Web Sharp Panel Version History

This release emphasizes quality improvements, but includes blur borders and simplified templates for Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest that allow you to keep the full image under a wide range of source aspect ratios (these are probably best for most use unless you intend to crop).

Updated [Pro]: Blur borders! This is similar to the current option to “keep full image (fill with blur)” but allows you to add a complete 4-sided blur around your image. Note that if blur borders cannot be used with “keep full image (fill with color)”. Ie you cannot put a blur border around a solid fill. The panel will automatically update the corresponding setting as needed to avoid a conflict.
Updated [Pro]: Adaptive quick export templates for Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Social media sites aren’t optimized for a single fixed landscape or portrait size. There is actually a wide range of optimal sizes. So rather than giving you fixed options, Web Sharp Pro now intelligently keeps as much as possible of your image when choosing these templates (marked with an *). Not only does this give you more flexibility to keep more of your image, you no longer need to switch between portrait and landscape options, it’s fully automatic to help save time and simplify batch exports.
Updated [Pro]: Removed the separate “landscape”, “square”, and “portrait” options for Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest as they are less flexible/useful than the new adaptive templates and keeping them creates unnecessary clutter. However, if you wish to continue using such quick exports for Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest, you may of course add them back by creating your own via the Quick Export Template Editor in Settings / Crop Overlay. Manual sizes for Facebook are 1200 wide with a height of 1500 for portrait, 1200 for square, or 628 for landscape. Manual sizes for Instagram are 1080 wide with a height of 1350 for portrait, 1080 for square, or 566 for landscape. Manual sizes for Pinterest are 1500 tall with a width of 1000 for portrait, 1500 for square, or 2250 for landscape. I would generally recommend using the new templates, unless you wish to crop an image square.
Updated [Pro]: "Remove sensitive metadata” now keeps existing keywords from the source document to help facilitate use of tagging for search engine optimization.
Updated: Added support for 32-bit source images.
Updated: Warning for excessive overlap with rows/columns now displays the % overlap for greater clarity.
Updated: Minor enhancements for non-RGB images to improve consistency.
Updated: When resetting preferences, you may now opt to keep user templates for Quick Export templates.
Updated: If using “do not convert” colorspace and adding annotations, final filename will show _DNC to differentiate from default conversion to sRGB.
Updated: Added a warning message when using watermark recoloring with a watermark source which is not white, as this will fail to produce the expected result.
Updated: When overlay crop is out of bounds and requests a border, fill defaults to same fill without asking.
Updated: Added a warning for artboards, which are not currently supported due the complexity involved.
Updated [Pro]: When working with a Smart Object watermark, recoloring now preserves the Smart Object.
Updated: Spaces in the middle of a template name no longer replaced with underscore (_).
Updated: Filename annotation starts with underscore (_) instead of dash(-).
Fixed: Could type in a dimension <10 pixels for output, which is useless and inconsistent with the minimum applied for scrubby sliders.
Fixed [Pro]: A single-layer Smart Object may be rasterized.
Fixed [Pro]: An error message importing watermarks into certain documents.
Fixed: “Sharpen” continues to show as “Save” when opening a new (unsharpened) file.
Fixed: Workarounds for a few issues where Photoshop bugs prevents creation of a new file using special characters which are otherwise valid for the host operating system or even in other uses of Photoshop. This will remove characters like #:\ from the output file name so that it may be safely processed.
Fixed: An error message when importing preferences from one computer to another.
Fixed: “Protect Sky” option fails.
Fixed: Watermarks may not be exported as expected.
Fixed [Pro]: An error message when using a watermark created in some color modes.
Fixed [Pro]: A watermark source file created in color modes may lose its background transparency. Note that if you imported such a watermark prior to this update, you may find that it has lost any transparent background. If that is the case, please re-import it or edit the watermark to create transparency as desired.
Fixed [Pro]: Final image may not be split into rows and columns as requested.
Fixed: An error message when using “saving to source” if the user gave permission to the full drive.
Fixed: Error message when adding one-off crop overlay andthe top layer was a group.
