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Destructive and Non-destructive Editing
Two basic types of image editing exist, called “destructive” and “non-destructive.” Zoner Studio enables both of these types.
Destructive Editing
In destructive editing, all changes are applied to image data directly, and in the moment when the picture is saved, the changes are written into the picture. As a result, it is changed irreversibly. Meanwhile, until the user uses Save (or Save As), closing the file destroys all their changes. Edits in the Manager and Editor modules work in this way.
The advantage of this approach is that it does not increase the amount of data on your computer, but the disadvantage is that you can easily accidentally make and store an inappropriate edit and thus degrade your file.
Non-destructive Editing
In non-destructive editing, all changes are stored in an auxiliary file with the “.DATA-ZPS” filename extension. Zoner Studio automatically creates this file in the same folder as the file being edited. This editing approach is especially appropriate for RAW files, but it has its uses when editing bitmap files as well. Once editing is complete, you must use the Export function on the file being edited. This creates a copy of the original file, and the changes are destructively written to this copy. With factory settings, the program works in the Develop module in this way, but it can be set up to work destructively there as well.
Non-destructive editing offers several advantages:
- You cannot accidentally degrade a file’s original version through an accidental change, because in non-destructive editing, the original is not changed at all.
- Even if you decide to continue your edits much later, the program still has the editing history available and you can take back any of your editing decisions.
- This editing method makes the existence of the Variants feature possible.
- Non-destructive edits can easily be copied to other files, speeding up your work.
One disadvantage of non-destructive editing is that the edits in the file with the .DATA-ZPS extension can only be read by Zoner Studio and the Zonerama online gallery. If you want to edit a file and then publish it using a different service, or edit it using a different program, you must first use Export to produce a copy of the original with your edits, and use that copy.
When you are working in the Editor, all changes are applied to a picture’s image data directly, and when the picture is saved, these changes are stored in the picture file, irreversibly changing the picture. Non-destructive adjustments, on the other hand, leave the picture’s source data unchanged; all that is saved is a list of the individual changes, and these are only applied afterwards, at the moment when the picture needs to be saved. Even saving only records this list of changes to disk, leaving the original picture untouched. Thanks to this, you can change the list of adjustments later at any time, or even remove them all to go back to the original picture.
For non-destructive adjustments, use Develop. There is no need to confirm or save changes when you are done editing; changes are automatically saved when you move on to the next picture, switch to a different section of the program, or exit the program. The remaining sections of the program automatically reflect any adjustments to a picture that you have made in Develop. Thus if you’d like to work on a picture with advanced tools that are not contained in Develop, just open it in the Editor and continue working. When you need to make use of a picture outside of Zoner Studio, and you have used non-destructive adjustments on the picture, you must export the picture by clicking Export, which applies the adjustments you’ve made and saves the picture to a location of your choice in a format of your choice.
The other option is to switch the Develop module into destructive editing mode. In this mode, when you are done editing, you are called to save changes back into the original picture. Saving changes irreversibly applies all of the edits to the picture, and during this operation, the original picture is replaced with the new one.
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