# How to use the Editor tab for detailed photo editing > On Windows, press Ctrl+3 for the Editor: tone curve, colour mixer, grading, detail, looks, undo history, versions and sync. Your photo files never change. Source: https://firelet.media/help/use-the-editor-tab Published: 2026-11-08 · Updated: 2026-11-08 Applies to: Windows The Editor tab is firelet.media Gallery's full photo editor on Windows. Press [[Ctrl]]+[[3]] and you get a tone curve, a colour mixer, colour grading, sharpening and noise reduction, looks, masks and repair tools, with an undo history and versions. Like the viewer's Adjust panel, it saves your edits in the library and never changes the photo file. ## Adjust panel or Editor tab? Both edit the same photo, and both save as you go. The viewer's **Adjust** panel ([[E]]) is for quick fixes while you browse. The **Editor** tab is where you go for more control. | | Adjust panel (viewer) | Editor tab | |---|---|---| | Light, colour, crop, straighten, presets | Yes | Yes | | Whites, blacks, clarity, texture, dehaze | No | Yes | | Tone curve, colour mixer, colour grading | No | Yes | | Sharpening, noise reduction, vignette, grain | No | Yes | | Masks, AI tools, repair, combine photos | No | Yes | | Undo history | No (Reset only) | Up to 100 steps | > [!NOTE] > The Editor tab is in the Windows app. The Linux app has the Adjust panel, described in [how to edit a photo without changing the original](https://firelet.media/help/edit-photos-without-changing-originals). ## How to open the Editor 1. Select one or more photos in the grid. 2. Press [[Ctrl]]+[[3]], or click **Editor** in the title bar. 3. Click a photo in the **Photos** strip on the left to edit it. 4. Press [[Ctrl]]+[[1]] to go back to the **Viewer** tab when you're done. There are other ways in. Press [[Shift]]+[[E]] in the grid, right-click a tile and choose **Edit in Editor**, or click **Open in Editor** in the viewer's Adjust panel. The strip holds your selection when you select more than one photo. Otherwise it holds every photo the grid is showing, so you can step through them with [[←]] and [[→]] (or [[PgUp]] and [[PgDn]]). Videos are left out: the Editor works on photos. ## Find your way around - **Left: the strip, Versions and History.** The strip lists the photos you are editing. Under it are the versions of the photo on screen and its history. - **Middle: the photo.** Above it are **Undo**, **Redo**, **Before and after** and **Reset**. A line under the photo's name says what you did last. - **Right: the adjustments.** A histogram, the **Enhance**, **Tone** and **Colour** buttons, then the sections. Click a section's name to open or close it. > [!TIP] > Drag sideways in the histogram to move blacks, shadows, exposure, highlights or whites directly. Double-click any slider's name to put it back to zero, or type an exact value in the box beside it. ## The sections at a glance | Section | What it does | |---|---| | **Looks** | 38 built-in looks, from **Natural** and **Vivid** to **Noir** and **Cyanotype**, each with an **Amount** slider. **Import .cube…** adds a 3D LUT you own. | | **Light** | **Exposure**, **Contrast**, **Highlights**, **Shadows**, **Whites** and **Blacks** | | **Presence** | **Clarity**, **Texture** and **Dehaze** | | **Colour** | **Temperature**, **Tint**, **Vibrance**, **Saturation** and **Black and white** | | **Tone curve** | One curve for **RGB** or one each for **Red**, **Green** and **Blue**. Click the line to add a point, drag to bend it, double-click a point to remove it. | | **Colour mixer** | **Hue**, **Saturation** and **Luminance** for eight colours, from **Red** to **Magenta** | | **Colour grading** | Three wheels for **Shadows**, **Midtones** and **Highlights**, plus **Blending** and **Balance**. Drag a dot towards a colour; double-click a wheel to clear it. | | **Detail** | **Sharpening**, **Radius**, **Noise reduction** and **Colour noise** | | **Effects** | **Vignette**, **Midpoint**, **Grain** and **Grain size** | | **Lens and perspective**, **Repair** | Lens corrections, perspective, spots, red eye, film negatives and old photos | | **Masks**, **AI tools** | Changes to one part of the photo, and the AI edits | | **Crop and rotate**, **Presets** | The same tools as the Adjust panel | | **Combine photos**, **Text, drawing and frames** | HDR, panoramas, text and frames, each saved as a new photo | | **Copy and sync** | Copy, paste and sync edits; open a copy in another app | Sharpening and noise reduction show best at full size, because the preview is smaller. Masks and AI tools have their own guide: [how to edit part of a photo with masks and AI tools](https://firelet.media/help/masks-and-ai-photo-edits). So do [repairs](https://firelet.media/help/repair-and-restore-photos) and [HDR, panoramas, text and frames](https://firelet.media/help/hdr-panorama-text-and-frames). ## Undo, history and before-and-after - **Undo** ([[Ctrl]]+[[Z]]) and **Redo** ([[Ctrl]]+[[Y]] or [[Ctrl]]+[[Shift]]+[[Z]]) step back and forward one change at a time. - **History** lists every step, newest at the top. Click a step to go back to it; click **Original** at the bottom to undo everything. It is kept with the photo, up to 100 steps. - **Reset** goes back to the original "as one step you can undo". - **Before and after** splits the picture: drag the line to compare. Hold [[\\]] to see the whole original. A slider drag is one step, so moving **Exposure** around for a while still undoes in one go. ## Versions: two takes of one photo Click **New version** under **Versions** to make a separate tile with its own edits, stars and albums. The file is not copied. Try a colour take and a black-and-white take side by side, then rate or export each one on its own. ## Edit many photos at once To give a series the same look: 1. Edit one photo until you are happy with it. 2. In the strip, [[Ctrl]]-click or [[Shift]]-click the other photos. 3. Click **Sync…** in **Copy and sync**. 4. Tick the parts to carry over. Parts this photo uses are marked "set"; **Crop and turn** starts unticked. 5. Click **Sync**. A ticked part that this photo leaves at zero resets that part on the others. For one photo at a time, **Copy edits** ([[Ctrl]]+[[Shift]]+[[C]]) and **Paste edits** ([[Ctrl]]+[[Shift]]+[[V]]) carry everything except the crop and turn. ## Get a file with your edits Your edits live in the library, not in the file. When you need a real file, select the photo in the grid, press [[Ctrl]]+[[E]] and tick **With my edits — crop, turn, light and colour**. Every Editor change goes into the copy. [How to export photos](https://firelet.media/help/export-photos) covers the rest. To finish a photo in another program, click **Edit in another app…** under **Copy and sync**. The gallery writes a 16-bit TIFF copy with your edits beside the original, named like `photo (edit).tif`, adds it to the library and opens it in the app you chose with **Choose app…**. > [!IMPORTANT] > Edits and their history are saved in `gallery.db`. AI fills and imported looks sit beside it, in the `ai` and `looks` folders under `%LOCALAPPDATA%\PictureGallery`. Back up those two folders with `gallery.db`, as [how to back up your photos and your library](https://firelet.media/help/back-up-photos-and-library) explains. ## Questions ### Is the Editor tab in the Linux app? No. The Editor tab is in the Windows app only. The Linux app has the viewer's Adjust panel, with crop, straighten, light, colour, looks and presets. ### How far back can I undo? Up to 100 steps per photo. The history is kept with the photo, so it is still there after you close the gallery. ### Does a version copy my photo file? No. A version is a separate tile in the library with its own edits, stars and albums, drawn from the same file. ### Are my Editor edits included when I export? Yes. Export with 'With my edits — crop, turn, light and colour' ticked draws every Editor change into the copy.