A guided look at every part of the single-image editor at /editor: the floating toolbar, the canvas tools in the top left, the header in the top right, and what each button and popover opens.
The image editor is built to keep your photo in the middle of the screen and every control within one click of it. There are no side panels. Everything lives in small floating bars, and each button opens a compact popover right above it. Click the same button again (or click anywhere outside the popover) to close it.
Open it at /editor. If you have never used it before, a short guided tour starts on desktop about a second after the page loads, pointing at upload, dither, presets, adjust and export.
| Region | Where | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Empty state | Center, before an image is loaded | Drop zone, try a sample, open studio |
| Canvas | Center | Your live preview |
| Canvas tools | Top left (desktop) | Upload, load .btg, crop, brush, color studio, compare, undo, redo, clear |
| Header | Top right | Studio link, account, theme, bug report, export allowance, Export button |
| Main toolbar | Bottom center (desktop) | Upload, random, colorize, effects, presets, grade, haze, filters, palette, adjust, export, studio, more |
| Image info | Bottom left (desktop) | Dimensions, ratio, megapixels, file size and format |
| Footer links | Bottom right (desktop) | Community recipes, privacy policy, terms |
On phones and small tablets the layout changes. See the mobile layout below.
Before you load anything, the center of the screen reads "drop an image, make it feel printed." Under it you get:
Everything about getting a picture in is covered in Opening images.
Once an image is loaded, the canvas shows the processed result, updated live as you change settings. A small loading indicator appears while a new render is being computed.
When Compare is on, a vertical divider splits the canvas. The left side shows your untouched photo, labelled Original, and the right side shows the result, labelled Edited. Drag the round handle to move the split.
This small pill of icon buttons only appears on desktop. Hover any icon to see its name.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Upload image | Opens the file picker to load a new photo. This replaces the current image and resets the look to defaults. |
| Load .BTG project | Opens a .btg project file saved from the editor and restores the image and its settings. |
| Crop | Opens the Crop image dialog. Drag the corner handles or drag inside the box to move it, then Apply crop. Reset returns to the full frame. |
| Brush effect | Opens the brush dialog for painting an effect onto part of the photo. See Selective brush. |
| Color studio | Opens Color studio, which reads the dominant colors of your photo and builds harmonies and a brand board. See Color palettes and LUTs. |
| Compare | Toggles the before and after split view. |
| Undo / Redo | Steps backward and forward through your look changes. |
| Clear | Removes the current image and returns to the empty state. |
Crop, brush, color studio, compare and clear are greyed out until an image is loaded. Undo and redo are greyed out until there is something to undo or redo.
Note: Undo and redo track your look settings (effects, sliders, palette, grade). Cropping and brush strokes change the photo itself and are not part of the undo history.
This is where you spend most of your time. From left to right:
| Button | What it opens or does |
|---|---|
| Logo | Opens the workspace switcher: darkroom (this image tool), studio and video. See The three workspaces. |
| upload | Opens the file picker, same as the canvas upload button. |
| random | Applies a random look from a curated set. See Presets and recipes. |
| colorize | Toggles color output on and off. Highlighted when color is on. |
| dither | Switches the effect to dithering and opens the Algorithm popover with the dither methods and the Factor slider. |
| halftone | Opens the halftone popover with its on and off switch and dot controls. |
| artistic | Opens Artistic effects, a menu of pop grunge, ascii, braille, contour, ink wash and manga. Picking one turns it on and opens its own controls. A small dot on the button means one of these is active. |
| presets | Opens the preset gallery with search and your saved presets. |
| grade | Opens Cinematic Color Grades, a gallery of film looks and duotone ramps. |
| haze | Opens the haze and bloom controls. Haze stacks on top of whatever effect you have. |
| filters | Opens Filters, a list of single-step filters: invert, grayscale, pixelate, blocky, dot matrix, posterize, duotone, warm grade, color wash, vignette and sharpen. |
| palette | Opens Palette, the list of color palettes plus Generate from image. |
| adjust | Opens the global sliders (resolution, contrast, brightness, saturation, hue) and the Print finish switch. |
| export | Opens the export panel. See Exporting. |
| batch | Opens Batch Export to run one look over up to 50 images. Pro, desktop only. See Batch processing. |
| studio | Takes you to /studio. |
| more | Opens a menu with Documentation, Blog, Showcase and Settings. |
Every button except the logo, upload, studio and more is disabled until an image is loaded. Hover a disabled button and it tells you to "Upload an image first".
For what each effect does and every slider inside those popovers, see the effects overview, Dithering, Halftone and print, ASCII and text textures, Filters and color and Creative effects.
The editor runs one main effect at a time. Choosing dither, halftone, an artistic effect or a filter replaces whatever was active before. Turning an effect off drops you back to dither. The exceptions are haze, which adds itself on top of the current effect, and palette, which recolors the output of any effect. Because switching the main effect replaces the whole effect list, pick your main effect first and turn haze on afterwards.
Picking a grade from the grade popover puts the editor into grade mode. The dither, halftone and artistic buttons, the filters button, and the palette and adjust buttons fade out, and hovering them shows "Remove color grade to edit effects". Open grade again and click Remove grade to get them back. Haze still works while a grade is on. More on this in Color palettes and LUTs.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Studio (new) | Takes you to /studio. Desktop only. |
| Account avatar | Opens sign in, or your account page when you are signed in. |
| Sun or moon | Switches between light and dark theme. |
| Bug icon | Opens a form to report a bug or request a feature. |
| PNG and SVG counters | Show your export allowance for each format. Clicking opens Settings. Desktop only. |
| Export | Opens the same export panel as the toolbar button. Desktop only. |
The export panel itself is documented in Exporting.
more holds links to the documentation, the blog and the showcase, plus Settings. Settings shows your account, a short note on how exports work on your plan with an unlock pro button, and a collapsible How it works section explaining that effects run in your browser and that unsynced work lives in browser storage.
On desktop, a small card shows facts about the loaded photo: its pixel dimensions, aspect ratio, megapixels, and (for your own uploads) the file size and format. For a converted file such as HEIC or RAW, this describes the converted JPEG.
The first time you use the editor, a small card near adjust tells you "Newspaper print finish is on". Print finish is a soft paper and ink pass that is enabled by default. Click Got it to dismiss the hint. You can switch the finish off under adjust. See Adjustments.
On narrow screens the canvas tools and the desktop toolbar are replaced by a two-row bar pinned to the bottom of the screen.
The top row has small icon buttons: undo, redo, color (the colorize toggle), compare, crop, randomize, clear, and more.
The bottom row has five large tabs:
| Tab | Opens |
|---|---|
| add | The file picker. |
| effects | A sheet listing dither, halftone, pop art, ascii, braille, contour, ink wash, manga, film grade, haze and bloom, filters, palette and selective brush. |
| adjust | The adjust sliders. |
| presets | The preset gallery. |
| export | The export panel. |
Panels open as a sheet above the bar with a title and a close button. Tap outside the sheet to close it. While a film grade is on, the locked rows in the effects sheet read "locked while a film grade is on". When you are viewing a sample image, a small badge at the top reads "Sample, export free".