Frequently Asked Questions

1. What’s the difference between LightZone Basic and Full?
Basic has all of the Editing Mode functionality of the Full version. The Full version Browser Mode allows you to do batch processing, file rating, metadata editing, lifting and pasting tools from previous images (for example, you have 10 different images of a sunset and you make lighting and color adjustments on one image, you can apply all those edits to the other 9 images without having to edit each one), file conversion(for email or the web) and file deletion.

2. Is my camera supported?
LightZone can read all common image formats including JPEG, TIFF and DNG. In addition, LightZone can read many camera RAW file formats; to find out if your camera’s RAW file format is supported by LightZone please see our list of supported camera RAW file types. If your camera is not on the list, please send a request to Light Crafts support using the ‘Send us an Email’ box on the right-hand side of this page.

3. Is there a LightZone in my language?
LightZone is currently only available in English.

4. What are the system requirements to be able to run LightZone?
We suggest customers run on Mac OS X (version 10.4.3 ‘Tiger’ or later is required) on a PowerPC or Intel processor with a minimum of 1GB of RAM (2GB recommended). On a Windows PC, LightZone requires a processor with SSE2 support, which includes all Intel processors made after 2001 and all AMD processors made after 2004 starting with the Athlon 64 CPUs with a minimum of 1GB of RAM (2GB recommended). LightZone supports Windows XP with service pack 2 (32-bit or x64), or Windows Vista.

5. My 30-day trial has expired. Can I get an extension?
Unfortunately, the 30-day Trial can not be extended beyond 30 days. After the trial is over there will be a watermark grid placed on images saved after the trial period. This grid will disappear if LightZone is activated with a valid serial number.

6. Is the free trial software a fully-functioning version of the product?
All LightZone trial software is limited only by time. During the trial period, the LightZone software will function identically to the paid version. After the 30 day trial, the software will add a watermark. Otherwise, LightZone trial versions are unimpaired and work exactly like the software Light Crafts sells.

7. Can you send me a copy of LightZone on CD?
Light Crafts does not keep copies of LightZone on CD, nor do we have paper-based product manuals to ship you.

8. How do I activate a new installation of LightZone?
If you purchased a stand alone or full version of LightZone you only need to enter the serial number for that product. However, if you purchased a LightZone Upgrade to 3.x you must first install and activate your original LightZone software using your original LightZone serial number before installing and upgrading LightZone with an upgrade serial number.

9. I’m getting an ‘Invalid Serial Number’ message, what can I do?

Here are a few things to consider. Make sure all ‘0′ characters are ‘zeros’ and not the letter ‘Oh’. Use copy and paste instead of manually entering the characters to avoid typos.

In addition, if you purchased an upgrade for LightZone — Roxio Edition you will need to email your upgrade serial number along with the original Roxio Edition serial number to Light Crafts’ Support at support@lightcrafts.com. Our support staff will then swap these previous serial numbers for a single full-version, stand-alone LightZone serial number.

10. Where can I find my LightZone serial number?
You can retrieve it by entering the email address you used when you purchased LightZone into the “Email Order History” on this page: eSellerate.

You can also send support@lightcrafts.com an email, and we will look up your information.

11. Can I use my serial number on both my Windows machine and my Mac?
Yes. The serial number is universal and can be used on any operating system we support.

12. LightZone crashes at startup, what can I do?
There are a number of possible issues causing LightZone to halt at start up. From corrupt or malformed images to possible conflict with other applications.
(You can find the log file in Library > Logs > LightZone.log in your home folder on the Mac, and My Documents > LightZone > LightZone.log in Windows)

• If LightZone crashes in a specific folder, there may be a corrupt/malformed/truncated JPG/TIFF/RAW file. To find which file(s) is the culprit, open up the LightZone.log file and look for an error that contains the folder in question. At the end of that path will be a specific file. Once you move/delete this file from that folder, LightZone will be able to start up again.
• If the log shows, “Unable to bind… to parent”, then you have an application installed that has added an entry in “My Computer” in Windows. The application may have a setting allowing you to disable that entry. If not, check with the technical support for that product on ways to disable it.
• If the log shows, “Error occurred during initialization of VM, Could not reserve enough space for object heap”, there may be a corruption in the Java Environment which will cause problems in all Java based programs. Updating to the latest OS X build will restore that environment. If you have the latest OS X update, you can reinstall the OS with the ‘Archive and Install’ feature which will rebuild core Mac files, while retaining your documents and settings. Click here for more information on ‘Archive and Install’ here: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n107120
• “Communication with running instance failed (error 231)”. This is message is specific to Windows and occurs when something has caused LightZone to stay in memory even though it appears to have shut down. You can end the lightzone.exe process by opening Task Manager(ctrl+shift+esc), click on the ‘Processes’ tab, click on ‘LightZone.exe’ and then click End Task at the bottom.