Fixed: <alt/option>-clicking to add an overlay template to the existing group fails to resize to fit the image when importing the new template(s).
Fixed: Added workaround for a PS bug that prevented working with certain 3rd party Smart Filters.
Fixed: A nuisance error message when using a source image with layer comps and leaving the outputs open.
Fixed: Mitigations to help avoid a nuisance error message when closing a background document manually.
Fixed: Source doc history is unnecessarily truncated.
Fixed: File rename on export allows the user to enter some forbidden characters.
Fixed: Workarounds to help avoid an error when creating / importing overlay templates.
Fixed: Choosing to output a unique name when there was a conflict may overwrite an existing JPG.
Fixed: Choosing to use a unique name and remember that setting for the future may result in the final file have two JPG extensions.
Fixed: Colorspace annotation for P3 / Adobe only added if image was left open and then saved.
Fixed: sRGB annotation added (intent is no annotation for this default output space).

Updated: Settings / General checkbox to request ability to rename the output when it is saved (ignored for Batch operations).
Updated [Pro]: You may now position watermarks at exact locations. This is achieved via overlay templates names with a flag: _wm###x###y where wm indicates request to use a watermark (nwm would indicate no watermark) and the ### represent the number of pixels to offset the top left corner of the watermark from the top left corner of the final image. (Note: Only zero or positive integers are valid. Watermark size is considered after trimming any blank pixels, and so its top-left position represents the top-left of the bounding box that would contain any pixels which are not fully transparent. If you wish to force inclusion of unused empty space in the watermark template, just add a 50% gray solid fill background at 1% opacity (or a single similar pixel in the corners). This will have no visible effect on the image. If you wish to view your template without the unused blank space, use Image / Trim in Photoshop.)
Fixed: When generic masks may not be properly imported or generate an error message when using “remove sensitive metadata”.
Fixed: “Sharpen” button should not be available in settings if the active document is the master template or a sharp doc left open.
Fixed: Output name may return _row or _col
Fixed: Incorrect cropping when using overlay with external border.
Fixed: Watermark is ignored on quick export.
Fixed: Overlay editor not available on Windows.
Fixed: Error message when sharpening an image with a background layer and “remove metadata” option enabled in settings.
Fixed: _w1 and _w0 overlay flags fail to use / not use watermark as requested.
Fixes to help avoid error 92734923764 when running the panel the first time.

New: Added Sharpening % slider to the main panel to allow quick changes. If you wish to preview different values, try <shift>-clicking “Sharpen” to create an unsaved image (which you may then simply discard).
New [Pro]: Options to add a border to either quick overlays or overlay templates. You may specify the width (in fixed pixels or percent of average image width/height), whether the border is inside (too keep final dimensions as specified) or outside (so the final image grows to keep the image constant), and border color.
New [Pro]: Fill options now include a blurred option, which allows you to use a fill which is harmonious with the image itself.
Updated [Pro]: Added drop shadow option for solid fills, blurs, and borders.
Updated [Pro]: Overlay editor lets you pick from all quick export templates to quickly set dimensions. Use this to create overlays which aren’t in the default master template or to use advanced overlay options.
New: “Add settings to filename” now also add the template name (current quick export or overlay) to the exported image’s filename to use the outputs. Note that anything after an opening parenthesis is removed. This allows you to hide extra info as well as prevent the overlay flags from being exported.
Updated [Pro]: Watermark may now be set as % of final image size (height).
Updated [Pro]: You may now set the watermark blend mode to get the exact visual look you desire.
Updated [Pro]: Added a watermark color option. When this is checked, the selected “color" will be applied to your watermark. This is an easy way to make an overlay look white, black, red, etc. Transparency and luminosity will remain unchanged.
Updated [Pro]: Added support for exports in AdobeRGB to provide a simple wide gamut option that works on both Windows and Mac.
Updated [Pro]: Added support for any RGB color space via “do not convert” option. Note that exporting as ProPhoto RGB or very low gamuts (such as “linear” ICC profiles) creates some risk of shadow noise/banding is not recommended as JPG is an 8-bit format. Unfortunately, there are no widely supported 16-bit formats designed for the small file sizes required for the web. I would recommend P3, AdobeRGB, or using "do not convert" for other profiles you may use such as Rec.2020.
