Settings

The Settings panel is the single place in Colourlab Ai 4 where every adjustment to the system lives. If you're trying to change how something behaves — where things are stored, what frame rate the project runs at, how references are named, what license is active — Settings is the answer.

Settings is split into three tabs: General, PIA Engine, and License.

General

Everything project- and system-level that isn't specific to the PIA Engine or licensing.

Current project

Project name — rename the active project here.
Accent color — a marker color to help you visually identify the project at a glance.
Description — a short note about the project; useful when you come back to a session weeks later.

Canvas

Resolution — choose between HD and UHD.
Aspect ratio — 16:9 or 9:16.

Frame rate

Pick the timeline's playback frame rate. Supported frame rates:

23.98
24
25
29.97
30

59 fps and above are not currently supported. If you bring in a clip recorded at a higher frame rate than the project's setting, the clip will be slowed down to fit the timeline. Clips at a lower frame rate are sped up. Plan accordingly when ingesting footage.

Fit mode

How media that doesn't match the canvas aspect ratio is positioned by default:

Fit by height
Fit by width

This sets the global default for the timeline. You can override the fit mode for any individual clip from the Properties panel.

Audio sample rate

Standard sample rates: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz.

Color space

The timeline's working color space.

Fixed in public beta. During the public beta, the working color space is locked to the default. You'll be able to change it once configurable color management ships.

Color agent

The AI color-grading agent currently performing your matches and look building. Right now there's a single option:

Agent v1.

Newer agent versions will become selectable here as they're released.

API key

Fixed in public beta. You don't need to provide an API key during beta — matching and look building use the built-in account. The API key field is here for the future, when bringing-your-own-agent (with your own key) may be supported.

Database

The Colourlab Ai 4 database is the heart of the application — it holds every project, every reference, every timeline. Look after it.

Location (fixed):

~/Library/Application Support/ai.colourlab.editor/

A Browse button is visible next to the path, but it's inactive. Changing the database location requires special permissions; for now the path is locked.

Three buttons let you manage the database:

Export Database — write a full backup of the current database to disk. Run this before risky operations or simply for archival.
Import Database — restore from a previously-exported backup.
New Database — start fresh. Colourlab Ai 4 backs up the current database to the same location as the original, then creates an empty new one. Use this when a project has grown so large that the database feels heavy and you want a clean slate. The automatic backup means nothing is lost — you can re-import the old database whenever you need it.

Coming soon: a built-in indicator showing the current database size, to help you decide when New Database is the right call.

Keyboard shortcuts

Below the database section is the list of every keyboard shortcut in Colourlab Ai 4. You can customise any of them:

Click a shortcut to record a new key combination.
Reset to defaults at the bottom of the section to wipe your customisations.

Expect this list to grow as more of the application surface becomes keyboard-driven.

PIA Engine

The smart core of Colourlab Ai 4 — the perceptual image analyzer that powers references, sorting, matching, and intent. See PIA Engine (coming soon) for the engine internals.

X03 export location

Where Colourlab Ai 4 writes the X03 reference files it generates. X03 files live on disk; they aren't used directly during grading (the active reference data is loaded into the database), but when you're moving references in and out of the application, this is where they're read from and written to.

Author

The name stamped onto X03 files you generate. Auto-populated from your system username, but editable.

Content type

A classification you can attach to references you create — useful for sorting and filtering them later by the kind of content (drama, documentary, commercial, and so on).

Reference naming

How Colourlab Ai 4 names new references when you create them:

Source file name (default) — use whatever the original image was called.
Auto-name with base name — use a base name plus an auto-incremented number.

If you choose auto-naming, you can edit the base name; the number is managed by the application and tracked internally — leave it alone.

Cinematography analysis

The depth of analysis run when references are imported:

Detailed (default) — full cloud-processed cinematography palette. Uses credits.
Basic — local-only, no credits.

Switch to Basic when you're offline or running low on credits and still want to bring references in. You can run Detailed analysis on those references later.

Account

The bottom of the PIA Engine tab shows your credits balance and lets you redeem credit codes:

See how many credits you have left.
Enter a code to top up.

For the full pricing and credit-pack breakdown, see Cinematography Analysis Credits.

License

The last tab of the Settings panel manages your installation and your Colourlab account.

This installation

Activate or deactivate this Mac as one of your allowed installations. You can run up to two activated installations per license — deactivate one here when you want to move to a new machine.

Account

Sign in and sign out of your Colourlab account.

Beta limitation: during the public beta, sign-in is via Google only.

Manage your subscription (web)

A button on the License tab opens the back-end of the Colourlab licensing system in your browser. There you can (with more features arriving over time):

Adjust your subscription tier.
Manage your credits.
Adjust the number of licenses on your account.
Stop or renew your subscription.

References Timeline