[Feature] Presets and LUTs

[Cengokill]

Problem

Matching a grade across several photos is slower than it needs to be. The same stack keeps coming back: curves, a little color balance, sometimes exposure or black and white. Rebuilding it on the next image takes time, and a look from last week is easy to lose when a series has to stay consistent.

Copying adjustment layers from one document to another already works. What is missing is a way to name that look and apply it again.

Proposal

Add a local preset library and LUT import.

A preset saves a stack of the live adjustments already in the app and applies that stack to another image. That includes curves, levels, exposure, hue and saturation, color balance, and black and white, plus the color and tone side of Camera Raw (contrast, white balance, and the related color controls).

A .cube file adds one adjustment layer for a look the sliders cannot quite reproduce: a film print, a vintage grade, or a warm or cool cast shared across a set.

Applying either one adds layers above the photo. The original pixels stay as they are, and the result can still be edited.

The first version stays local on the Mac: presets and imported cubes saved locally, with no account, sync, or online library.

Behavior

• Applying a preset adds the same adjustment layers, with the same settings.
• Those layers keep working as they do today: controls, opacity, mask, and blend mode all stay editable.
• Importing a .cube file adds a single adjustment layer. It can be faded, masked, or removed.
• The cube stays a color lookup on that layer. The photo underneath stays editable.
• Once applied, presets and LUTs are ordinary layers in the document. They save and reopen with everything else.
• A bad or unreadable .cube file is refused, and the open document is left unchanged.

Acceptance

• A saved grade can be applied to a second image without rebuilding it by hand.
• The source pixels are still there after applying a preset or a LUT.
• Each applied adjustment can still be changed, hidden, or deleted.
• A LUT can be strengthened or reduced with the layer’s opacity and limited with a mask.
• Reopening the document brings back the same layers and the same look.
• Nothing in this version requires an account or a network connection.

Tests

• Save a preset from a stack of adjustment layers, apply it to another document, and check that the settings match.
• Apply a preset, undo it, and confirm the document returns to its previous layers.
• Change an applied adjustment and confirm the preset itself is left as it was.
• Import a valid .cube, change the layer opacity, then delete the layer and confirm the underlying image is unchanged.
• Reopen a saved document that contains both a preset stack and a LUT layer.
• Reject a truncated or invalid .cube file without modifying the document.

Out of scope

• Straighten, lens correction, and fills that depend on a single photo.
• Turning a LUT back into separate sliders.
• Batch-processing a folder of images.
• Accounts, sync, or a public library of looks.