2026-10-09 APP 2.0.0-beta48 has been released !
This is mainly a bug fix release for the reported bugs in beta47. In addition it has a significant User Interface performance improvement noticable when you need to process 1000s of images in APP.
2026-10-03 APP 2.0.0-beta47 has been released !
This is a very big release... many code optimizations/rewrites, many parts of APP are much faster and more precise, especially star analysis and registration are much faster ! Big mosaics will go much faster 🙂
And we introduce a new preview filter, which includes the new Adaptive Deep Sky Stretch and a General Levels Stretch, this has been long over due. The old preview filter (the panel on the right side to stretch and preview your data) has not been updated for a couple of years and it is a critical part of any APP session.
Adaptive Deep Sky Stretch or ADSS is a much more intuitive stretch algorithm. It is also color preserving (which is a great new addition in itself ! ) which means that the highlights are no longer bleached, color is maintained from the linear data while stretching. You can simply stretch your data using the sky background level and signal width sliders which work much easier and more intuitive. You no longer need to fiddle with the old complicated sliders with zoom buttons. All the zoom buttons for the sliders are made redundant. And you can enter slider values in the slider value fields yourself. I will make a youtube video in the coming days to explain and fully introduce ADSS. Once the video is ready, it will be highlighted on the forum.
RGB Combine upgrade !. The RGB Combine Tool has been rewritten mostly. The tool is faster and easier to use and most importantly, the Luminance slider to inject a luminance channel or channels into the RGB composite is now working correctly. It no longer bleaches the RGB colors. Combined with the new ADSS preview, you will get much better and easier great composites with great color! I will also explain this in a new youtube video.
Hi,
I'm not sure that this is actually an APP problem but hoping you might be able to shed some light and/or suggest a workround.
For a long time I've been saving my APP-generated images as 16-bit TIFs then opening these in Abobe Camera Raw for final sharpening and denoising, then finally saving as PNG files.
All of a sudden I am seeing this error when I try to open my TIFs in Camera Raw:
I think this problem is probably more an issue with Camera Raw as I am now getting the same error message even when trying to open APP-generated TIFs that I know opened satisfactorily in Camera Raw in the past!
I've upgraded to latest Camera Raw (v13.3) shortly after I first saw this error message but this has not helped.
I've also tried saving APP files as 16-bit PNG and opening in Camera Raw but this approach also fails.
It seems this error has been a frequent problem with PS in the past but all the suggested solutions I've found thus far seem to involve opening the offending files in some other application and then saving them in an alternative format such as JPG.
The TIF files that Adobe is reporting as an issue all seem to open OK with apps such as IRFANview, ASTAP, and even Paint and Photos!
Any light that you can shed on this issue will be appreciated.
Mike
Hi Mike, sorry but you'd have to contact the developers of Adobe I think (not sure but they may have support tickets?). I've not seen people mention this specific issue, so my guess is that that specific application has had a change that breaks this particular data.
Hi,
Just a quick update in the hope that someone with more in-depth of knowledge/experience of Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in might be able to add some further in-sight.
Under Photoshop Edit Preferences/File Handling/Camera Raw Settings, there is a section for changing TIFF/JPEG file handling:
: by changing this option from 'Automatically open TIFFs with settings' to 'Automatically open all supported TIFFs', I now seem to be able to open my problem files but it seems only by right clicking the file in Explorer and using Open with...Photoshop.   Oddly, opening Photoshop and using the 'File/Open as..' menu item does not seem (always?) to work.
As I have not had this problem of opening 16-bit TIFFs in Camera Raw prior to Beta 3 I still feel something subtle has possibly happened in APP in this area.
While on the topic of TIFFs, I notice that the APP/Save file menu has added some more ICC profiles. As I don't have a wide gamut display I think only the sRGB options really matter to me but I am intrigued by the difference between sRGB v4 Preference and sRGB v4 Appearance.  Apologies if I've missed anything Mabula might already have said on this issue.
Mike
FWIW, Thanks to your advice I feel I somewhat on the way to more successfully combining Ha with LRGB data, and in using the new Star Reducer tool.
 Incidentally, is there a reason why Star Reducer tool on saving does not automatically add a suffix to the file name?
Regards
Mike
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Good to hear your processing is working better now! I don't have a great knowledge about the differences between those color profiles, I would have to look into that. For the star reducer, that's a good one indeed, I think it should be mentioned in the FITS header though, is it?
Hi Vincent,
The only difference between pre- and post-Star Reducer image in the FITS header that I see is in 'adaptive pedestal from data calibration'. In the instance I am looking at the value changed from 0.02285 to 1497.4747 which seems a very considrable amount but visually the image is OK.Â
Looking at the largest stars in my image post processing I see some processing artifacts which I guess is to a degree is inevitable if one knows what to look for. I imagine Mabula had some form of quality criteria in mind when he embarked on this extension. It would be interesting to know what standard he was expecting so as to see how well my use of the tool approaches the target!
Having become familiar with the APP way of adding suffixes to the file name after tool operation it seems inconsistent to me not to do the same with SR.
Regards
Mike
Ok, good point I'll pass this on to Mabula!