Updated [Pro]: New overlay templates are now better designed to to facilitate resizing.
Updated: Template name (quick export or overlay) is added to the folder name when using sub-folders. This helps make it clear the intended use for each.
Updated [Pro]: Added square and portrait quick export sizes for Facebook.
Updated [Pro]: Pinterest dimensions increased per new recommendations. Note that Pinterest only recommends vertical (portrait) pins, so they will warn you if you use the square or landscape templates.
Updated [Pro]: When new system templates are added, they will attempt to sort in the intended default order. If the templates have already been sorted, results may vary.
Updated [Pro]: Upon importing a watermark, the “apply watermark” option will be automatically checked.
New [Pro]: <ctrl/cmd>-click “Sharpen” to export with no sharpening or grain to create a “before” reference. File name will be appended to indicate no sharpening or grain.
Updated: Popup for out of bounds crops is now also shown when using Quick Exports. This allows you to intentionally crop out of bounds in order to add a fill or blur. For example, you may <alt/option><shift>-click and drag from a corner when cropping in order to easily enlarge the cropped area and fill the resulting blank areas.
Updated: The Manual (WxH) quick export now allows you to specify a single dimension and the other will be set automatically to export the full image.
Updated [Pro[: Overlay editor now allows specification of just 1 dimension in template editor (via the manual drop option). This makes it easy to specify an output for a target width or height which will keep the full image, which may be particularly helpful for creating splits and panoramas. These templates assume the aspect ratio of the document into which they are imported and will therefore be resized to fit the full image at the time they are imported. (Note that safe width/height are not available when a dimension is left blank.)
Updated: Pixels are locked when leaving the image open to prevent accidentally painting on the sharpening image instead of its layer mask.
Updated [Pro]: General Settings now includes an option to set output document resolution to custom values (other than the default 72 dpi).
Updated [Pro]: When choosing a dropdown size in the template editor, the name field will be automatically updated if it was blank. This makes it faster to quickly create one-off templates with names matching the quick export source.
Updated [Pro]: “Add overlay grid” is checked by default for new templates.
Updated: <alt/option>-click “Crop Overlay” to select overlays to import. If you used the previous shortcut to clear overlays, just click normally and choose the option to delete.
Updated [Pro]: Improved formatting for the list when importing just selected overlays.
Updated: Revised the layout of Settings for clarity and to help make it more clear which settings apply to quick exports vs overlay templates vs both.
Updated [Pro]: Overlay template editor shows row / column size when set to 1 to help clarify splits.
Updated: Overlay editor now shows row / column details when using “auto” options.
Updated [Pro]: Reorganized watermark tab.
Updated: Made it more obvious that color swatches in dialogs are interactive.
Updated: Improved styling of main panel.
Updated: A warning and the option to undo are offered when a crop overlay is resized incorrectly (not proportionally).
Updated: Solid Fill and Content Aware overlay template flags updated to _fs and _fc to be more consistent with the new _fb option to “fill blur”. The legacy flags should work, but you may wish to update your template names.
Updated: Solid fill is done on a separate layer (not merged with the image layer) to allow you to revise fill / border color when leaving images open.
Updated: Quick export inputs in main panel are disabled when viewing the overlay template or an already sharpened image, as these are not useful at that time.
Updated: Settings / Crop Overlay custom color swatch hidden when disabled.
Updated: Panel now warns if you move a hidden overlay template, which is probably not the intended target.
Updated: Crop dimming will adapt when toggling the internal use layer as well.
Updated [Pro]: Added a notification for rows/columns that splits will be applied upon using “SAVE” when leaving the output open to refine.
Updated: “Save” button shows in blue only when file has has unsaved changes.
Updated [Pro]: “Batch” button only shows in blue when there are no documents open as there is no need to call attention to this option when working with a specific image (but it is still available and works the same).
