A new version of PTGui will be released soon, and you can download a beta version already. This beta version is intended for testing; keep in mind that it may contain bugs or run unstable.
Download PTGui 13 beta 9
The Patch Editor works similar to the Patch tool found in Photoshop and other image editors: draw a freehand shape around the object to be patched. This area will be cloned from somewhere else in the image. The patch is blended seamlessly using PTGui's Zero Overlap blender with optimum seams. Patch editing is non-destructive: patching is done in a snapshot of the panorama, not in the original source images. The snapshot is then overlaid on the panorama.
To create a patch: simply open the Detail Viewer, go to the area to be patched and click Create Patch. The patch image will be added to the project as a new source image and it is opened in the Patch Editor.
Watch the demo video below to see the Patch Editor in action:
You may download the project file and images used in this video.
DNG (Digital Negative) is an image format developed by Adobe, designed to store raw image data captured by the camera sensor. It's now possible to stitch panoramas from camera RAW files in PTGui, output as DNG and then fine-tune color, exposure, and other settings in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Capture One or your other preferred RAW image editor.
When stitching to DNG format, most of the editing options such as curves and tone mapping in PTGui are disabled. Besides demosaicing and blending, no other adjustments are applied in PTGui, so the DNG panorama is as close to the original RAW image data as possible.
Certain cameras, for example those in DJI drones, produce DNG files with an embedded lens correction profile. PTGui now reads and applies this profile, giving a much improved image quality.
Combined with the post processing options which were added in PTGui 12, we think PTGui now offers a reasonably complete RAW workflow.
Secondly, the optimum seam finding algorithm has been rewritten and is now significantly faster as well. At the default 1/8 setting it's no longer a bottleneck in the stitching process, and the processing time at 1/4 or 1/2 is now bearable if the panorama is not too large.
If you have accidentally overwritten your copy of PTGui you can always download the former version again from this website.
Download PTGui 13 beta 9
PTGui 13 beta
PTGui 13 features a new Patch Editor, DNG output, better RAW/DNG file handling, performance improvements and much more!Patch Editor (PTGui Pro)
A new retouching tool has been added to PTGui Pro: the Patch Editor. It can be used to remove unwanted objects from the stitched panorama, for example the tripod. Or to fill gaps in areas not covered by any source image, including the nadir and zenith. And it can be used to retouch any remaining stitching errors, for example those caused by parallax.
The Patch Editor works similar to the Patch tool found in Photoshop and other image editors: draw a freehand shape around the object to be patched. This area will be cloned from somewhere else in the image. The patch is blended seamlessly using PTGui's Zero Overlap blender with optimum seams. Patch editing is non-destructive: patching is done in a snapshot of the panorama, not in the original source images. The snapshot is then overlaid on the panorama.
To create a patch: simply open the Detail Viewer, go to the area to be patched and click Create Patch. The patch image will be added to the project as a new source image and it is opened in the Patch Editor.
Watch the demo video below to see the Patch Editor in action:
You may download the project file and images used in this video.
DNG output
This has been much requested and it's now possible: PTGui can output panoramas in DNG format:
DNG (Digital Negative) is an image format developed by Adobe, designed to store raw image data captured by the camera sensor. It's now possible to stitch panoramas from camera RAW files in PTGui, output as DNG and then fine-tune color, exposure, and other settings in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Capture One or your other preferred RAW image editor.
When stitching to DNG format, most of the editing options such as curves and tone mapping in PTGui are disabled. Besides demosaicing and blending, no other adjustments are applied in PTGui, so the DNG panorama is as close to the original RAW image data as possible.
Improved RAW / DNG handling
PTGui can now remove chromatic aberration and apply noise reduction to RAW and DNG source images! A new 'RAW Preprocess' tab has been added for this purpose.Certain cameras, for example those in DJI drones, produce DNG files with an embedded lens correction profile. PTGui now reads and applies this profile, giving a much improved image quality.
Combined with the post processing options which were added in PTGui 12, we think PTGui now offers a reasonably complete RAW workflow.
