Inspect results in the Design panel viewers

The Design panel viewers in Nodespell show the selected node’s image, video or text so you can inspect it closely. Image and video viewers share the compositor viewer’s tools: zoom and pan, channel isolation, display exposure, a colour readout and two-image comparison. Text has its own viewer with search, wrapping and Markdown.

What does the Design panel show?

The Design panel follows your selection in the Graph. Open it from the panel menus, or right-click a node and choose Open Design.

Selection	Viewer
An Image asset	Image viewer
An image effect node	Image viewer with an Input / Output toggle
Any node with image or video outputs	Image or video viewer, with a tab for each output
A Video asset	Video viewer: the player plus channels, display adjustments, zoom and readout
A Text asset or text output	Text viewer
Two nodes that output images	Image comparison
A compositor or a node inside one	The compositor viewer, with timeline and colour controls

Re-running a node or switching output tabs keeps your zoom, channel and adjustments.

Zoom and pan

Action	How
Pan	Scroll with two fingers on a trackpad, or drag with the middle mouse button
Zoom	Pinch on a trackpad, or hold Cmd/Ctrl and scroll; zoom centres on the pointer
Zoom in or out	+ and -
Fit	F (in the video viewer, 0)
Actual size	Shift+F (in the video viewer, 1)
Zoom presets	The zoom menu: Fit, Actual size, 25%, 50%, 75%, 150%, 200%, 400%

Fit never enlarges a picture past 100%. Shortcuts work when the viewer has focus; click the picture first.

Keep framing between shots

The Design panel remembers your zoom and pan when you select another picture with the same aspect ratio, even at a different pixel size, so you can step through matching shots and look at the same detail. A picture with a different shape opens at Fit.

Inspect channels, exposure and pixel values

• Channels: the channel menu shows RGBA, RGB, Red, Green, Blue, Alpha, Luminance or Saturation. Press R, G, B or A to view a single channel. Video has no alpha channel. The channel choice is shared by all viewers.
• Display adjustments: Exposure, Gamma and Saturation change only what you see. Drag a value, click to type, or double-click to reset.
• Readout: the strip under the picture shows the colour and position under the pointer. X and Y are in the picture’s own pixels, with Y counted up from the bottom edge, as in a compositor. Readouts sample the unadjusted pixel.
• Copy a colour: right-click the picture and choose Copy colour under cursor as Hex, RGB, HSL or HSV.
• Background: right-click and choose Viewer background: Black, White, Light checkerboard, Dark checkerboard or Custom…. It shows behind transparent pixels and never affects exports.

On image effect nodes, press I or use Input / Output to flip between the node’s input and its result.

Change the preview resolution

For image effect nodes, Preview resolution in the viewer bar sets how detailed the live preview is: Use preference (your saved preview size), 1:1 · Full resolution, or 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1:6 and 1:8. The choice applies to image-processing viewers until you refresh the app, and it does not change saved projects or rendered results. Use 1:1 · Full resolution to check fine detail, such as noise or sharpening.

Compare two images

1. Select two nodes that output images, such as an original and a graded version. The first one you select is A, the second is B.
2. The Design panel switches to a comparison. Choose a mode from the mode menu.
3. Press X or use Swap A and B (X) to swap the sides.

Mode	Shows
Horizontal swipe, Vertical swipe	A divider you drag across the picture
Side by side, Stacked	Both pictures next to or above each other
Flip	A and B in turn
Dissolve	A blend of the two
Difference	A heatmap of where they differ

Both pictures are fitted into one common frame without cropping, so pan, zoom and the readout line up. The readout shows both colours at the pointer and their largest channel difference. Channels and display adjustments apply to the comparison too.

To keep a comparison in the graph, use the Compare Image, Compare Video or Compare Text nodes, which show two connected inputs on the node with the same layouts.

Read text outputs

Control	What it does
Raw / Markdown	Shows text as written or rendered; .md files open as Markdown
Wrap (W)	Wraps long lines
Lines (L)	Shows line numbers
Text size (-, +, 0)	75% to 200%
Find (Cmd/Ctrl+F)	Highlights matches; Enter and Shift+Enter step, Esc clears
Copy all text	Copies everything, even when a long file is shortened

Wrap, line numbers and size are remembered between files. Very long text shows its first 50,000 lines, and Find stops counting at 5,000 matches.

Open the fullscreen viewer

Select a node and press Space, or right-click it and choose View Full Screen. The fullscreen viewer shows the node’s takes with Compare (C), Grid View (G), Toggle info (I) and Close (Esc). EXR images get Tone mapping and Exposure controls for display. Its tools include Crop, which adds a Crop node when you apply. See Takes for choosing results.

3D model results open in a fullscreen 3D viewer with Reset Camera (H), material presets, Download Model and Save Render.

Frequently asked questions

Does viewer exposure change my image?

No. Exposure, gamma, saturation and channel views are display-only. Readouts and results use the real pixel values.

Why does my image look soft in the viewer?

The preview may be running below full resolution. Set Preview resolution to 1:1 · Full resolution, or zoom to Actual size.

How do I pan without a middle mouse button?

Scroll with two fingers on a trackpad. Pinch or Cmd/Ctrl+scroll zooms.

Why is Y measured from the bottom?

Nodespell follows compositing convention, where the origin is the bottom-left corner, so readouts match compositor coordinates.

Related

• Takes: browse and choose results.
• Color management: the compositor viewer’s display and view.
• Compositing: what the compositor viewer shows.
• Transforms and crop: on-image crop handles.
• Panels: every panel in the workspace.