3 <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//Norman Walsh//DTD DocBk XML V3.1.4//EN"
4 "file:///usr/share/xml/docbook/schema/dtd/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
6 <chapter id="user-defaults">
7 <title>Default Settings</title>
9 <p>ALE offers five different default settings, each of which emphasizes
10 image quality, speed, or some other rendering characteristic, as follows:</p>
12 <ll>--q0 Low quality, high speed. [default]
13 --qn Low noise, moderate speed.
14 --q1 Moderate quality and speed.
15 --q2 High quality, low speed.
16 --qr Range-extended high quality.
19 <p>These settings specify defaults for other options: <l>--dchain</l>,
20 <l>--achain</l>, <l>--3d-chain</l>, <l>--ips</l>, <l>--exp-extend</l>, and
21 <l>--cx</l>. For more information about these options, see <xref
22 linkend="user-alignment"/>, <xref linkend="user-rendering"/>, and <xref
23 linkend="user-3d"/>. Details regarding these defaults are provided in the
24 following sections.</p>
26 <s><t>High speed (--q0)</t>
28 <code>--q0</code> emphasizes speed over image quality. This option is default, and
29 sets other options' defaults as follows:
32 --dchain fine:box:1,triangle:2
37 --3d-chain fine:box:1,triangle:2
41 <s><t>Low noise (--qn)</t>
43 <code>--qn</code> emphasizes low noise over resolution and rendering speed, and
44 sets the following defaults:
52 --3d-chain sinc*lanc:6
57 <s><t>Balanced quality and speed (--q1)</t>
59 <code>--q1</code> balances image quality and rendering speed, offering higher
60 resolution than <code>--qn</code>. In versions 0.8.1 and later, this option
61 uses median values, which can be very memory-intensive to calculate.
64 --dchain median:fine:sinc*lanc:8,triangle:2
69 --3d-chain median:fine:sinc*lanc:8,triangle:2
74 <s><t>High quality (--q2)</t>
76 <p><l>--q2</l> favors image quality over rendering speed, offering greater
77 emphasis for high-frequency details than <l>--q0</l>, <l>--qn</l>,
78 or <l>--q1</l>. It depends on the <l>--lpsf</l> and
79 <l>--nlpsf</l> options, which can be set indirectly via the
80 <l>--device</l> option. (More information about these options can be
81 found in <xref linkend="user-psf"/> and <xref linkend="user-device"/>.) <l>--q2</l>
82 sets the following defaults:</p>
90 --3d-chain median:fine:sinc*lanc:8,triangle:2
95 <s><t>Range extension (--qr)</t>
97 <p><code>--qr</code> is similar to <code>--q2</code>, but offers improved
98 rendering when input images have been taken with unequal exposures. In other
99 cases, it might exacerbate noise in light and dark regions, and so should not
100 be used. This option sets the following defaults:</p>
108 --3d-chain median:fine:sinc*lanc:8,triangle:2