JPEG 2000 support
PTGui 13 can read and write JPEG 2000 images. Contrary to regular JPEG, this supports both 8 and 16 bit per channel pixel depth, it supports transparency and can store gigapixel images. And, compared to TIFF, the files are much smaller thanks to lossy (but good quality) compression. PTGui uses this format by default for the Patch tool, and it's also a good alternative to PSB or TIFF for the output of large panoramas.Performance improvements
We've optimized the optimizer in PTGui 13! It is much faster when optimizing large panoramas of, say, 100 or more images. This could take hours, but is now down to minutes or even seconds! Because the process of aligning images makes heavy use of the optimizer, initial alignment of such large panoramas is also faster.Secondly, the optimum seam finding algorithm has been rewritten and is now significantly faster as well. At the default 1/8 setting it's no longer a bottleneck in the stitching process, and the processing time at 1/4 or 1/2 is now bearable if the panorama is not too large.
Other changes
- The Detail Viewer now has a side bar like the panorama editor. There's a 'View' section which shows and edits the current viewing angles.
- New Snapshot tool in the Detail Viewer. This saves the current view to an image. Rather than a screenshot, this actually renders the current view at full resolution.
- PTGui now avoids creating control points between non-adjacent images. For example if we have 3 images in a row, PTGui will create control points between image 1 & 2 and between 2 & 3, but avoids creating control points between 1 & 3. Especially in case of parallax, this will improve alignment. There's also a new menu option 'Control Points - Remove control points between non-adjacent images'.
- If Exposure Fusion is not enabled, the default HDR workflow has been changed to 'Merge to HDR first, then blend', because this results in much faster rendering of the panorama and requires less memory. Blend planes cannot be generated in this mode though. For exposure fusion panoramas, blend planes are still enabled by default because this gives better results. The default HDR workflow can be overridden in the Exposure/HDR tab.
- PTGui is better able to find control points for back-to-back fisheye images such as those produced by one shot 360 degree cameras. Back-to-back fisheye images overlap in just a narrow ring at the edge of the fisheye circle, and until now PTGui had difficulty finding control points.
- The default spacing between items in the user interface has been increased slightly, for better readability.
- Keyboard shortcuts have been added for navigating between the tabs in the main window (see menu View -> Go to Tab).
- By default PTGui will limit GPU memory usage (video RAM) to 2 GB. This can be changed in the Options/Preferences window. Generally, using more than 2GB of video ram does not improve stitching time and this change will allow other applications to share the GPU while PTGui is running (if it has more than 2GB RAM).
- PTGui no longer always attempts to use the source color profile for the output. Instead there's now an 'Automatic' setting, where it will pick a suitable color space. Color profiles created by scanner or camera calibration tools are often input-only, and attempting to use this same color space for the output would result in an error. It also avoids the use of LUT color spaces, which are slow to render. PTGui always picks a color space 'better' than those of the source images (i.e. a color space with a wider gamut), so no color information is lost. This is just the new default behavior; a custom color profile can still be chosen for the output.
- Separate color profiles can be selected for the LDR and HDR output images. HDR output requires a linear color profile, while for LDR images usually a profile with some gamma curve is used.
- White balance adjustment has been moved to a dedicated White Balance panel in the Panorama Editor. Previously this was in the Post Process panel. White balance adjustment affects both the HDR and LDR output, and this separates it from the other adjustments in the Post Processing tab, which only affect the LDR output.
- Additional Tint control for adjusting white balance. 'Temperature' adjusts between blue and yellow, 'Tint' between green and magenta.
- 'As Shot' white balance is replaced by an 'Automatic' setting. In Automatic mode the average color temperature of all source images is calculated, and this is used for the generated panorama. Better results are obtained for source images are taken with automatic white balance. If all images were taken with identical white balance, 'Automatic' will give the same result as 'As Shot'.
