Are presets compatible between versions?

DxO PhotoLab
1

Is it safe to save customs presets from V6 and import them in V8 ?

2

I’m certainly still using presets from earlier versions. Just don’t try it the other way around

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3

Thanks.
I didn’t want to introduce a bug on my fresh v8 installation.

4

Upgrade from PL7 to (licensed) PL8 on Windows has automatically copied my own PL7 presets to PL8 directories, making them ready to use straight away. Not sure about Mac, PL6, or trial version.

Forward compatibility: PL8 preinstalled presets are likely to be the same as in PL7, except for ’ 1 - DxO Style - Natural’, ‘2 - DxO Standard’, ‘3 - DxO Optical Corrections only’, which are Version 19.0 and contain ToneCurveLuminancePoints and ToneCurveLuminanceGamma parameters, not present in PL7. Basically nothing new in presets since PL7.

5

I downloaded upgrade from DxO website and run the installer. I didn’t installed from previous version. (I had v6 installed, not v7).

6

As @Joanna advises; forward compatibility is maintained.

This is true even for features that have changed in later versions of PL - - For example;

  • Sadly and unfortunately (in my personal view !) the “Color Accentuation” tool in PLv6 was conflated into the HSL tool (starting with PLv7)

  • An “old” partial-preset that I have (created with/for PLv6) still works with PLv7 & PLv8 to modify corresponding settings in the HSL tool.

1 Like
7

Sorry for my confusing statement. What I meant is the following:

Except for the 3 mentioned above, you can use PL8 predefined presets in PL7. However, there seems no point of doing that, because they are very probably identical. If you want to use your custom PL8 preset in PL7, remove the ToneCurveLuminancePoints and ToneCurveLuminanceGamma settings, if present, and change the Settings version to, say 18.1. You might also have to change the denoise settings, if it was DPXD2S.

In the other direction, PL7 presets can be used in PL8 unchanged. On Windows, PL7 and PL8 contain DxO.PhotoLab.Compatibility.V{n}.dll libraries, where {n} is 7,8,…,18 for PL7 and 7,8,…,18,19 for PL8.

During PL7->PL8 upgrade, my PL7 presets were automatically “imported” to PL8 without any change, including the Settings.Version.

8

New versions of DPL can add new functional/customisable settings, the defaults of which are contained in the presets that come with the application.

If, for whatever reason, one wants to use a “new” preset in an “old” version of PL, one can change the version number(s) in the presets and in most cases, the old app will accept the new preset. Sure enough, any new function cannot be used and, thanks DxO for that, the old app will in most cases simply ignore settings of any functions that are only found in the new app.

Summary

  • Old presets can be used in new apps
  • New presets can only be used in old apps when the presets have been edited.

Please be aware that presets are not meant to be manually modified. We can do this today with a text editor, but this might not forever be the case.

1 Like