Properties panel Filters section and the Image menu.

Action	Description
Auto Levels	Computes the luminance histogram with a 0.5% clip at each end and returns an optimized Levels configuration.
Auto Contrast	Performs an independent per-channel histogram stretch, expanding each RGB channel to the full 0–255 range individually.
Auto White Balance	Uses the gray-world assumption to scale each RGB channel so their averages converge to the overall luminance average.
Auto Enhance	Applies a combined automatic enhancement that includes levels, contrast, and white-balance corrections in one step. Falls back to the active raster layer when no image object is selected.

Destructive on raster layers

Auto corrections write directly to the active raster layer's pixels and can't be re-tuned after the fact. For a non-destructive workflow, run Auto Levels on an adjustment layer instead — it generates a Levels configuration you can tweak afterward.

3D LUT Import

Paint Forge supports importing professional .cube 3D LUT (Look-Up Table) files for color grading. LUTs are widely used in professional photography and video workflows to apply complex, hardware-calibrated color transforms that are difficult to replicate manually with standard adjustment sliders.

Import any standard .cube LUT file from the Filters panel or as an adjustment layer.
The LUT is applied after the Gradient Map step in the filter pipeline.
LUT strength is blendable (0-100%) so you can mix with the original.
Works with both destructive (Filters panel) and non-destructive (adjustment layer) workflows.

Filter Presets

Save and recall complete filter configurations as named presets. Paint Forge ships with 5 built-in presets:

Cinematic — high contrast with warm color grading
Faded Film — lifted blacks with desaturated tones
High Contrast B&W — punchy monochrome conversion
Warm Sunset — golden-hour color shift with vignette
Cool Arctic — blue-toned with enhanced highlights

Custom presets can be saved from the current filter state, renamed, deleted, and managed from the Presets section at the top of the Filters panel. Presets can also be exported to a JSON file and imported on another machine.

Batch Apply

When you have a filter configuration you want to apply across multiple layers, use the Apply to All Visible Layers button in the Filters panel. This iterates through every visible, non-adjustment, non-group layer and destructively applies the current filter settings to each layer's raster content in a single history entry.

Because this operation is destructive and cannot be partially undone, a confirmation dialog is shown before proceeding. The batch apply action is also available from the Image menu and the Command Palette (Ctrl+K then search “batch filter”).

Repeat Last Filter

Press Ctrl+R to instantly re-apply the most recently used filter preset or adjustment with the exact same settings. This is useful when applying the same creative look to multiple layers in sequence. The last applied filter is tracked across preset applications and manual slider adjustments in the Filters panel.

The Repeat Last Filter action is also available from the Image menu and the Command Palette.

Before/After Split View

Toggle the split-view mode from the Filters panel to display a draggable vertical divider on the canvas. The left side shows the original, unfiltered image while the right side shows the result with all current filters applied. Drag the divider to compare any region of the image.

Activated via the split-view toggle button in the Filters panel header
Mutually exclusive with the before/after eye toggle (only one can be active)
Automatically disabled when the selection changes, filters are reset, or the panel unmounts
The divider position is preserved as long as the split view remains active

Pipeline Order Reference

Filters are always applied in the following fixed order, regardless of the order in which you adjust the sliders:

Levels → Curves → Channel Mixer → Exposure → Highlights → Shadows → Dehaze → Brightness → Contrast → Saturation → Vibrance → Lightness → Color Balance → Selective Color → Split Toning → Temperature → Tint → Hue → Desaturation → Gradient Map → Color Replace → LUT → Vignette → Posterize → Solarize → Threshold → Invert → CLAHE → Noise → Denoise → Morphological → Median → Blur → Motion Blur → Radial Blur → Lens Blur → Tilt-Shift → Oil Painting → Pixelate → Halftone → Clarity → Sharpen → Smart Sharpen → High-Pass → Emboss → Edge Detection → Bloom → Glitch → Chromatic Aberration → Lens Distortion → Distortion → Twirl → Wave → Ripple

Corrective adjustments (levels, curves, exposure) are applied first so that creative effects (blur, distortion, bloom) operate on an already-corrected image.

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