- A new command line option was added for creating a new project file from a given set of images and optionally a template:
PTGui[.exe] -createproject img1.jpg img2.jpg -output project.pts [-template template.pts]
This creates a project file for the given source images, optionally using a template, but does not stitch it yet. No GUI is shown. The project can be opened in PTGui, or it can be stitched from the command line using the -stitchnogui flag. The -createproject and -stitchnogui flags can even be combined in a single command line, in which case the project is created and stitched in one go:PTGui[.exe] -createproject img1.jpg img2.jpg -output project.pts -template template.pts -stitchnogui project.pts
- PTGui can now read accelerometer and compass data from iPhone images, so the images will be positioned correctly immediately after loading.
- New 'Color sampler' tool in Panorama Editor and Detail Viewer. This can be used to adjust the white balance, by clicking on a grey area in the scene. And in the Pro version this allows adjusting the HDR exposure for the selected pixel to a given value. This way it's possible to photograph a grey card with known reflectance and match the HDR exposure to scene light intensity at the location of the grey card.
- 'Images -> Link HDR Bracketed exposures' now also works even if PTGui wasn't able to detect a repeating exposure sequence. In this case a custom bracket size can be entered.
- The Panorama Editor can now preview the true HDR image. Previously it would always show the LDR output, which has curves applied and may be tone mapped. The full dynamic range can be inspected using the Exposure slider in the Display panel in the Panorama Editor.
- There's a new 'HDR Exposure' panel in the panorama editor, to adjust the brightness of the generated HDR image. Previously PTGui would always scale the HDR output such that white in the middle exposure (i.e. the 0EV image when bracketing) would be mapped to a brightness of 1.0 in the HDRI. Two additional option have now been added: use the brightest exposure as a reference (so all HDR pixels will lie between 0.0 and 1.0) and Absolute Exposure. In the latter case the HDR exposure is set as an absolute EV offset relative to a 1.0 second exposure at f/1.0 and ISO 100. The HDR exposure can be adjusted interactively using the new Color sampler tool (see above).
- For .exr output the Zip and Dwa compression level can be configured in the file format settings window.
- Linux: with the -stitchnogui flag PTGui can now run truly headless. Previously a workaround using a VNC server was needed because PTGui required a $DISPLAY even for command line operation.
- Linux: if no temporary folders have been configured, PTGui will now by default use /var/tmp for temporary files. Previously it would use /tmp, but on certain Linux distributions this is a ramdisk, which is unsuitable for the (huge) temporary files created by PTGui.
- The standard version and the Pro version are now distributed in a single download. After activation the appropriate version is run.
- The minimum system requirements had to be updated: PTGui now requires at least macOS 10.15 (Catalina), or Windows 10 build 18362. PTGui for Linux was built against glibc 2.28, which is found in Debian 10.
Beta updates
- Version 13 beta 9 (18 November 2024)
- Patch Tool: The default jpeg2000 compression quality has been changed to 100% (lossless). This is necessary to retain image quality when working with bracketed source images.
- Added JpegXL file format support, both for input and output. JpegXL is a new image format that offers better compression than jpeg, supports 8 and 16 bit color depth and alpha channels. It supports both lossy compression and lossless compression. Lossless compression is achieved by setting the quality to 100%.
- Improved lens profile for Insta360 X3.
- The Patch Tool and Snapshot tool can now create EXR and JpegXL files. EXR is suitable for patching panoramas taken with bracketed source images. EXR is available only in the Pro version.
- PTGui can now read TIFF source images in 'tiled' format (for example as saved by Pano2VR).
- PTGui can now generate DNG files larger than 4GB. Under the hood BigTIFF is used when necessary. Previously this would abort with an error, but now only a warning message will be shown instead. Keep in mind that DNG files over 4GB are not widely supported by other applications, so this may be of limited practical use.
- Added support for the QooCam 3 Ultra.
- Added support for Insta360 .insp files. These images are actually jpeg files with a different extension. PTGui can now read these files directly, renaming the extension is no longer needed.
