My friends at ON1 announced another update to Photo RAW 2019. The 2019.5 release is coming in mid-May 2019. Photo RAW 2019.5 is a free update for owners of Photo RAW 2019. ON1 reports they will offer upgrade discounts for users of older versions of Photo RAW. You can also download Photo RAW and try it free for 30 days.

I’m very eager to get hierarchical keywords and try out the keyword import from Lightroom. I’m also curious about “Dual Mode”. Although I don’t use dual monitors, I have a wide screen 27” monitor. The ON1 crew tells me Dual Mode also works on single monitor setups.

Here is the full list of features from the press release.

• Dual Mode – Easily undock the Browse Module from the Edit Module, use a second display, or make sales or client presentations on a projector or TV. The dual mode will allow photographers to customize how they want to work when browsing and editing.

• Edit History – A full edit history will be added when working on photos. Each editing step will be viewable, along with the ability to roll-back and compare adjustments. 

• Settings Applied Info – Photographers will be able to quickly view which modules, tools, and filters are applied to a photo. This non-linear approach will also allow photographers to double-click on a setting and jump straight to it for further adjustments.

• Selective Sync – Enhanced granularity in which settings to apply when syncing your settings (or pasting and saving a preset) will be added. For example, photographers will be able to drill down and only apply a white balance adjustment. The ability to sync cropping, retouching and brush strokes between photos will also be included. 

• Hierarchical Keywords – The master keyword list will now support nesting keywords inside of other keywords. Nested keywords will allow photographers to organize keywords as they see fit. Importing a list of nested keywords from other apps like Adobe Lightroom® will also be supported. 

• Apple® Photo Extension Enhancements – Integration with Apple Photos now supports the full raw data, improving adjustments to tone and color. It also supports re-editable non-destructive editing and more native ON1 Photo RAW features like layers, crop, and text. 

There are also a slew of improvements to Photo RAW.

• Layers Enhancements​ — Create a new canvas of any size or change the size of the existing canvas.

• Text Tool Enhancements​ — Add a background color to a text box and control its opacity. Easily control the character and line spacing. New options also will allow photographers to duplicate and change the order of text boxes and automatically insert text from a photo’s metadata.

• Performance Improvements ​— Zooming, panning, and brushing are now much faster. A new preview quality option can help increase performance on lower-end and integrated video cards as well. Export is now up to 10x faster when resizing or exporting a photo or photos already edited.

• Local Adjustments ​— The Local Adjustments tools will be faster to brush and adjust.

• Windows High-DPI​ — Support for high-dpi displays on Windows will be dramatically improved. The scaling of the fonts and controls will work much better, especially on 4k displays and laptops.

• Keywording​ — Keywords will be easier to search, add, delete, and modify. Also, keywords are now case sensitive.

• Soft Proofing in Resize​ — The soft-proofing feature will also be available in ON1 Resize (Genuine Fractals®).

• Drag and Drop from Film Strip​ — Drag and drop photos from the film strip to add them as new layers.

• Increased Thumbnail Size Range​ — The range of thumbnail size will be increased, so photographers can go all the way up to two giant thumbnails or down to tiny thumbnails to survey an entire folder.

• Default Photo Location​ — Now control the default photo location in Browse. This is where ON1 Photo RAW will look to find photos instead of the Pictures folder.

• Preview the Resize Algorithm​ — When using the Genuine Fractals algorithm, photographers will be able to preview the resulting quality at 100% zoom to more accurately adjust the options and sharpening.

• Persistent Crop Preset State​ — The crop tool settings will be persistent and remembered across photos.

• Search by Adjustments Added​ — Search for photos based on specific adjustments applied such as cropped, retouched, etc.

• Update to Lightroom Migration —​ The Lightroom Migration tool will now migrate the pick and reject flags.

• Added for Support New Cameras and Lenses

• Many other under-the-hood bug fixes and performance improvements.

Photo RAW 2019.5 is coming in mid-May. And yes, I’ll be revising my ebook ON1 Photo RAW Essentials with the new features in 2019.5. I’ll get cracking on the next edition as soon as I have my hands on the new release!