The built-in Filter Library Browser lets you access the Filter Library directly from within Filter Forge. While we recommend to access the Filter Library via our website, the built-in browser may still be useful for situations when you need to download multiple filters at once:
Viewing Filters
Filters in the Filter Library are grouped into categories, the list of which is located to the left of the Filter Library Browser. Filters in each category can be further sorted, either by date of submission or by popularity. To sort the filters by the date of their submission, select View > Recent Filters First from the main menu. To sort the filters by their popularity, select View > Popular Filters First. This option puts high-popularity and average-popularity filters first, and low-popularity filters last.
When you select a category in the category list, the filter list in the middle shows filters in that category. Filters are shown as thumbnails which may use the following visual indicators:
- Bold filter name and a border indicate recently-added filters you haven't viewed yet. If a category has such filters, it is also shown in bold, with the number of new filters in brackets.
- A tick indicates that a filter has been added to the download list.
- A grayed tick indicates a previously downloaded filter. To hide filters you already have, choose Filter > Hide Already Downloaded from the menu.
- An 'Upgrade Needed' notice means that you need to upgrade to a newer major version of Filter Forge in order to use this filter.
- An 'Update' notice means that this is an update to a filter you have previously downloaded.
If a filter has presets, the number of them is shown above the filter preview area. To cycle through presets of the selected filter, click the preview, or press Space, or choose Filter > Next Preset from the menu. To cycle back, right-click the preview, or press Shift+Space, or choose Filter > Previous Preset from the menu. You can also click the numbers above the preview to quickly switch between presets. When you download a filter with presets, they will be visible on the Presets tab in Filter Controls.
Downloading Filters
To download filters, you should first add them to the download list. The download list works like a shopping cart where you put the filters to be downloaded. You can always view the contents of your download list and remove some or all of the filters from it, if necessary. To add a filter to the download list, do any of the following:
- Select the filter and click the Add to Downloads button;
- Select the filter and press Ins or Enter;
- Select the filter and choose Filter > Add to Downloads from the menu;
- Double-click the filter.
Multiple filters can be selected by holding Shift and Ctrl⌘ when clicking. To select all filters in the category, press Ctrl⌘+A or choose Edit > Select All from the menu.
To remove a filter from the download list, do any of the following:
- Select the filter and click the Remove from Downloads button;
- Select the filter and press Del;
- Select the filter and choose Filter > Remove from Downloads from the menu;
- Double-click the filter.
To see the filters in the download list, click the Downloads category in the category list. The number in brackets next to Downloads shows the number of filters in the download list. In the filters list, these filters are marked with a 'tick'.
To download the filters, click the Download button at the bottom of the Filter Library Browser, or choose File > Download from the menu. Upon downloading, the filters appear in the filter list in the Main Window in their appropriate categories.
All Filter Forge editions do not limit the number of downloaded filters.
Searching
The filter list is searchable. To find the filter you need, use the search box in the top left corner. Searching is performed within filter names, authors, descriptions, keywords, and URLs by whole words only, not substrings. Searching is case insensitive and requires exact match, no stemming is done. For example, if you search for 'metal' you won't find filters containing the words 'metals' or 'metallic' – to find them you must type these terms exactly.
Search results are displayed as a list of filters containing the search term. The results of the last search are stored and can be viewed later by clicking Search in the list of categories which is located to the left of the Filter Library Browser. This enables you to continue viewing filters or look up your download list, and return to the last search results later.
Downloading Updates
Filter authors can submit updates for their filters. If there is an update available for any of the filters you downloaded previously, it will be shown under Updates in the list of categories to the left. The changes made by the author to the filter in this update are described in the Info pane.
To download an update, follow the same steps as you would do to download a filter. When you download an updated filter, the old version of the filter is replaced by the new one.
Note that when you update a filter, its factory presets will be replaced, but the user-added presets, if any, will be left intact. However, the user-added presets may be invalidated by downloading an update in case the update changes the filter structure or controls. For more information about presets, see the Presets tab.
Hotkeys
- Ctrl⌘+A – selects all filters in the current category.
- Space – cycles forward through the filter presets.
- Shift+Space – cycles back through the filter presets.
- Ins – adds the current filter to the download list.
- Del – removes the current filter from the download list.
- Enter – adds the current filter to Downloads, if it has not been added yet, and removes it, if it has already been added.
- Ctrl⌘+R – shows the original image in the preview area (works for Effect filters only).
