June 30th, 2026
Publish date: 2026-06-26 | Version: v2026.06.21 | Tag as: New, Fixed
New
Set your preferred default Look for new stacks (Natural vs. Enhanced) in Preferences.
Scroll your mouse over the filmstrip to browse through frames — a highly requested feature!
The Natural / Enhanced Look toggle now works on reopened and Autostack images, not just freshly stacked ones.
Fixed
Hidden macOS companion files (._name.tif) no longer show up as a broken duplicate at the start of the filmstrip.
Saved images now appear in the Library immediately, without needing a refresh.
Publish date: 2026-06-25 | Version: v2026.06.20 | Tag as: Improved
Improved
Photos and stacks now open in the Editor at the same brightness as your camera and the Library, instead of looking darker. If you prefer a flatter, neutral starting point, uncheck "Match camera brightness in the Editor" in Preferences and re-run your stack.
Publish date: 2026-06-24 | Version: v2026.06.19 | Tag as: New, Fixed
New
New "Natural vs. Enhanced" Look toggle in the Editor. Many of you found the output over-sharpened on some images — flip to "Natural" to reblend with no post-processing (it only takes a few seconds). It defaults to "Enhanced".
On large, high-resolution displays, the Editor preview no longer pixelates when you move a slider, and stays crisp when zoomed in.
Smarter Species ID — a photo's GPS and capture date are now used for better matching.
Fixed
Canon CR3 and Fuji RAF metadata — camera make/model, capture date, GPS, and copyright are now read from these RAW formats.
Publish date: 2026-06-22 | Versions: v2026.06.17–v2026.06.18 | Tag as: New, Improved, Fixed
New
Show / hide individual masks — turn any mask (and its adjustments) on or off.
Source Cloning — the source filmstrip now shows per-frame loading progress.
Improved
Faster, lower-memory CPU stacking.
Fixed
Running out of memory mid-stack now shows a clear message instead of failing with an error.
Macro Studio now checks for enough free disk space before starting a stack, so it tells you upfront instead of partway through.
Fixed a minor auto-update bug.
Publish date: 2026-06-22 | Version: v2026.06.16 | Tag as: New, Fixed
New
Autostack can now write a re-editable DNG you can open and source-clone from later.
Source Cloning now survives save & reopen — saved DNGs remember their source frames!
"Remember this save location" option when saving images.
Library updates — filenames under thumbnails, a clearer edit button, and right-click to edit a single image.
Fixed
Occasional error when deleting folders / images on Windows.
Library DNG thumbnails now display with the correct exposure.
Miscellaneous bug fixes and stability improvements.
Publish date: 2026-06-19 | Versions: v2026.06.12–v2026.06.15 | Tag as: New, Improved, Fixed
New
Stacked images now keep the full frame with clean edges — no more aggressive auto-cropping.
Improved
Faster Source Cloning: significant performance improvements to both frame browsing and brushing.
Fixed
Saved-image metadata (caption, lens, author / GPS) fixes and improvements.
Miscellaneous bug fixes and stability improvements.
Publish date: 2026-06-18 | Version: v2026.06.11 | Tag as: Fixed
Fixed
Windows Smart App Control should no longer throw a warning.
Text in the "unsaved images" dialog no longer gets clipped on Windows.
Publish date: 2026-06-17 | Version: v2026.06.10 | Tag as: New
New
Radial and Linear gradient masks! Drag the shape right on the image, with feather, invert, and rotation.
Source Cloning filmstrip — browse and pick the source frame to clone from at a glance.
Unsaved-work warning — prompts before you close a result or quit with unsaved edits.
Fuji RAW files now stack at a better brightness level.
Publish date: 2026-06-16 | Version: v2026.06.9 | Tag as: New, Fixed
New
Automatic chromatic-aberration removal during stacking.
Fixed
Source Cloning now positions the crop preview and brush correctly on rotated images.
Publish date: 2026-06-16 | Version: v2026.06.8 | Tag as: New, Improved, Fixed
New
Defringe brush — paint out red / blue / green color fringing from chromatic aberration.
"Saved" indicator in the Editor history strip, so you can see which images are already saved.
Improved
GPU acceleration engages more reliably on large stacks.
Fixed
Autostack now works on non-APFS drives.
The active-folder highlight now updates correctly after refreshing a folder.
The Editor filmstrip now has a horizontal scrollbar when it has more frames than fit.
Publish date: 2026-06-14 | Version: v2026.06.7 | Tag as: New, Improved
New
Image previews now show the zoom level, with quick zoom presets and "Z" to fit.
Saved stacks now include the date, time, and an "MS" tag in their filename.
