Filters & Adjustments

Image processing that's fast, honest, and GPU-ready.

Organized into three menus: Color, Filter, and Generate. Parametrized dialogs give live preview before committing. Every filter is accessible from the Scripting API too.

18 Color Adj.
22 FX Filters
4 Generators
All Scriptable
CLR

Color Adjustments

18 adjustments

Menu: Color — tonal, exposure, and color correction

AUTOAuto Levels

Automatically stretches the tonal range of the active layer to use the full 0–255 range. One-click instant improvement for many photos.

Instant
DESDesaturate

Converts the layer to grayscale using perceptual luminance weighting (BT.601: 0.299R + 0.587G + 0.114B). Preserves alpha.

Instant
INVInvert Colors

Inverts all RGB channels (255 - value). Alpha is untouched. Useful for creating negatives or inverting masks.

Instant
α⁻¹Invert Alpha

Inverts only the alpha channel. RGB values are untouched. Useful for flipping transparency masks.

Instant
SPASepia Tone

Applies a classic warm sepia tone. Desaturates and tints toward brown-gold for a vintage photographic look.

Instant
B/CBrightness / Contrast

Adjust overall luminosity and tonal range. Live preview dialog. Classic linear brightness/contrast controls, straightforward and predictable.

Brightness −255 → 255 Contrast −255 → 255
CRVCurves

Full per-channel tonal curve editor. Drag control points on the curve to remap input to output values for precise tonal manipulation. Supports RGB composite and individual R, G, B curves.

RGB + per-channel curves Multiple control points
EXPExposure

Adjusts exposure in EV (exposure value) stops. +1 EV = double the light. Works well for brightening underexposed photos or pulling back blown highlights.

EV stops (±) GPU-accelerated
H/SHighlights / Shadows

Independently adjust the bright and dark tonal regions of the image. Recover detail in highlights without affecting shadows and vice versa.

Highlights Shadows
HSLHue / Saturation

Shift hue globally, boost or drain saturation, and lighten or darken. All in one dialog. GPU-accelerated for instant preview at any canvas size.

Hue −180° → 180° Saturation −100 → 100 Lightness −100 → 100 GPU-accelerated
LVLLevels

Set input black/white points and gamma correction. Clamp and stretch the tonal range with precise numeric or slider control. Essential for fixing flat or clipped images.

Black point 0–255 White point 0–255 Gamma 0.1–10.0
TMPTemperature / Tint

Adjust color temperature (warm/cool) and magenta/green tint. Primary controls for white balance correction common in RAW photo processing.

Temperature (K) Tint
THRThreshold

Converts the layer to black and white by applying a hard cutoff. Pixels above the threshold become white; pixels below become black. Useful for creating high-contrast masks.

Threshold 0–255
PSTPosterize

Reduces the number of distinct tonal levels per channel, creating a bold flat-color poster effect. Lower levels increase the graphic look.

Levels 2–255
BALColor Balance

Adjusts the balance of color in shadows, midtones, and highlights independently using cyan/red, magenta/green, and yellow/blue sliders.

Shadows Midtones Highlights
GMPGradient Map

Maps image luminosity to a color gradient. Dark tones map to the first color, bright tones to the last, with smooth interpolation between stops. Good for duotones and stylized looks.

Custom gradient stops Blend mode
B/WBlack & White

Converts to grayscale with individual per-channel weighting. Adjust how much red, green, or blue contributes to the final luminance to get classic photography-style B&W conversions.

R/G/B channel weights
VIBVibrance

Boosts saturation in a way that protects already-saturated colors. Unlike a raw saturation boost, vibrance primarily affects muted and skin-tone colors, avoiding an oversaturated look.

Vibrance −100 to 100
FX

Filters

22 filters

Menu: Filter — blur, sharpen, distort, noise, stylize, glitch

Blur
GBLGaussian Blur

Mathematically precise Gaussian blur. GPU-accelerated at large radii. Essential for soft light and depth-of-field effects.

Sigma (radius) GPU-accelerated
BOKBokeh Blur

Circular aperture blur that simulates optical lens bokeh. More correct for lens-based blur than a simple Gaussian.

Radius
MOTMotion Blur

Directional blur that simulates camera or subject motion. Set the angle and distance of the blur streak.

Angle 0–360° Distance (px)
BOXBox Blur

Fast, uniform box (averaging) blur. Less smooth than Gaussian but significantly faster for large radii. Good for glow effects and quick softening.

Radius (px)
ZBLZoom Blur

Radial zoom blur that creates the impression of fast forward motion toward a focal point at the center of the image. Adjustable strength and focal area.

Strength
Sharpen
SHPSharpen

Unsharp mask sharpening. Enhances edge contrast to restore apparent detail lost to softness or compression. Use sparingly, as over-sharpening introduces halos.

Amount
RNSReduce Noise

Smooths random noise while attempting to preserve edges. Useful for cleaning up high-ISO photos or scanner grain.