- By default PTGui no longer removes control points between non-neighbor images as part of Align Images. This option was new in PTGui 13 beta. While it may give better alignment in some cases, it can result in lack of control points if some images are later removed from the project. The option can be still be enabled as part of 'Align Images' by settings the checkbox in Project Settings. It can also be executed on demand through 'Control Points -> Delete control points between non-adjacent images'.
- Batch Stitcher: If 'Automatically Save Batch List' is enabled, the batch list will now be saved in the background, while the next project is being stitched. Previously the Batch Stitcher would wait for the save operation to complete between projects. This significantly speeds up the process when stitching a long list of many small panoramas, as saving the batch list would take a significant amount of time.
- On Windows and Linux, multiple instances of the batch stitcher can be started by launching PTGui with these command line flags: PTGui[.exe] -batch -newinstance. Stitching multiple batch lists in parallel can be faster in some cases. On macOS this option is not supported due to limitations in macOS.
- PTGui now correctly levels images from the Insta360 One X. Images from the Insta360 One X3 and Insta360 One X4 unfortunately seem to be lacking the necessary metadata and cannot be leveled automatically. We have reported this to Insta360.
- Added Linear BT.2020 / BT.2100 color space to the list of preset HDR output color spaces.
- Added a workaround for an issue in CaptureOne which would not open DNG files from PTGui if the EXIF 'Make' field was set to 'Hasselblad'.
- Linux: the desktop entry installed by the bundled install.sh script no longer forces PTGui to run under X11 (XWayland). PTGui should now run fine under Wayland.
- The Batch Stitcher can now accept batch lists (.ptgbatch) via drag and drop. Previously this was only possible by using the 'Open Batch List' menu item.
- The option to use the 'PTGui 12.20' exposure fusion algorithm was added back by request. It was originally removed in the first PTGui 13 beta. It is now renamed to simply 'PTGui 12'.
- The QuickTime VR output format is now marked as 'legacy'.
- OpenCL GPU acceleration is now enabled by default for Intel GPUs with Intel's driver version 31 or later. This includes Intel Iris Xe and Intel Arc GPUs. acceleration can be disabled in Options.
- The OpenEXR library has been updated to v3.3.2
- Fixed: if in the project settings, under File Naming, 'save as: <prefix first image folder name>' was configured, the project file would be saved in the wrong folder.
- Fixed: when loading certain projects originally created in PTGui 12, tone mapping could be enabled even though it was originally disabled.
- Fixed: the Snapshot tool in the Detail Viewer did not function in the standard version of PTGui.
- Fixed: XMP data from a jpeg image would be ignored if the image did not also contain valid EXIF data. If the image contained only XMP metadata, the metadata was be ignored.
- Fixed: if a project was removed from the Batch Stitcher while another project was being stitched, the progress bar would disappear.
- Fixed: The 'Show Seams' mode of the panorama editor could show the wrong seams if multiband blending was used.
- Fixed: If 'Find Optimum Seams' was disabled, multiband and zero-overlap blending could result in different seam locations.
- Fixed: When using the Stereographic Down ('Little Planet') projection, changing the viewpoint or center in the Panorama Editor would move or rotate the panorama in the wrong direction.
- Fixed: When outputting DNG images, there could be a color difference between the generated DNG image and the source images.
- Fixed: The standard version of PTGui would crash when loading 32 bit floating point source images. These images are supported by the Pro version only, the standard version now shows an error message instead of crashing.
- Fixed: ICC profiles generated by PTGui were not compatible with some applications. This included the thumbnail view in Windows Explorer. Thumbnails would show wrong colors because the image was displayed with sRGB color space instead of the correct color space.
- Fixed: DNG and TIFF images contained an incorrect embedded thumbnail (showing an enlarged fraction of the full image).
- Fixed: HDR DNG images from the Ricoh Theta X would not load correctly, resulting in purple colored images.
- Fixed: The command line 'PTGui[.exe] -batch' without any project files specific would open the main window instead of the batch stitcher.
- Fixed: 'Out of memory' error when stitching very large panoramas.
- Fixed: Apply Template did not copy the RAW Preprocess settings from the template to the project.