Updated: Sharpen and Batch buttons in the settings popup are always available, as you will now be prompted if an output folder needs to be set and you are not leaving images open.
Updated [Pro]: Batch button greyed out when viewing an image which has been left open to help emphasize the relevant options for finishing the image.
Updated [Pro]: Settings / Main / Cropping options renamed to be more clear.
Updated: Reduced zooming during processing for less flicker.
Updated: Reordered tabs in settings to better reflect importance.
Updated: The internal copy of a watermark is converted to RGB upon import (avoids issues with alternative color spaces, such as indexed color).
Updated: Removed “Set height and width from overlay template when possible” from settings. An overlay template now always used its dimensional information when provided.
Updated: Selected tab in settings remembered from session to session (previously only until PS restarted).
Updated: [Pro]: If there are empty pixels when using a border, any unspecified letterbox color will default to the border color. This makes it easier to quickly filling small edge gaps with a matching color (but you may still choose to use content-aware fill instead).
Updated: User is now prompted to select an output folder if not set. Was throwing an error message if clicking “Save” with a file left open before having set the default output folder in preferences.
Updated [Pro]: User is now prompted to give permission if exporting quick exports to a destination file that already exists (previously caused an error message).
Updated [Pro]: Reorganized the advanced settings dialog to better group related concepts, and revised some names for clarity.
Updated [Pro]: Overlap % feedback in template editor is more precise for overlap <10%.
Updated: Added a workaround to help protect against a PS bug on Windows that may cause a button to respond as if clicked twice if there are no documents open.
Updated [Pro]: The internal copy of a watermark is converted to RGB upon import (avoids issues with alternative color spaces, such as indexed color).
Updated [Pro]: Overlay template may now force watermark. Add “_w0” to force no watermark or “_w1” to force use of watermark. Other watermark settings inherited from default Settings.
Updated [Pro]: Added a warning message if a watermark is requested but the source file is missing.
Updated [Pro]: “Overlay tips” can now be left on screen while you edit your overlay template.
Updated [Pro]: "Use title for file name” option in settings. If this is checked and the source file has a title metadata attribute set, it will be used for the output filename. This is helpful when setting names in Lightroom while keeping the original filename.
Updated [Pro]: Added square and portrait quick export sizes for Facebook.
Updated: Enhancements to support future updates.
Fixed [Pro]: Custom Quick exports does not calculate secondary dimension to scale full image when only one dimension is provided.
Fixed [Pro]: An error when importing crop overlays and cancelling.
Fixed [Pro]: User could select multiple crop overlay files during import, resulting in an error.
Fixed [Pro]: Watermark edit button available even if watermark file is missing.
Fixed: Watermark loses its transparency.
Fixed: An error message if there was an unusable overlay template group.
Fixed [Pro]: An error message when exporting crop overlay templates.
Fixed [Pro]: An error message when adding a one-off overlay template to an image which already has overlay templates.
Fixed [Pro]: An error message when adding an overlay template if the main overlay group was hidden.
Fixed [Pro]: Selection was used for pre-crop with overlay templates.
Fixed [Pro]: "Long edge" quick export does not keep full image.
Fixed: Crop dimming may not look correct under certain conditions.
Fixed: New Web Sharpen group may not be red color.
Fixed: Warning for transforming hidden overlays did not show if the first one was transformed.
Fixed: Color picker may cause unwanted changes to a shape layer.
Fixed: Popup message during settings may become unresponsive to button clicks (such as confirmation after importing a watermark).
Fixed: Popup message during settings may become unresponsive to button clicks (such as confirmation after importing a watermark).
Fixed: Could not save to folders using some valid but unusual characters.
Fixed: Overlay template popup was unresponsive.
Fixed: An error message when cancelling the Quick Export preset import file picker.
Fixed: Additional robustness checks to prevent conflicts when another panel is active.

Updated: Optimizations for faster crop overlay import.
Updated: Sharpening slider snaps to nearest 10% (smaller increments are too minor to have significant visual impact, but you may still hold <ctrl/cmd> if you want more control to move in increments of 1%).
