DustMagic’s output is opinionated by design — there are no format/quality dialogs to configure. Cleaned files appear in a predictable place every time.
Where Files Go
- Cleaned images — saved into a
cleaned/subfolder inside your source folder. - Detection masks — saved into a
_masks/subfolder for verification. - Originals — never modified.
So a folder of scans at ~/Scans/2024-Wedding/ gains:
~/Scans/2024-Wedding/cleaned/— the cleaned files.~/Scans/2024-Wedding/_masks/— the matching dust masks (PNG).
Output Format
Cleaned files match the input format and bit depth:
- TIFF in → TIFF out (preserves bit depth and compression).
- JPEG in → JPEG out (high quality, no extra compression added).
- PNG in → PNG out.
- BMP in → BMP out.
For maximum quality, scan and process as 16-bit TIFF.
Two Export Paths
Process Batch (the whole folder)
Click Process Batch. DustMagic processes every image in parallel and writes them to cleaned/. This is the standard end-of-session action.
Export This Image (a single frame)
Click Export This Image in the toolbar to inpaint and save the current image individually, with any brush edits applied. The image is then removed from the remaining batch so Process Batch won’t reprocess it.
Use this when one or two images need manual touch-up and you want to handle them before running the rest of the folder.
Filenames
Cleaned files keep their original filename — they’re disambiguated by the folder. Re-running on the same source produces files of the same name in cleaned/; existing cleaned files are overwritten.
Verifying What Was Removed
- Open a mask from
_masks/in any image viewer to see exactly which pixels were inpainted. - Use Split View (key 5) inside DustMagic to sweep before/after on individual images.
Archival Tips
- Keep originals in their own folder, separate from
cleaned/. - For long-term storage, prefer 16-bit TIFF with LZW compression.
- Back up before processing — DustMagic doesn’t touch originals, but disks fail.
Next Steps
- Tune what’s removed — 2.3: All Settings Explained.
- Lightroom round-trip — 3.1: Lightroom Integration Guide.