Improved
Bright highlights no longer blow out to pure white — white flowers, specular reflections, and other very bright subjects keep their detail.
Adjustment sliders have been recalibrated to better match a natural range of settings.
Publish date: 2026-06-13 | Version: v2026.06.6 | Tag as: Improved, Fixed
Improved
More natural rendering — eased the default contrast curve so highlights and shadows look less over-processed, while keeping the same crisp detail.
Fixed
Various bug fixes and memory optimizations.
Publish date: 2026-06-11 | Versions: v2026.06.4–v2026.06.5 | Tag as: New, Improved
New
New Standard vs. Advanced modes — a simpler UI for new users, with the full feature set available for advanced users.
Improved
Faster focus stacking on graphics-capable machines (GPU-accelerated), with more efficient RAW processing (less CPU and heat).
Publish date: 2026-06-10 | Version: v2026.06.3 | Tag as: New, Fixed
New
New unified stacking engine — more detail, cleaner backgrounds, and fewer artifacts on difficult stacks. Replaces the separate method and detail choices with one automatic engine.
Renamed the "Develop" tab to "Editor" to make it more intuitive for new users.
Fixed
Reveal in Finder / File Explorer from the Folders pane now works correctly on Windows.
Publish date: 2026-06-07 | Version: v2026.06.2 | Tag as: New, Fixed
New
Send us a stack — unhappy with a result? A new "Let us know" link sends the stack's frames to us so we can diagnose it and improve stacking.
Folder management — right-click to Rename or Delete a folder, and drag one folder onto another to move it. The Folders pane also remembers which folders were expanded.
Fixed
Autostack now stacks at full resolution for sharper results, and the setup screen has been improved.
Source Cloning shows the full frame on rotated crops instead of a zoomed-in corner.
Masking is faster and more reliable on some systems.
Publish date: 2026-06-03 | Version: v2026.06.1 | Tag as: Beta, New, Improved, Fixed
New (Beta)
Autostacker mode (beta) — point it at a folder of images and it groups them into sets and stacks them for you. (Thanks to Wolf Amri for the suggestion!)
New
Simplified stacking modes — choose Higher Detail or Smoother Edges.
Improved
Source Cloning performance — better feedback, memory-adaptive caching, cloned areas now match the photo's tone and sharpness, and your edits auto-save if you're interrupted mid-edit.
Up / down arrows now navigate folders in the Library.
More stacking speed improvements.
Fixed
Large and high-resolution stacks no longer lock up on lower-memory machines (smarter GPU memory use with automatic CPU fallback).
Clearer message when a camera's RAW format isn't supported yet.
Publish date: 2026-05-31 | Version: v2026.5.28 | Tag as: Improved
Improved
Faster stacking! Pyramid stacking is now GPU-accelerated where a GPU is available — substantially faster, with automatic CPU fallback.
Better image quality — cleaner focus blending; removed edge halos and fringing around fine structures (antennae, legs, hairs) for crisper, more natural edges.
Linux: smoother in-app update and restart.
Publish date: 2026-05-27 | Version: v2026.5.27 | Tag as: New, Fixed
New
Source Cloning is here! Paint from specific source frames into your result — for example, to fix duplicate antennae caused by subject motion. (Some apps call this Retouch; we use Retouch for spot removal.)
Fixed
Stacking no longer crashes when source frames have mismatched dimensions; mixed-size stacks now pad / crop to the reference frame.
Compare mode opens with equal-sized A/B panels and a freshly-fit view, so zoom / pan from a prior session no longer carries over.
Publish date: 2026-05-25 | Versions: v2026.5.23–v2026.5.26 | Tag as: New
New
Now available on Linux! Macro Studio now runs on Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 36+, Arch, Debian 12+, and most other modern desktop distros as an AppImage.
Publish date: 2026-05-24 | Version: v2026.5.22 | Tag as: New, Improved, Fixed
New
New "Share Feedback" menu makes it easy to send us your bug reports and feature suggestions.
Arrow keys navigate history in the Editor — Left / Right walks through your stacks and edits, same as Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z.
Right-click a stack thumbnail while it's processing to cancel it or jump to its source folder (a cancel button is also live on the thumbnail itself).
Improved
Stack thumbnails now show the folder name and the first frame instead of a generic placeholder, so you can tell what's brewing at a glance.
AI masking improvements on Windows.
Removed the Sharpness slider from Advanced stacking settings — it was mostly redundant with the Sharpness slider in the Editor.
Fixed
The Detail slider in Advanced stacking settings is now honored by the stacking algorithm.
Various other bug fixes.