Updated [Pro]: The one-off template editor (<shift>-clicking “Crop Overlay”) offers a new “original ratio (document)” option so that you may create a template based on the current document. (This is not offered in the template editor, since its size is unrelated to any subsequent use in various images).
Updated [Pro]: Increased width for the quick export editor to better show long names.
Updated [Pro]: Quick export editor now includes scrubby options for setting height / width (just click and drag on the labels, hold <ctrl/cmd> for more control or <shift> for faster changes).
Updated [Pro]: Quick export editor now warns if no height or width has been provided for a user template.
Updated [Pro]: “Full size (as is)” has been renamed to “Full size (document)”. It will show as “Full size (selection)” if the pre-crop setting is checked and there is an active selection.
Updated: Quick export’s original ratio now says “(selection)” instead of “(document)" when using the appropriate setting and there is an active selection to make it more clear what is controlling the aspect ratio.
Updated: Grain size / roughness sliders snap to 5% (smaller increments are too minor to have significant visual impact, but you may still hold <ctrl/cmd> if you want more control to move in increments of 1%).
Updated: Settings / Main: Crop dropdown has been updated to be more clear that these options affect quick export and to note the fill option.
Updated: Prompt to set the output folder is no longer dismissible, as this folder does not need to be reset for every PS session.
Updated: Watermark sliders snap to nearest 5 value (smaller increments are possible by holding <ctrl/cmd> while sliding).
Updated: Added warning if multiple versions of the panel are installed (if you have installed Web Sharp Pro, you should disable or uninstall the free Web Sharp panel).
Updated [Pro]: Added 2:1 and 3:1 panoramic ratios.
Updated [Pro]: Added some short descriptors for some ratios (such as “pano” for 3x1 or “cinematic” for16x9)
Updated [Pro]: Quick export ratios now default to landscape orientation on first use.
Updated: New documents now now reflects 72 dpi (this has no effect on the actual whatsoever).
Updated: Warning message about a Photoshop bug which impacts use of the panel when working with certain Smart Filters.
Updated: Crop overlay button is now greyed out when working with an already sharpened document to help guide the workflow.
Updated: Utilities / Reset all panel preferences to defaults now shows in red to urge caution (just resetting notifications is more typically what’s desired).
Updated [Pro]: Added link to customer support group in the welcome popup.
Updated [Pro]: “Crop overlay” now offers option to add one-off generic sharpen / grain masks, so that you may add them later or delete the generic mask and start over clean without resetting all the overlays.
Updated [Pro]: Generic sharpen / grain mask names updated to be easier to read.
Fixed: When using the appropriate setting and an active selection to pre-crop, “Full size” and “Original Ratio” quick export dimensions did not update to reflect impact of the selected area.
Fixed: An error message when another panel was in use.
Fixed: Error using the “Save for Web” compression option on Windows.
Fixed: Settings / Quick Export editor tooltip was inaccurate.
Fixed: Canceling output folder showed a warning, even though previous value was still valid.
Fixed: Error message (8968623423423) on older builds of PS 2021.
Fixed: Error using the “Save for Web” compression option on Windows.
Fixed: Error message when clicking to import a watermark and cancelling the dialog.
Fixed: Error message when adding one-off template with a grid.
Fixed [Pro]: clicking <enter> in one-off template editor creates template cancels the dialog.
Fixed [Pro]: Scrolling in quick export editor during move up/down was erratic.
Fixed: Quick export editor would not clear you clear height / width.
Fixed: Batch continues if users cancels during warning about hidden overlay.

Updated [Pro]: “Crop Overlay” can now be used to add a custom template to the current document. This allows you to create new overlays without having to add them to the master template. Just <shift>-click Crop Overlay, or choose it from the options when clicking “Crop Overlay” if you already have overlays.
Updated [Pro]: Added support for batch processing RAW files. [Note: if your image has an XMP “ idecar" file in the same folder, the RAW processing will be used. If you are using Lightroom, go to the Catalog settings and check “automatically write changes into XMP” so that future edits are saved in sidecar files, this will allow you to batch process RAW files edited in Lightroom without having to export temporary files from Lightroom.]
