--- title: "De-dust: remove dust and scratches with a brush · Manual" description: "Paint over the dust and scratches of your film scans with a brush, set its size, and read every correction painted on the photo in one list." url: "https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/de-dust" date: "2026-11-03" --- [Manual](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual) # De-dust **Dust and scratches off your negative, in Open Negative Initiative.** Paint over a speck and the app lays a matching patch from the same photo over it, one correction at a time. ![The editor in De-dust mode: the Dust & Scratches block with its Brush Size slider at 12 px, and three corrections listed under it.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/_astro/editor-de-dust.XFeAzrqC_25DoLz.webp) ## Dust & Scratches **Paint over a defect and the app lays a matching patch from the same photo over it.** While this mode is open a stroke paints; the bar's De-dust key opens it and closes it. - **Paint over the speck.** The app looks in the same photo for the place that matches best, and lays it over. - [ ] **A brush your size.** `[` and `]` change it by 4 px while De-dust is open. ### The app's own note on Dust & Scratches > Paint over a defect; the tool duplicates a matching patch of the same photo over it. ### Brush Size The size of the brush, in pixels of your file. Paint over a speck or a scratch; the app looks in the same photo for the place whose surroundings match best, and lays it over. - `]` and `[`, Bigger Brush and Smaller Brush in the View menu, change it by 4 px while De-dust is open. - A preference of yours, not a setting of the photo: it stays from one photo and one launch to the next. - Hold Space to move the photo with the hand instead of painting. - Nothing happens without a stroke: the app never looks for dust on its own. - **Brush Size**: 4 px to 120 px, at rest 12 px - **Travels**: Nothing to carry: it is a preference of yours (the brush size), not a setting of the photo, and it is not written to the sidecar. - [Corrections](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/de-dust#correction-list) (De-dust) - [Dust and scratches](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/dust-and-scratches) (why it works, in Features) ### Corrections One row per patch: the dust that was under it, Correction N, the number of its mark on your photo, Generating… while the patch is made, and the key that removes it. - A question mark beside a row means no good match was found nearby: the patch is a plain shifted tile. Remove it and paint again. - `⌘Z` (`Ctrl+Z` on Windows) takes a stroke back like any change. - Corrections are this negative's own: no paste and no preset carries them, and Reset to Default… keeps them. - **Travels**: Never: a correction answers a defect on this negative, and pasted it would paint dust onto another photo. - [Brush Size](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/de-dust#correction-brush) (De-dust) - [Dust and scratches](https://open-negative-initiative.com/features/dust-and-scratches) (why it works, in Features) ## The rest of the manual. **Every surface of the app, in the order of your work.** From the folder of scans to the exported file. - [Archive Opening the folder of your scans, your folders and favourites, the Archive and Projects tabs, a roll's own facts, the Rolls and Labels menus, and the ONI Trash.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/archive) - [Prepare the Roll The five steps a roll goes through before its frames are edited: film, flat-field, film base, flags, measuring frame, then Measure.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/prepare-the-roll) - [Roll What a roll shares: film type, flat-field, source encoding, the manual balance, the levels, dye separation and Balance strength.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/roll) - [Crop The framing's own Copy and Paste, aspect ratio, straightening, quarter turns and mirrors, and the measuring window.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/crop) - [Color Auto White Balance, Temperature and Tint, Lighting, Effects, Curves, the finishing blocks, and Paper Correction on a paper profile.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/color) - [Details Sharpening, chroma denoise and texture, the stages that act on the grain, judged in the loupe at full resolution.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/details) - [Scanner The Scanner face: ONI or Frontier, a lab scanner's keypad of D, C, M, Y and TEMP, and the finish laid after its render.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner) - [Presets The deck, saving a preset, its eighteen switches and white balance choice, the Settings menu, and Copy and Paste.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/presets) - [Export The export screen: three presets, format, space and paper profiles, size, the HDR hack, each photo's EXIF line.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/export) - [Toolbar and menus Every key of the bar and of the canvas margin, and every menu item with its shortcut.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/toolbar) - [The whole manual Every surface on one page, in the order a roll goes through the app.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual) - [The guide Your first negative converted, step by step.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/guide) ## Convert your first roll tonight. **Add your folder, prepare the roll once, export.** Free, and nothing else to install. [Download for Mac](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-releases/releases/latest/download/OpenNegative.dmg) · [Download for Windows](https://github.com/5e1y/open-negative-initiative-releases/releases/latest/download/ONI-windows.zip) [How to convert a film negative, step by step](https://open-negative-initiative.com/guide) - **Mac**: macOS 13 or later on Apple Silicon or Intel - **Windows**: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) [Blocked at first launch?](https://open-negative-initiative.com/download#verify) ![A snowy Paris street at night, a lit cafe under arcades, tyre tracks in the snow.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/media/carousel/snow-night-1400.webp) ***Snow night.** Kodak Gold, converted in Open Negative Initiative.*