The global menu bar sits at the top-left of the header and is available in every view. It gathers the application-wide commands, image operations, history and style management, maintenance tasks, display settings, view switching and help. It is the central reference point of the interface: most commands that are not a per-module setting live here.

Using the menu

  • Click a menu title to open it, or press Alt to reveal the underlined mnemonic letters and press one to open the matching menu. Once a menu is open, navigate all menus with the arrow keys and trigger an entry with Enter.
  • Entries that have a default keyboard shortcut show it on their right. All these shortcuts are defaults that you can change from Edit → Keyboard shortcuts… (see shortcuts and keyboard interaction).
  • Many entries act on the active images — that is, the images currently selected in the lighttable or filmstrip. When nothing is selected, those entries are greyed out.

The menus are described below in their bar order.

File

Image-file and collection operations.

Import… (Ctrl+Shift+I)
Open the import window to add images to the library.
Export… (Ctrl+Shift+E)
Open the export settings to render the selected images to files.
Recent collections
A submenu listing the collections you have recently browsed; pick one to restore it.
Copy files on disk… / Move files on disk…
Physically copy or move the selected image files to another folder, updating the library accordingly.
Create a blended HDR
Merge the selected bracketed exposures into a single high-dynamic-range DNG.
Copy distant images locally / Resynchronize distant images
Manage local copies of images stored on removable or network drives.
Remove from library (Delete)
Remove the selected images from Ansel’s library without deleting the files on disk. Available in the lighttable.
Delete from disk (Shift+Delete)
Remove the selected images from the library and delete (or trash) the files on disk. Available in the lighttable.
Quit (Ctrl+Q)
Close Ansel.

Edit

Editing-history management, undo/redo and application settings. See history copy/paste and undo/redo.

Undo (Ctrl+Z) / Redo (Ctrl+Y)
Step backwards/forwards through your most recent actions in the current view.
Copy history (all) (Ctrl+C) / Copy history (parts)… (Ctrl+Shift+C)
Copy the whole editing history of the selected image, or pick which modules to copy.
Paste history (all) (Ctrl+V) / Paste history (parts)… (Ctrl+Shift+V)
Paste the copied history onto the selected images, either entirely or selectively.
History pasting mode
How a pasted history combines with the target’s existing history:
  • Prepend — the copied history is applied before the current one; current edits win conflicts.
  • Append — the copied history is applied after the current one; copied edits win conflicts.
  • Replace — the current history is discarded and replaced by the copied one.
Nodes pasting mode → Copy module order
When enabled, pasting also transfers the module (pixelpipe node) order along with the settings.
Ask merge settings before paste
When enabled, a dialog asks how to merge the histories each time you paste, instead of using the modes above silently.
Load history from XMP…
Apply an editing history read from an external XMP sidecar file to the selected images.
Create new history (Ctrl+N)
Create a fresh, empty duplicate of the selected image to start a new edit.
Duplicate existing history (Ctrl+D)
Create a duplicate of the selected image that carries over its current edit.
Compress history
Collapse the history stack to the minimum set of states producing the current result.
Delete history
Discard the editing history of the selected images, resetting them.
Preferences…
Open the preferences & settings window.
Keyboard shortcuts…
Open the shortcuts window, which both lists and lets you edit every shortcut.

Selection

Batch selection helpers that work on the current collection. Selecting from the thumbnail grid is described in shortcuts and keyboard interaction.

Select all (Ctrl+A)
Select every image in the current collection.
Clear selection (Ctrl+Shift+A)
Deselect everything.
Invert selection (Ctrl+I)
Select the images that are not currently selected, and vice-versa.
Scroll back to selection
Scroll the grid to bring the selected image(s) into view.

Image

Per-image metadata and grouping actions, applied to the selected images.

Rotate
90° counter-clockwise, 90° clockwise, or Reset rotation. This sets the image orientation flag.
Color labels
Toggle a color label: Red (F1), Yellow (F2), Green (F3), Blue (F4), Purple (F5), or Clear labels (F6).
Ratings
Set a star rating: Reject (R), ★ (1) … ★★★★★ (5), or Clear rating (0).
Reload EXIF from file
Re-read the EXIF metadata from the original files, discarding any cached values.
Group images (Ctrl+G) / Ungroup images (Ctrl+Shift+G)
Combine the selected images into a group, or break the group apart.

Styles

Apply and manage styles — named, reusable sets of module settings.

(list of styles)
Each available style is listed; click it to apply it to the selected images. Hovering a style name previews it on the current image.
History pasting mode / Nodes pasting mode / Ask merge settings before apply
Control how a style merges with the target’s existing history, exactly like the equivalent options in the Edit menu.
Create new style…
Create a style from the editing history of the selected image.
Manage styles…
Open the style manager to rename, edit, import, export or delete styles.

Run

Background and maintenance tasks.

Clear darkroom pipeline caches
Free the cached intermediate pipeline results, forcing a full recompute on the next edit.
Preload selected thumbnails in cache
Pre-render the thumbnails of the selected images into the on-disk cache, up to a chosen resolution (from 360×225 px up to 8K, or for current grid size). Runs as a background task.
Purge selected thumbnails from cache
Delete the cached thumbnails of the selected images from disk, so they are regenerated next time.
Defragment the library
Optimize the library database file.
Backup the library
Make a backup copy of the library database.
Resynchronize library and XMP
Scan for XMP sidecars that changed outside Ansel and reconcile them with the library.
Save selected developments to XMP
Write the editing history of the selected images to their XMP sidecar files.
Resynchronize database with distant XMP for local copies
Reconcile the library with the XMP sidecars of images held as local copies.

Display

View-level display settings. These are detailed in the views overview.

Monitor color profile / Monitor color intent
The display color-management profile and rendering intent (Perceptual, Relative colorimetric, Absolute colorimetric).
Panels
Individually toggle the Top (Ctrl+Shift+T), Left (Ctrl+Shift+L), Right (Ctrl+Shift+R) and Filmstrip (Ctrl+Shift+F) panels.
Thumbnail overlays
When the badges drawn over thumbnails are shown: Always hide (Ctrl+Shift+H), Show on hover, or Always show (Ctrl+Shift+O).
Thumbnail source
How thumbnails are generated: Always process the RAW, Use embedded JPG if unedited, or Always use embedded JPG.
Collapse grouped images / Show group borders (Ctrl+Shift+P)
Control the display of grouped images.
Full screen (F11)
Toggle fullscreen mode. (To toggle all panels at once, use Shift+F11.)

Ateliers

The view switcher. It lists every available view and switches to the one you pick (the current view is greyed out):

  • Lighttable (Escape)
  • Darkroom (Enter — opens the selected image)
  • Map, Print, Slideshow (when enabled in the preferences)

Help

Documentation and support links.

Online documentation
Open this documentation website.
Ask a question
Open the Ansel search engine.
Join the support chat / Join the support forum
Open the community chat and forum.
Open contextual help
Turn the cursor into a help probe; click a control to open the relevant documentation page.
Search actions… (Ctrl+P)
Open the global action search.
About
Show the version and credits dialog.