Is there a cross-software text format for sharing photo editing presets?
Asked 1/19/2016
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I'm looking for a human-readable text format that describes image-editing adjustments or presets so they can be shared and, ideally, used across different photo-editing programs. For example, a preset might specify contrast, brightness, saturation, tone-curve changes, or noise reduction in a simple text form. Does any standard or widely supported format exist for this, especially one that works between different applications?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
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No. There is currently no such standard. The closest thing is Lightroom sidecar XMP files as a defacto standard. These aren't exactly human-readable (because they're XML rather than the simple key-value format you propose), but at least they're text. And they're not standardized, but some other programs (like Darktable) can at least attempt to interpret them.
For example, Darktable says that crop, rotation, flip, and tags can be understood completely; while exposure, some aspects of the tone curve, local contrast, and a few other things can be at least attempted, but aren't accurate.
Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1943
10y ago
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There isn’t a true cross-software standard for photo-editing presets.
The closest thing in practice is Lightroom-style XMP sidecar files. These are text-based XML files that store edit settings, so they are at least machine- and somewhat human-readable. However, they are not a universal standard that all editors interpret the same way.
The main problem is that different applications use different processing pipelines and algorithms, especially for things like noise reduction, sharpening, local contrast, blur, and tone mapping. Even when two programs offer similarly named controls, the underlying math may differ, so the same numeric setting won’t necessarily produce the same result.
Some software can partially read another program’s XMP metadata. For example, simple edits such as crop, rotation, flip, and tags may transfer well, while settings like exposure, tone curve, or local contrast may only be approximated.
So: no widely adopted, truly interoperable preset format exists. XMP sidecars are the nearest equivalent, but compatibility is limited and often incomplete.
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