PTGui my favorite panorama stitching program and has recently been updated to version 6.03. This new major update includes dozens of large and small new features and enhancements. If you would like to read more about PTGui please take a look at our 5.x review of PTGui. We are only covering the new and enhanced features in 6.03 here.

After spending several weeks using PTGui 6 I can say that PTGui is just getting better and better. Besides interface improvements like better icons, help balloons and control over the maximum number of numbered tabs in the Control Point editor there are other enhancements that make upgrading from 5.x to 6.03 very worth while, things like improved speed when stitching 16-bit images, being able to remove images from a project while in the Source Images list by pressing the “Del” key, an option on the File menu to reset the project settings to their defaults and much more.

For those that use some or all of the available plug-ins for PTGui there are also some improvements for these third party plug-ins. For example PTGui new generates scriptfiles compatible with Nona. Nona is a replacement for PTStitcher. You can now generate control points for selected images only (for both PTGui control point generator and AutoPano) and more.

For a complete list of new features and improvements in 6.03 see the features section below. Without a doubt 6.03 is a very worthwhile upgrade for anyone using an older version of PTGui. If you’re looking for a panorama stitching program that provides good automatic stitching but still offers manual controls for those difficult to stitch images PTGui is the program for you. It should also be noted that PTGui is now available for both Windows PCs and Macintosh computers.

• PTGui now runs on Mac and Windows!
• New program and toolbar icons
• Help balloons ('click here to return to the project assistant') can be switched off
• Faster stitching of 16 bit images
• A relative path can be entered as the output file. The panorama is saved either in the source image folder or in the project folder (depending on config setting)
• Maximum number of rows of numbered tabs in Control Point editor and Panorama Editor is configurable
• Images can now be removed from the project by pressing the Del key in the Source Images list
• Optimizer is now launched with F5
• New function "Reset Default Project Settings..." in File menu. Removes the saved default settings.
• 'Apply crop to all': if images have different size, and the active image is not cropped, all images will become not cropped (instead of copying the crop area to all images)
• Second step in Project Assistant is now called 'align images' because it does more than just generating control points
• New button: "send to batch stitcher". This replaces the "stitch using batch stitcher" settings in Options. When a batch stitcher is running, the project is added to the list of projects in the batch stitcher, instead of launching a new instance.
• Control Point and Crop images: middle button toggles between zoom-to-fit and 100%, mouse wheel zooms in/out (after clicking once in the image)
• Control point numbers are shown in magnification window (can be disabled)
• Simple Optimizer, Minimize lens distortion: new setting 'heavy + shift' which also optimizes d and e
• Fix: after generating control points, an 'upside down' panorama could result
• Fix: when adding multiple, different sized images, some images would get an initial crop setting
• Ctrl-A selects an entire edit field
• Changed keyboard shortcut for Control Point Assistant to Ctrl+Shift+A; Ctrl+A is already in use on Mac
• Fix: Problems with 'special' characters (accents, non-latin) solved. Full Unicode support. Only Panorama Tools does not support special characters.
• Fix: 'could not allocate ... bytes' when using external blender for large panorama
• Column sizes and row height in the Source Images and Image Parameters tables are remembered across sessions
• Thumbnails sizes in Source Images and Image Parameters are adjusted according to the column/row size
• Panorama editor: 'center horizontally' etc. are now accessed by right-clicking on the 'center' button in the toolbar (only on Windows)
• Configurable background colors for panorama editor (in Options/Preferences)
• Options/Plugins: now point to the executable itself, instead of the directory where the executable is located
• PTGui now generates scriptfiles compatible with nona. Nona can be configured in Tools/Options/Panorama Tools as a replacement for PTStitcher
• Generate control points for selected images only (for both the PTGui control point generator and AutoPano)
• Control points panel: 'cross' cursor is now high contrast and is no longer invisible over grey background
• Control point markers can be moved using the keyboard: click on a marker, then move it using the cursor keys
• 'Zoom to fit' in control point window and crop window
• Change the type of several control points simultaneously by right-clicking in the control point table
• Number of rows of tabs in the Control Point tab, Crop tab and Panorama Editor is configurable
• Auto-rotate in control point window and crop window: display will rotate according to the roll of the images
• Smartblend can now be used together with PTStitcher. Enblend and Smartblend are now enabled using the 'blend using:' listbox, as with the PTGui native stitcher
• Redesigned Advanced Optimizer page. Instead of the 'set all' / 'clear all' buttons, multiple checkboxes are now changed simultaneously by dragging the mouse and pressing the space bar, or by double clicking the header column
• Title bar now shows (*) if there are unsaved changes
• Saving a new project now defaults to the source image folder (can be disabled in Options)
• Saving a new project now automatically initializes the panorama output file to <projectname>.<extension> in the project folder (can be disabled in Options)
• 'Replace' button in source images tab now works with multiple selected source images. If more than one image is selected, a folder can be chosen where the replacement images are located
• PTGui now stores its data files (lens database, default settings) in the 'Application Data' folder (so that PTGui can be used by users without Administrator privileges)
• Create Panorama tab, 'view' button: new option for opening the folder containing the result
• Correct function (Source Images Tab): can now save a copy, instead of overwriting the original file
• Display bug in Panorama Editor (numbered tabs) solved
• Can now select (e.g.) all yaw values in the Image Parameters tab by clicking on the header column
• Window positions are remembered even when using multiple displays
• PhiloSphere no longer requires Panorama Tools
• Installer can now be run by 'power users' too, instead of just administrator users.
• Included new cameras in the sensor size database
• Fix: PTGui could crash when warping was done using Panorama Tools and changing the panorama field of view
• Ctrl-T (Cmd-T) shortcut for Apply Template
• File/New now switches to the Project Assistant tab
• blending stage is skipped when the panorama consists of only one image
• PTGui 6 and PTGui 5 can now be used together; plug-in paths of old version are not cleared
• On Mac it is possible to save to a file with the wrong extension. PTGui will warn if such a file name is chosen
• Control Point tab: bold numbers for images with control points
• Fixed a couple of crashes
• Fix: Creating a panorama from one image could generate a cropped result
• Fix: Preview on Windows could fail with a 'could not open viewer application' error
• Fix: Preview on Windows using PTViewer.exe failed
• Fix: Keyword search in on line help could crash
• Fix: Apply Crop to All did not function correctly when using circular images
• New configuration option for Control Points editor: Only show magnification glass when mouse pointer is in image
• Fix: when using large fonts, parts of the main window were not readable
• Fix: several problems if there were more than 50 templates in the default template folder
• Fix: Nikon Coolpix converter lens was not recognized
• Fix: Creating large jpeg files could cause a crash. On Windows, 25000x25000 jpeg files can now be created again. On Mac, creating JPEG files of 300 megapixels or more may still fail with an out of memory error. In that case use TIFF format instead.
• Fix: PTGui could crash when exiting the application

Mac specific:

• PTGui now uses the regular font size by default. A smaller font (as used in the previous versions) is configurable in Preferences.
• Optimizer Results window: Enter/Return key now accepts
• Fix: On Macs with non-Intel processors, EXIF data was not read correctly, resulting in a huge focal length value (e.g. 6.0e+7)