- Fixed: When working with rectilinear source images, if an image was significantly misplaced, the optimizer could get stuck and report and 'Inf' control point error. This should no longer happen.
- Fixed: Custom GPS coordinates entered in the Metadata window would not be saved.
- Fixed: When quitting PTGui and multiple unsaved projects are open, each project's main window is brought to the foreground when PTGui asks whether to save that particular project. Previously it was unclear which project was being referred to.
- Fixed: Linux, Wayland: the help tooltips would show up at random locations on the screen instead of near the item they were explaining.
- Fixed: Linux, Wayland: PTGui no longer attempts to move the mouse pointer when running under Wayland, as this would not work anyway. This would cause erroneous movement of control points while dragging them.
- Fixed: Linux: copy/pasting masks did not work.
- Fixed: PTGui could crash if a file of an unsupported type was dragged onto the Batch Stitcher window.
- Fixed: Switching between tabs in the main window was sluggish and caused an unnecessary spike of high CPU usage.
- Version 13 beta 8 (1 July 2024)
- When right clicking in the Panorama Editor at a location where multiple images overlap, the context menu now shows a '⏺' icon next to the image which is used by the blender at that location.
- Fixed: 'Assertion Failed' error when stitching certain projects.
- Version 13 beta 7 (27 June 2024)
- PTGui 13 now runs natively on Windows on ARM processors. The installer will automatically install the ARM application if an ARM processor is detected.
- On Windows computers with a Snapdragon processor, PTGui now chooses Microsofts driver for OpenCL acceleration, to work around issues in the Qualcomm driver.
- When stitching DNG source images into a panorama, the UniqueCameraModel tag and the DNG profile is copied to the output. Adobe Camera Raw can now apply camera-specific profiles to the panorama.
- If the Batch Builder encounters a corrupt image, and error will be logged but it will continue generating the remaining projects. Previously the Batch Builder would abort.
- To link bracketed exposures, the images must have the same size and orientation. If this is not the case, PTGui would show an error "These images cannot be linked because they have different dimensions". The error now includes the file names of the images that cannot be linked. This can be useful in the Batch Builder if there are many images and it is not immediately clear which images are causing the error.
- Improved JPEG2000 encoding settings: this results in a better quality output image for the same file size. Previously, the image would become quite blurry even at moderate compression settings. Instead of a fixed compression factor, there's now a 'quality' setting ranging from 0 to 100. At a quality of 100, lossless compression is used.
- Improved compatibility with other applications for the DNG output from PTGui. LibRaw-based applications can now load the images, and thumbnails are displayed correctly in Mac Finder.
- LibRaw was updated to the 202403 snapshot.
- Added Brazilian Portuguese translation by Bruno Henrique Vaz Silveira. Muito obrigado Bruno!
- Updated Spanish translation (¡Muchas gracias Byron S Cubides!).
- Added keyboard shortcut for 'Link HDR Bracketed Exposures'.
- Added support for the Insta360 X4 camera. Automatic levelling is not yet supported for the X3 and X4 cameras.
- Fixed: the Copy / Paste / Select All menubar items in the main window were missing.
- Fixed: Linux: when deleting an image, the list in the Source Images tab would not be updated immediately, so the image would remain visible.
- Fixed: the -stitchnogui command line option did not work in the trial version, causing PTGui to crash.
- Fixed: Windows: PTGui would crash at startup when using the -stitchnogui command line parameter if GPU acceleration was enabled .
- Fixed: PTGui could complain about unreadable ICC profiles in certain images.
- Fixed: HDR DNG output: bright pixels would be clipped to 1.0.
- Fixed: DNG output could have the wrong white balance.
- Fixed: DNG output could be corrupt for certain source images.
- Fixed: PTGui failed to load DNG files if the width or height was not a multiple of 2.
- Fixed: When attempting to load a corrupt TIFF file, an 'Assertion Failed' error would occur. Now PTGui will show a more informative error message.
- Fixed: The noise reduction feature would use OpenCL even if OpenCL was disabled in Options/Preferences.
