AKVIS Enhancer can work independently as a standalone program or as a plug-in to a photo editor.
Standalone is an independent program. You can run it in the usual way.
Plugin is an add-on for graphics editors, for example for Photoshop, AliveColors, and other compatible programs. To call the plugin, select it from filters of your image editing program.
The AKVIS Enhancer workspace looks like this:
The left part of the program’s window is taken by the Image Window with two tabs: Before and After. In the Before tab the original image is shown, while in the After tab you can see the processed image. You can switch between the windows by clicking on a tab with the left mouse button.
You can select how Image Window and Before/After tabs will be shown by adjusting the Image View Modes in the bottom part of the left panel.
The Control Panel contains the following controls:
Right-click this button to display the list of recent files. You can change the number of recent documents in the program’s Preferences.
Тo the left of the Image Window there is the Toolbar with these tools:
Double-clicking on the tool's icon on the Toolbar makes the image fit the Image Window.
Double-clicking on the tool's icon on the Toolbar makes the image scale to 100% (actual size).
And below, there are three buttons which control how the Image Window looks like.
You can navigate and scale the image using the Navigator. The frame in the Navigator surrounds the area of the image which is visible in the Image Window; the area outside of the frame will be shaded. The frame can be dragged, thereby changing the visible portion of the image. To move the frame, place the cursor within it, left click the mouse, and then drag.
To scroll the image in the Image Window you can press the spacebar on the keyboard and drag the image with the left mouse button. Use the scroll wheel of the mouse to move the image up/down, by keeping the Ctrl key pressed – to the left/to the right, by keeping the Alt key pressed − scale the image. Right-click the scroll bar to activate the quick navigation menu.
Use the slider to scale the image. When you move the slider to the right, the image scale increases. When you move the slider to the left, the image scale reduces.
You can also change the image scale by entering a new coefficient into the scale field. The fall-down menu shows some frequently used coefficients.
You can use hot-keys to change the image scale + and Ctrl++ (⌘++ in Mac) to increase the image scale and - and Ctrl+- (⌘+- in Mac) to reduce the scale.
Below the Navigator is the Settings Panel where you can choose the image enhancement Mode and adjust its settings.
In the Presets field you can save favorite settings as a preset to use them in the future. When you launch the program, it uses the settings of the last used preset.
Under the Settings Panel you can see Hints for the parameters and buttons when you hover over them with the cursor. You can choose where the hints will be shown or hide them in the program's Preferences.