Strength 0.0–1.0
MEDMedian

Replaces each pixel with the median value of its neighborhood. Extremely effective at removing salt-and-pepper (impulse) noise without blurring edges.

Radius ≥ 1
Distort
CRYCrystallize

Groups pixels into Voronoi cells and fills each with its average color. Creates a stained-glass or crystal shard effect.

Cell Size
DENDents

Perlin-noise based dent/bump texture warp. Creates an irregular, organic surface distortion effect.

Scale Strength
PIXPixelate

Mosaic/pixelation effect. Divides the image into square blocks and fills each with its average color. Classic lo-fi censoring effect.

Block Size (px)
BLGBulge / Pinch

Spherical radial distortion centered on the image. Positive values push pixels outward (fisheye/bulge); negative values pull inward (pinch).

Amount (negative = pinch)
TWSTwist

Rotational swirl distortion from the image center. The rotation amount increases with distance from center, creating a characteristic spiral effect.

Angle (degrees)
Noise
NSEAdd Noise

Adds Gaussian (film-like) noise to the layer. Monochrome mode adds equal noise to all channels (gray grain); color mode adds independent per-channel noise.

Amount 0.0–1.0 Monochrome toggle
Stylize
GLWGlow

Soft bloom/glow effect. Blurs the bright areas and blends them back onto the original. Great for dreamy, ethereal looks or neon lighting effects.

Radius Intensity 0.0–1.0
VIGVignette

Darkens the edges of the image, drawing the viewer's eye toward the center. A subtle vignette is one of photography's most enduring finishing techniques.

Strength 0.0–1.0 Softness 0.0–1.0
HLFHalftone

Renders the image through a regular grid of dots, simulating the classic halftone printing process used in newspapers and comic books.

Dot Size
INKInk

Edge detection + line art rendering that transforms a photo into an ink drawing. Adjustable strength and threshold let you balance detail vs. clarity.

Strength 0.0–1.0 Threshold 0.0–1.0
OILOil Painting

Mode-based smoothing that simulates the blended oil paint look. Larger radius settings produce a more impressionistic result. Computationally intensive at high radii.

Radius ≥ 1
CLFColor Filter

Tints the image with a selected color using a multiply / overlay blend. Like placing a colored gel over a photo. Preserves luminosity while shifting hue.

Color picker Intensity
Glitch
DRGPixel Drag

Randomly drags horizontal rows of pixels sideways by varying amounts, simulating corrupted digital signal or tape glitch artifacts.

Amount Frequency
RGBRGB Displace

Offsets the red, green, and blue channels independently by different amounts, creating chromatic aberration or vintage VHS color fringing effects.

R/G/B offset X/Y
AI
Filter → Remove Background Requires ONNX Runtime

Remove Background

Cut subjects from their backgrounds with a single click. PaintFE uses deep learning to trace exact silhouettes, including fine hair, transparent glass, and complex edges, that would take minutes of manual masking to achieve by hand.

The model runs entirely on your own hardware. No cloud upload. No account. No subscription. Your images never leave your machine. You download the model checkpoint once and it's yours.

BiRefNet
Best quality
1024×1024 input. State-of-the-art bilateral reference network. Handles fine hair, glass, and complex edges. Recommended for professional work.
U²-Net
Fastest
320×320 input. The classic go-to model. Quick results for portraits and objects with clear edges.
IS-Net (DIS)
Detailed
1024×1024 input. Excels at highly detailed subjects from the DIS benchmark. Great for product photography.
A note on AI tools and creators. We know this space is complicated. PaintFE's AI does one thing: it removes backgrounds. It doesn't generate art, replace photographers, or create content of any kind. It's a time-saving tool for tedious masking work, nothing more.
Setup Guide → Takes about 5 minutes to configure.
Before
[ Subject photo with background ]
After
[ Subject on transparent layer ]
100%
Local processing
0
Data uploaded
3
Models supported

Generate

4 generators

Menu: Generate — create content on a new or existing layer

GRDGrid

Renders a configurable grid of lines over or below the layer stack. Control line color, spacing, line weight, and opacity. Useful for reference guides, layouts, or decorative textures.

Spacing (px) Color Line Width Opacity
SDWDrop Shadow

Generates a drop shadow beneath the active layer's content based on its alpha channel. Configurable offset, blur, color, and opacity. Non-destructive; placed on a new layer below.

Offset X/Y Blur Radius Color Opacity
OTLOutline

Creates an outline/stroke around the edges of an alpha-channeled layer. Choose outline size, color, and rendering position (outside, inside, or center of the edge).

Width (px) Color Position
CTRContours

Traces luminosity or alpha contour lines across the image, creating an isoline topographic map effect or illustrative line-art style.

Interval Color Luminance / Alpha mode

Every filter is scriptable

All filters listed on this page are also available as functions in the Scripting API: call apply_blur(3.0), apply_vignette(0.5, 0.3), apply_hsl(30.0, 20.0, 0.0) and more from inside your scripts. Chain them, loop them, automate anything.

Open Scripting Docs →