13. LightZone just crashed and I checked “Send report to Light Crafts”, but why haven’t I received a response?
The reports sent are anonymous and do not contain personal information about your individual machine or who it comes from.

14. I can’t get Lightroom/Aperture/iPhoto to see the changes I’ve made in LightZone, what can I do?
Lightroom issues are usually specific to the use of non-English OS’s with the English version of Lightroom. When an image is sent from Lightroom, LightZone will look for -Edit in the file name. Alternatively, for German and French users, LightZone will also look for -Bearbeiten and -Modifié, at the end of your files. If your file does not follow the language naming convention, LightZone will not be able to edit those images.

15. What file types are supported?
LightZone was designed with the digital SLR cameras in mind, and the files generated from them. LightZone will read supported camera RAW files, JPEGs and TIFFs. Large files coming from scanners that are greater than 200MB may cause performance and stability issues.

16. Will I lose any quality if I save in JPEG?
You will only lose quality if you decide to use that saved JPEG in another application. If you use LightZone by itself without any other program in your workflow, then a JPEG is perfect to help reduce hard disk usage. If you use LightZone in conjunction with other programs, such as Lightroom, Aperture or Photoshop, then you should save your files in TIFF format.

The saved file is merely a visual preview of your edits applied to your original RAW file. If you print within LightZone from a saved file(LZN_JPG or LZN_TIFF), you are actually printing the original RAW file with the tool stack applied, so the print quality from both are identical. This unique ability to embed your edits into a preview image allows you to convert a small 100K LZN_JPG into a 10MB LZN_TIFF file without loss in quality.

17. LightZone crashes when I enter my serial number, what can I do?

Safari 4 beta has caused problems for many with iLife, Mail, iTunes, iPhoto and other 3rd party applications. Unfortunately, this is one of the risks of installing beta software.
Temporarily uninstalling it will allow you to activate LightZone properly. You will need to use the uninstaller that downloaded in the same package as the Safari BETA 4 installer. Look in the Safari4.0BetaXXX.dmg for Safari4.0BetaUninstall.pkg
Double click the Uninstaller and follow the instructions. This will not affect your bookmarks and passwords. It will simply revert back to your previous version of Safari.
Once reverted, you should be able to enter your serial number again. At that point, you can reinstall Safari beta.

18. Where can I find the practice files?
Click here for the LightZone practice files. We also have a rollup of several LightZone tutorials in PDF format available here. Finally, we have a number of video tutorials for LightZone at the LightZone Learning Center site.

19. I have an older version of LightZone… can I upgrade for free, or is there a charge?
All versions of LightZone within the same major version series, i.e. LightZone 3.0, LightZone 3.1, LightZone 3.2, etc., can be upgraded free of charge via our LightZone download site at http://www.lightcrafts.com/help/downloads/. Upgrades between major versions of LightZone, i.e. from LightZone 3.x to LightZone 4.x, do incur a charge and can be purchased at a reduced cost by any previous Light Crafts customer though our online store.

20. How can I integrate LightZone with Google’s Picassa?

LightZone customer Steve G. sends us the following tips on using LightZone as an external editor in Picassa (Windows):

• Windows XP – Open the Control Panel, then the ‘Folder Option’s panel, then select the ‘File Types’ tab. Scroll to the registered file type extension for the type of file you use with Picassa, such as .jpg, that you want to edit with LightZone. Click ‘Change…’ then click ‘Browse…’ and go to the Program Files folder to find the *.exe for LightZone (the default is “C:\Program Files\LightZone3″). Click ‘Open’, then check the tick box for ‘Always use the selected program to open this kind of file’ to add LightZone to Windows’ “Open with” option list. Click ‘OK’ then ‘OK’ again.
• Windows 7 – Open the Control Panel, go to ‘Programs’ then ‘Default Programs’, then ‘ Make a file type always open in a specific program’. Scroll to the registered file type extension for the type of file you use with Picassa, such as .jpg, that you want to edit with LightZone. Select the type, then click ‘Change program…’. Click ‘Browse’ and find the *.exe for LightZone (the default is “C:\Program Files (x86)\LightZone3″). Click ‘Open’ then ‘OK’, then ‘Close’.

Please note that changing file type associations can be problematic if you already have these image types registered with other applications. If you’re unsure, please check before making any of the above changes.

21. Have another question?

Email LightZone customer support, support@lightcrafts.com