---
title: "Scanner: the ONI and Frontier faces · Manual"
description: "Edit a film scan like a lab scanner: the ONI or Frontier render, a keypad of D, C, M, Y and TEMP, and the finish laid after its render."
url: "https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner"
date: "2026-11-03"
---

[Manual](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual)

# Scanner

**The Scanner face of Open Negative Initiative.** A lab scanner's machine and keypad in place of Pro's sliders: ONI or Frontier, then D, C, M, Y and TEMP, then a finish of your own.

![The Scanner face of a glass lift lit green on a Paris pavement at night, on the Color tab: the scanner's screen reading every key at 0, the Machine set to ONI, and the D, C, M, Y and TEMP sliders with their minus and plus keys.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/_astro/manual-scanner.CFmt8mkC_pK0tu.webp)

## Faces

**Your photo printed by a lab scanner's machine, then finished by you.** On the Scanner face the Color tab opens on Machine, and its keypad stands where Pro's Color and Lighting stand.

- **Two faces for one photo.** Pro's sliders, or a lab scanner's keypad, switched in the centre of the bar.
- **Two machines.** **ONI**, the app's own conversion, or **Frontier**, the look of Fujifilm's lab scanner as measured.

### Pro and Scanner

An open photo has two faces, switched by **Pro** and **Scanner** in the centre of the bar. Pro is the panel of sliders; Scanner renders your photo through a lab scanner's machine, with a keypad in the Color tab.

- Each face keeps its own finish: Contrast, Vignette, Chrome, Curves, Spectrogram and the saturation curve are stored apart, so switching loses nothing.
- Esc goes back to Pro; **Scanner Emulator**, in the View menu, switches either way.
- The app opens on the face you last left.
- The Roll, Crop and Details tabs work on both faces. The preset deck stands aside on the Scanner face.

- [ONI and Frontier](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-machine) (Scanner)
- [Density](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-density) (Scanner)

### ONI and Frontier

Machine, at the top of the Color tab, picks how your scan is printed. **ONI** is the app's own conversion with ONI's look. **Frontier** is the look of Fujifilm's Frontier lab scanner, as measured, laid over the app's inversion.

- A new photo starts on ONI; a photo converted on the Scanner face before ONI existed keeps Frontier.
- The Frontier look is a LUT: **Frontier look**, in Settings, exports it, uses a file you edited instead, and MEASURED brings the measured one back.

- [Pro and Scanner](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-faces) (Scanner)
- [Film Type](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/roll#conversion-mode) (Roll)

## Keys

**Three blocks that fold:** Density, Color and Look. Each letter is a rail between two keys, one step a click, and each block has its own reset key.

- **Darker or lighter.** D moves your whole picture half a unit a click, three steps with Shift.
- **Toward a colour.** C, M and Y each run between two colours, as on a lab scanner.
- **Cooler or warmer.** TEMP warms or cools your picture; a double click on a name brings it back to 0.

### Density

D makes your whole picture darker or lighter, half a unit a click: the key on the left toward dark, the one on the right toward light.

- Shift with either key moves three steps at once; a drag along the rail moves step by step.
- A double click on D brings it back to 0, and so does the block's reset key.
- Every step is counted on the scanner's screen.

- **D**: −24 to +24, at rest 0

- [Color](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-colour) (Scanner)
- [Look](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-look) (Scanner)

### Color

C, M and Y move the colour of your picture half a unit a click: C toward red or cyan, M toward green or magenta, Y toward blue or yellow, as an operator corrects on a lab scanner.

- Shift moves three steps; a double click on a letter brings it back to 0.
- The block's reset key returns all three letters at once.

- **C**: −24 to +24, at rest 0
- **M**: −24 to +24, at rest 0
- **Y**: −24 to +24, at rest 0

- [Density](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-density) (Scanner)
- [Look](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-look) (Scanner)

### Look

TEMP makes your picture cooler or warmer, half a unit a click, on a shorter rail than the letters of density.

- Shift moves three steps; a double click on TEMP brings it back to 0.

- **TEMP**: −10 to +10, at rest 0

- [Color](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-colour) (Scanner)
- [The screen](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-screen) (Scanner)

## Screen and finish

**The machine's screen, and the finish laid after its render.** The screen stands where Pro shows the histogram; the finish is the Scanner face's own.

### The app's own note on Screen and finish

> Contrast bends the print into an S about a middle grey, its ends held. Vignette darkens the corners in stops, without shifting their color; below zero it lightens them. Chrome lays a saturation curve over everything, greying the ends and keeping color in the middle.

### The screen

Where Pro shows the histogram, the Scanner face shows its screen: the frame's place on the roll, the machine and the film, the count of every letter, and the finish's readings, CT, VIG and CHR.

- The machine line reads, for example, ONI · NEGA, or FRONTIER · POSI on a slide; B&W on a black and white film, where CHR is left out.
- **REMEASURE ROLL** lights up on a roll measured before the scanner kept its median: measure it again in Prepare the Roll.
- Under the Details tab the loupe takes the screen's place, as it takes the histogram's on Pro.

- [Contrast, Vignette and Chrome](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-effects) (Scanner)
- [Density](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/scanner#scanner-density) (Scanner)

### Contrast, Vignette and Chrome

The Scanner face has its own Effects block: Contrast, Vignette and Chrome as rails in steps, with a key at each end, read on the screen as CT, VIG and CHR.

- They are the Scanner face's own: Pro's Contrast, Vignette and Chrome stay where you left them.
- Curves, Spectrogram Finishing and the Saturation Curve act on this face too, after the machine's render, and are also kept apart from Pro's.
- The block's reset key returns all three to 0.

- **Contrast**: −50 % to +50 %, by 5 %, at rest 0 %; up to +100 % on black and white
- **Vignette**: −2.0 EV to +2.0 EV, by 0.1 EV, at rest 0.0 EV
- **Chrome**: 0 % to +150 %, by 5 %, at rest 0 %; absent on black and white

- [Contrast](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/color#effects-contrast) (Color)
- [Curves](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/color#curves-editor) (Color)

## 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)
- [De-dust The brush for dust and scratches, its size, and the list of corrections painted on the open photo.](https://open-negative-initiative.com/manual/de-dust)
- [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.*