Hi,
I using the latest “Elite” version on a Mac and want to confirm that I have some understanding of how presets work.
There are two types of preset: a preset which I call a full preset below and a partial present.
Full Preset : A full present contains settings for every PL5 settings panel and when used on an image that has already had some edits will change these edits to those contained in the preset. This includes setting which were not active when the preset was saved. So a “full” preset may be thought of as a starting point as it overwrites everything that was set before it was applied. When exported these text files list every panel setting and the settings are listed as SettingNameActive = true or SettingNameActive = false followed by slider values.
Partial Preset : A partial preset is created by editing a full preset. In edit mode panels may be either selected or deselected with deselected being shown with a cross hatch left margin and selected panels with a blue left margin. When used on an image only the panels that were selected when the partial preset was saved will be modified by the partial preset. When exported the resulting text file is smaller than the full preset as it only contains the settings for the selected panels.
In my opinion creating a partial preset is more difficult than it should be as the process in long winded and error prone. However one possible solution is to edit a full preset removing any items that you wish to remain untouched by the partial preset.
So how did I do? Am I close to understanding DXO PL5 presets?
I have been unfair to DxO in that creating a partial preset is not to complex or time consuming. In my example I wanted to create a partial preset that only makes a crop. This is created by first creating an Empty Preset using the presets menu. Next edit this empty preset and navigate to the crop control and make the crop. Next save what is now a partial preset and rename it as required.
To prove to myself that this works I exported the partial preset and loaded it into textedit :
Depending on how one interprets certain words, you’re spot on.
This is what the user guide says:
Full presets cover all the existing corrections available in the Customize tab, meaning that each correction has a status of either activated (with defined setting parameters) or deactivated.
Partial presets, on the other hand, cover only a limited number of corrections among all existing corrections, with the status of some corrections remaining undefined.
Imo, the word “undefined” should be understood as “unchanged”, specially in a situation where several partial presets are applied consecutively.
DxO’s wording leaves some white space too… “Available in the Customize tab” depends on workspace settings, which means that something that is a partial preset in the DxO Advanced workspace can become a full preset in the DxO Standard workspace…