- Fixed: ICC profile embedded in the output was lacking the 'wtpt' tag, causing compatibility issues with some software.
- Version 13 beta 6 (20 April 2024)
- Fixed: Windows: the application list in the Patch Panel in the detail viewer showed the .jpg-capable applications even when another file type was chosen.
- Fixed: PTGui could crash, or give an 'invalid vector subscript' or 'assertion failed' error.
- Fixed: Lines or other small artifacts could occasionally be visible in the panorama if GPU acceleration was enabled
- Fixed: Mac: it was possible to drag the window upwards behind the menu bar, with no way to move it down again because the title bar is then obstructed by the menu bar.
- Fixed: GPS coordinates in the XMP metadata in the output were corrupt. As a result, GPS coordinates were missing in generated .psd and .psb files.
- Fixed: When linking HDR brackets, PTGui would switch to Advanced mode but this was unnecessary
- PTGui now recognizes the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 8mm 1:1.8 from the EXIF data
- PTGui can now load Phase One .IIQ raw files
- Added lens profile for AstrHori 12mm 2.8 Fisheye
- Version 13 beta 5 (2 April 2024)
- Patch tool: it's now possible edit the generated patch in external editors, such as Photoshop, instead of the built-in patch editor. The Patch panel in the Detail viewer now includes a list of all installed applications on the system capable of handling the selected file format (jpeg/jpeg2k/tiff).
- The settings in the Patch panel in the Detail Viewer are saved and remembered between sessions
- Fixed: rendering errors (such as black blobs) when GPU acceleration was enabled
- Fixed: PTGui failed to load .DNG images processed by Adobe Camera RAW's AI noise reduction
- Fixed: Crash if disabling GPU acceleration and then re-enabling it
- Fixed: Thumbnails could be shown too dark
- Fixed: When zooming in extremely in the RAW prerprocess tab, the image would become very dark
- Fixed: When using the patch tool for a project consisting of RAW images, the generated patch would have a linear color profile, which would result in a very low dynamic range in the shadows, causing posterization in the shadows
- Version 13 beta 4 (17 March 2024)
- Fixed: 'Invalid vector subscript' error while aligning images
- Fixed: Align Images could hang for a long time for panoramas consisting of many images
- Fixed: 'Assertion failed' error when aligning or optimizing a panorama
- Fixed: clicking the 'Defaults' button in the Post Processing tab no longer resets the White Balance to 'Automatic'
- Multiple lens profiles can now be used in a project without switching to Advanced mode. Previously, switching back to Simple mode would remove all but the first lens profile. Because the new Patch function uses a dedicated lens profile for patch images, this would corrupt any existing patch images.
- Version 13 beta 3 (14 March 2024)
- Fixed: The Windows version could display garbled error messages
- Fixed: Windows: File - Save Template could result in a corrupt template file
- Fixed: If tone mapping was enabled for a project and individual layers or blend planes were output, the individual layers and blend planes would have the wrong curve applied, resulting in incorrect brightness or contrast
- The OpenEXR library was updated to version 3.2.3
- Version 13 beta 2 (8 March 2024)
- Fixed: Error when working with DNG source images: 'The dimensions of this image are different from the image dimensions recorded in the project file'.
Feedback
Since this is a beta version it may contain bugs; therefore your feedback is much appreciated. Please post any bugs, comments to the PTGui Forum.Upgrading
PTGui 13 beta and all 13.x releases will be available free of charge to licensed users who purchased a license on or after September 1st, 2022. If you purchased before this date, you may upgrade your license here. Keep in mind that this is a beta version which contains bugs, so you may want to wait until the final version has been released. A free trial version of PTGui 13 beta is available.Installing multiple versions side by side
You can try the beta version without overwriting your existing copy of PTGui. On Windows select a different installation folder when prompted during installation (e.g. C:\Program Files\PTGui Beta). On Mac the PTGui application can be copied from the install disk image, renamed, and installed in any folder on your mac, not just the Applications folder.If you have accidentally overwritten your copy of PTGui you can always download the former version again from this website.