Zoner Photo Studio, now called Zoner Studio, is a Windows application for organizing photographs, developing RAW images, composing layered pictures and editing video. It combines a photo catalog with separate workspaces for photographic adjustments, detailed image editing, print layouts and video projects. The software uses a paid subscription, with a time-limited trial.
Zoner Photo Studio’s photo catalog
Zoner Photo Studio builds its catalog from folders you choose. It reads the images’ metadata and stores thumbnails, allowing the collection to be browsed through folder, calendar, keyword and location views. Calendar view groups pictures by the date they were taken; location view uses GPS information to arrange them by country, region, city and place.
Keywords can form a hierarchy, such as a subject with more specific categories beneath it. Dragging keywords onto pictures assigns them, while selecting a keyword displays the matching photographs. Preview preloading can also keep a visual record of photos on a disconnected drive. These cached previews let you browse the collection, but they do not replace the original image files.
RAW development
The Develop workspace keeps photographic corrections separate from the source image. Adjustments are saved automatically in an auxiliary file, so revisiting a picture restores its edited appearance within Zoner Photo Studio. Export creates a separate image containing those changes for use elsewhere.
Exposure and white balance controls establish the image’s brightness and color balance. Separate highlight and shadow controls adjust the lighter and darker regions, while curves provide finer control over how input tones become output tones. Color Shift targets particular hues, and noise reduction offers separate treatment of brightness noise and colored speckles, with a control for retaining texture.
Automatic enhancement changes exposure and color settings that remain available for manual adjustment. For a group of photographs, you can copy selected adjustments from one image to others, apply them across a folder or save settings as a preset.
Local masks
A mask confines an adjustment to part of a photograph. Zoner Photo Studio can identify a subject, background or sky automatically, or find an object inside a rectangle you draw. Brushes allow the selection to be painted in or removed, while radial and linear gradients create transitions across an area.
Color Range and Luminance Range masks select pixels according to their color or brightness. Selection tools can be combined by adding areas, subtracting them or keeping only their intersection. A sky selection, for example, can be narrowed to a brightness range before adjusting it, leaving the remaining picture outside that mask.
Layer composition
The Editor works with pictures assembled from multiple layers. Images from other files, text and shapes can be placed above the existing picture, then moved, transformed and reordered. Each layer has opacity and blending controls that determine how it combines with the content below.
Layer masks hide or reveal parts of a layer without removing its image content: black hides an area and white reveals it. Adjustment layers apply changes such as exposure, white balance or curves to a linked layer or the layers beneath them. Their settings can be changed later.
Saving the composition in ZPS format preserves its layers for further editing. This project format is specific to the Editor; a finished image needs an appropriate image format when it will be opened in other applications.
Exporting images and print layouts
Export controls turn one image or a selection into files with chosen dimensions, quality and color space. Available formats include JPEG, TIFF, PNG, HEIF, AVIF and JPEG XL. Renaming rules can include counters or image metadata, and metadata controls determine whether details such as GPS coordinates remain in the exported copies. Export presets can also produce several output variants in one job.
The Print workspace uses photographs in page layouts for books, calendars, collages, contact sheets and individual prints. Pictures can be cropped or replaced inside a layout, with grids and guidelines helping position them. Projects can go to a connected printer, individual page images or a PDF. These projects reference the original photos, so moving or renaming a source file affects the layout’s access to it.
Video timeline
Zoner Photo Studio also combines still photographs, video clips and sound on separate timeline tracks. Clips can be trimmed or split, titles can be added, and transitions connect adjacent shots. A group of photographs can become individual slides with pan and zoom or a timelapse sequence.
The project frame rate must be chosen before adding source files. Sound tracks accept MP3, WAV, AAC and FLAC files, and timeline controls adjust their volume alongside the visual sequence. Video export produces an MP4 file containing H.264 video and AAC audio.
