What an exported file contains
An exported file holds more than its pixels, and the folder holds more than the files. This page covers the colour space and depth a file is written in, what lands in the folder, and what each file says about itself. Reach for it when a lab or a client asks what they are getting.
Colour space and depth
On the Fast engine the Colour space and Format controls decide how each file is written: sRGB or Display P3, and a JPEG at 8 bits per channel or a TIFF at 16, with the exceptions below. Display P3 converts the pixels, not just the label. Max quality does not take the colour space choice (Max quality and darktable).
With sRGB selected, Fast does not always write an sRGB file. A RAW take leaves the decoder in Display P3 at 16 bits, and a JPEG, HEIC or TIFF original arrives in its own colour profile at 8 bits. Fast converts the take to sRGB when a develop tool has reworked its pixels, and in some cases when you have only changed its shape with Crop, Straighten, Rotate 90° clockwise or a flip. Exposure, Temperature and Tint on a RAW take do not trigger it: the RAW decoder applies them (The RAW stage). Where Fast does not convert, the file carries Display P3 or the original's profile, which is not always sRGB. The table below says which file you get.
The embedded profile keeps colour right in any colour-managed program. A lab or website that ignores profiles shows a Display P3 file flatter. Before you send sRGB files to one, open one exported file in Preview and check its profile under Tools ▸ Show Inspector.
What Fast writes with sRGB selected
With sRGB selected, no watermark and one of the dialog's own sizes, the profile and depth of the file are these.
| The take | As a JPEG | As a TIFF |
|---|---|---|
| RAW, nothing done, or only Exposure, Temperature and Tint | Display P3, 8 bits | Display P3, 16 bits |
| RAW, with only a crop, straighten, rotation or flip (and perhaps Exposure, Temperature and Tint) | sRGB, 8 bits | Display P3, 16 bits |
| RAW, with any other develop tool | sRGB, 8 bits | sRGB, 16 bits |
| JPEG, HEIC or TIFF original, nothing done | its own profile, 8 bits | its own profile, 8 bits |
| JPEG, HEIC or TIFF original, with only a crop, straighten, rotation or flip | its own profile, 8 bits | sRGB, 16 bits |
| JPEG, HEIC or TIFF original, with any other develop tool | sRGB, 8 bits | sRGB, 16 bits |
Display P3, a watermark, or a hand-written short-edge, megapixel or percent size that makes the frame smaller always runs the conversion. The file is then written in the colour space you chose, a JPEG at 8 bits and a TIFF at 16, whichever row the take is in. Writing presets by hand covers those sizes.
What lands in the folder
For every take: the image, named after the original as it was on the card (DSCF1234.jpg or DSCF1234.tif) unless a rename pattern says otherwise, and an .xmp sidecar of the same name. The sidecar carries the star rating and colour label in the standard fields, the keywords a hand-off writes, and a few fields of Vixlo's own: the decision, the take's place in this export, its group, its stack and, on a favourite, the favourite. None is embedded in the image.
One export-manifest.json records the run: the preset's name, the format, the size and the engine, every take written, and every frame that failed with the reason. It does not record the quality, the colour space, the patterns or the watermark.
What the file says about itself
The camera, lens, ISO, shutter, aperture, focal length and capture date come across from the original, on both engines. Left out on purpose: the camera's private maker note, the in-camera film simulation tag and the original's rotation, as the pixels are already upright.
Your name and copyright line come from Settings, in the Exported files card's Creator and Copyright fields (Creator and Copyright). Each replaces whatever the camera put in its own field; left blank, the camera's line stays.
