Release notes on SideScopes

SideScopes 0.7.0

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Added

Temperature, tint, saturation, exposure, contrast, highlights, and shadows in SideScopes Lab. The displayed image and the scopes use the same adjusted pixels.
A fresh desktop installation starts with Vectorscope and Waveform, a compact application window at the left of the primary display, and a moderate square global region in the open display area.
An optional preference for hiding live pointer markers without hiding the RGB readout or pinned markers.

Changed

The browser experience is named SideScopes Lab throughout and changes from a side-by-side desktop workspace to a vertical workspace on narrow screens.
Face-tracked regions use a face binding icon while retaining the window title as their label. The first click stops face tracking while keeping the region attached to its window; the next makes it global.
The application documentation begins with the default global region, separates macOS and Windows application shortcuts, and presents default shortcuts separately from scope names.

Fixed

The Lab region border now matches the native filled ring, hazard band, handles, and device-pixel stroke geometry.
The close control remains attached to the region while it is moved or resized on macOS, Windows, and in the Lab.
Face detection on macOS now reads ten-bit screen captures correctly.
The compact first-run placement is preserved when the macOS window becomes visible.
The status-bar color swatch is aligned and spaced consistently with the RGB readout.

The Lab controls are designed for observing how scope traces respond. They do not reproduce the processing of a particular image or video editor. SideScopes continues to measure display-referred screen-capture pixels; this release does not add source-file access, HDR measurement, or color-management metadata.

SideScopes 0.6.0

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Added

A browser build compiled from the application’s C++ scope engines and pane renderer.
Analysis of supplied still images or an image selected from the local computer.
Browser versions of scope selection, region editing, color pins, presets, keyboard shortcuts, and the right-click menu.
A guided tour that uses the active shortcut bindings and can be reopened.
A self-contained browser build that can run from a local file.

Images selected in the browser are decoded and analyzed locally; SideScopes does not upload them. The browser build analyzes pixels within its page. It cannot capture another application’s window, attach to a desktop window, or track a face outside the page, so those desktop controls are not presented.

SideScopes 0.5.0

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Added

A dedicated Luma Waveform on L, allowing it to remain visible beside Waveform on W.
Plain and Colored styles for Luma Waveform.
A reorderable scope selector.
Standard and High quality settings. High targets 20 captures per second instead of 15 and increases detail where smaller vectorscope and histogram panes benefit from it.
UI scaling from 50% to 200% in addition to platform display scaling.
Vectorscope trace gamma control.
Optional 10-bit-per-channel macOS capture where the compositor supplies it.
Repository documentation for scopes, regions, controls, and troubleshooting.

Changed

No region is selected on first run. Continuous capture and analysis suspend when there is no region or when the application cannot present live output.
Preset names, scope order, explicit saving, and unsaved working layouts now persist separately.
Graticule visibility became a four-step strength control.
The histogram’s Per Channel and Combined presentations became styles of one instrument.

Fixed

Capture retries after startup or display interruptions.
Waveform normalization is no longer dominated by a flat column outside the intended subject.
One-shot pointer sampling no longer averages letterbox padding.
Several macOS focus and Windows border, desktop-window, and virtual-desktop behaviors were corrected.

Luma Waveform plots encoded Y′. It is useful for evaluating the rendered level distribution, but it is not a direct exposure meter or physical luminance measurement. Ten-bit capture improves available code precision; it does not add HDR range or bypass the desktop color pipeline.

SideScopes 0.4.0

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Added

Automatic, vertically stacked, and horizontally arranged scope layouts.
Draggable pane dividers and nine layout preset slots.
A status bar for the live RGB readout, color-pin tool, and transient messages.
Persistent pinned colors and a selectable comparison reference.
Assumed-sRGB CIELAB conversion, CIEDE2000 ΔE00, and signed ΔL*, ΔC*, and ΔH* diagnostic terms.
A performance diagnostics channel.

Changed

Pinning moved beside the live readout rather than occupying a region-tool position.
Region terminology was made consistent across menus, tooltips, and the picker.
Automatic layout uses each scope’s preferred pane shape when choosing a division.

The color-difference components describe a comparison; they do not correspond directly to individual editing controls, and no universal ΔE00 pass threshold is implied. See Color Picker and comparison.

SideScopes 0.3.0

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Added

Window-attached regions that follow the selected window and become active with it.
Face selection and tracking where platform detection is available.
A labeled desktop border with move, resize, attach or detach, and close controls.
In-application diagnostic recording and access to the log folder.
A Windows option to include SideScopes in external screen captures for troubleshooting.

Changed

Window-attached regions preserve their measured size when the window is resized. They are constrained to remain inside a smaller window and return to their stored geometry when space becomes available.
Region chrome uses neutral gray so it is less likely to act as a distracting color reference beside the selected image.

Face selection is only a geometric tracking aid. The application does not classify complexion or interpret the selected skin color.

SideScopes 0.2.0

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Added

A common C interface for built-in and dynamically loaded scope modules.
Module declarations for identity, shortcut, parameters, and preferred pane shape.
Parallel vectorscope and waveform analysis with deterministic results across thread counts.
RGB code, percentage, and hexadecimal color readouts.

Fixed

Window suggestions now respect visible stacking rather than offering windows fully covered by others.
Pinned colors use the same sample as the live readout.
An invalid scope-module file no longer stalls dynamic configuration.

The module boundary introduced here remains internal infrastructure; it does not change the display-referred measurement boundary of the scopes.

SideScopes 0.1.0

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Added

Screenshot-style selection of a rectangular screen region.
Live Vectorscope and Waveform panes for the captured pixels.
A color readout that follows the pointer.
Toolbar and keyboard access to region and scope controls.

SideScopes analyzes the composited screen output rather than opening the source file. This allows it to work beside different applications without plugins, while also limiting its measurements to the rendered desktop result.

Version 0.1.0 was an early functional release. Later versions expanded the instrument set, region behavior, layouts, diagnostics, and documentation.