Updated [Pro]: Template editor now includes option to override default sharpening amount.
Updated [Pro]: Template editor now includes option to override default grain amount (size/roughness options not available here, just edit the overlay name if further customization desired).
Updated [Pro]: Template editor now includes option to set margins in template to help visualize safe width/height.
Updated [Pro]: Template editor layout visually updated (cropping and override color grouped).
Updated: A keyword is added to the exported file to note the overlay / quick export / layer comp used to produce it. This allows you to help sort and search the output in Lightroom (search for “contains words” or "contains all” when searches include a space).
Updated: Added flyout menu link to release notes for the panel.
Updated: Automatic cleanup of unused internal layers, to make it easier to manually delete overlays one at a time.
Updated [Free]: Info about Web Sharp Pro panel.
Updated: Output folder is now remembered (no need to specify it every time you load the panel).
Updated: Panel icon colors (to help differentiate free and pro panels)
Updated: Long output folder names in Settings are now truncated with …
Updated: Speed optimizations when using grain.
Updated: Updated popup behavior so that <tab> moves better through input fields.
Updated [Pro]: Added “Crop” label to the crop dropdown options.
Updated [Pro]: Added scrubby input for column/row dimensions (ie, click and drag the text label to change the numeric values).
Updated: When choosing “remove metadata”, the creation date in the original tab is now preserved (as well as copyright, which was already preserved). Note that the “date created” field in the Basic tab is actually separate and set by the file system and will therefore continue to reflect the date the new sharpening file was created.
Updated: Robustness improvements to handle opening and immediately closing an image.
Updated [Free]: Added button in free panel welcome menu to learn more about the Pro panel.
Updated: If no documents are open, clicking “Crop Overlay” will ask if you would like to edit the master template.
Updated [Pro]: New one-off overlays are now visible when created.
Updated: Added a warning for improper settings.
Updated: Added some additional error checks.
Updated [Pro]: List of batch filenames truncated for simplicity.
Fixed [Pro]: Quick export still prompted to crop even when dropdown is set to use letterbox.
Fixed [Pro]: Could not ctrl/shift-click to select multiple files for “Batch”.
Fixed [Pro]: Batch attempted to proceed after canceling file picker.
Fixed [Pro]: An error message when using layer comps.
Fixed [Pro]: Multi-column output creates wrong number of columns
Fixed [Pro]: Improper error message about row overlap when splitting too rows.
Fixed [Pro]: Advanced template editor overlap estimate was incorrect.
Fixed [Pro]: When leaving document open, final output may be flattened instead of showing separate sharpening/grain layers.
Fixed [Pro]: Overlay template rotation may be ignored.
Fixed [Pro]: Multiple prompts asking about layer comps when processing a file with multiple overlays.
Fixed: An error with some options when processing untagged images.
Fixed: “_ca” or “_lb” flag may be ignored if followed by “)"
Fixed: Wide popup message may not be fully visible.
Fixed: Could not set inputs for batch with no document open.
Fixed [Pro]: Batch allowed to proceed when missing dimensions (as required per quick export dropdown).
Fixed [Pro]: “use full size” quick export showed irrelevant numbers for height/width if no documents were open.
Fixed: Enhancements to avoid nuisance message when closing documents.
Fixed: Adding protections to avoid error 9010 when closing a document
Fixed: Utilities / reset info popups may not make some dialogs reappear.
Fixed: Formatting of popup dialog for untagged images.

A panel interface within Photoshop for easy access to sharpen at any time (also includes quick access to tutorials).
Extremely high-quality sharpening so that your images look their best.
New: Interactive cropping overlay templates to help you get the perfect crop.
New: Save custom preset sizes for Facebook, Instagram, etc (via the cropping overlays).
New: Output multiple sizes (or color conversions) of the image at once.
New: Add copyright metadata to images.
Remove sensitive metadata (GPS location, etc).
Automatic color space conversion to sRGB (or optionally to P3 on macOS).
Add film grain for a dreamy, nostalgic quality.
Multiple compression options to control the balance between file size and quality.