What file formats does FenSight support?

FenSight supports PNG, JPG/JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, TGA, WEBP, JPEG-XL, AVIF, HEIF/HEIC, DICOM, and most RAW formats (DNG, CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, RAF, and more). It also supports video files and image sequences.

Does FenSight require an internet connection?

FenSight is built for offline use after activation. License keys validate locally, and the app may periodically check license status for refund or revocation handling. Optional AI features can run locally where supported or use providers you configure.

Is FenSight a subscription or one-time purchase?

FenSight is a one-time purchase with no recurring subscriptions. You buy it once and own it forever. Free updates are included, and you can use it offline indefinitely.

Can I use FenSight with Photoshop or other creative tools?

Yes. FenSight supports external drag-out, meaning you can drag selections directly from the canvas into Photoshop, Illustrator, Figma, or any application that accepts file drops. You can also export to clipboard, file, or FTP/FTPS.

What are the system requirements for FenSight?

FenSight requires Windows 10 64-bit (build 19044+) or Windows 11. The .NET 9.x runtime is bundled. Minimum: 8 GB RAM and DirectX 11 GPU. Recommended: 16 GB RAM with a dedicated GPU for large boards and AI features.

Tags and organization/03

Metadata overlays

Free

See useful file information on the canvas.

Metadata overlays are Free canvas display aids for reviewing files without opening a separate inspector. The active text overlay can show dimensions, file type, filename, full path, video duration, and image-sequence frame count; separate marker toggles control sequence/video corner markers, AI badges, duplicate outlines, labels, and cluster-label sizing.

Screenshot coming soon

FenSight canvas showing metadata text overlays, sequence and video corner markers, AI badges, duplicate outlines, and the Settings Overlay display controls

Screenshot placeholder. Expected production asset: /docs/screenshots/metadata-overlays.png.

Text overlays and markers

FenSight separates item metadata text from small visual markers. View -> Overlay Info Draw toggles the text panel. View -> Sequence Corner Marker, Video Corner Marker, and AI Badges toggle marker layers. Settings -> Overlay display is the full control surface for field selection, layout, colors, duplicate outlines, and performance-sensitive overlay behavior.

The metadata text panel is drawn only for file-backed items.
The text panel does not currently include tag text even though the View menu tooltip still mentions tags.
Path in the overlay settings means full source path, not Path ID. Path ID assignment and routed output live in the Organize/Path workflow.
AI Badges only show existing cloud AI-enrichment state; toggling the badge does not run enrichment.

Metadata overlay access paths

View -> Overlay Info Draw

Quick toggle for AppSettings.OverlayEnabled. It saves settings, refreshes overlay text, updates board-surface visibility/input, and redraws the board.

View -> Sequence Corner Marker

Quick toggle for ShowSequenceCornerBadge. The menu tooltip is Show a corner badge on image sequence items.

View -> Video Corner Marker

Quick toggle for ShowVideoCornerBadge. The menu tooltip is Show a corner badge on video items.

View -> AI Badges

Quick toggle for ShowAiBadges. It hides or shows AI badges for already-enriched records that meet the badge policy.

Toolbar

Settings -> Overlay display -> Enable overlay

Main Settings checkbox for metadata text overlays. This mirrors View -> Overlay Info Draw.

Toolbar

Settings -> Overlay display -> Text layout

Combo box with Vertical and Horizontal.

Toolbar

Settings -> Overlay display -> Dimensions / File type / Filename / Path / Duration (video)

Field-level checkboxes for BuildOverlayParts. Path is full SourcePath, not Path ID.

Toolbar

Settings -> Overlay display -> Text size / Allow overlay to extend outside image bounds

Controls overlay font size and whether text can draw beyond item bounds.

Toolbar

Settings -> Overlay display -> Image text color / Video text color

Hex color fields with Pick buttons. Invalid or blank runtime brush parsing falls back to white.

Toolbar

Settings -> Rendering -> Skip overlay updates during re-layout / Live canvas updates during interaction

Performance settings that affect when overlay text and badge layers redraw during layout and navigation.

View -> Labels & Text

Shows or hides label and text items on the board. This is separate from metadata text overlays.

Keyboard

Alt + mouse wheel

In the current BoardSurface input path, adjusts cluster label text size. It does not change Settings -> Overlay display -> Text size.

Metadata text fields

Field	Default / label	Technical behavior
Enable overlayFree	Off by default. Label: Enable overlay.	When enabled, BoardSurface.DrawItemOverlay can draw a small rounded text panel on file-backed items. View -> Overlay Info Draw mirrors the same setting.
DimensionsFree	On by default. Label: Dimensions.	Adds the current item Width and Height as integer values. This uses the board item's stored dimensions, not a fresh metadata probe inside the renderer.
File typeFree	On by default. Label: File type.	Adds the SourcePath extension in uppercase without the leading dot, for example PNG or MP4.
FilenameFree	On by default. Label: Filename.	Adds Path.GetFileName(SourcePath) when the item has a non-empty source path.
PathFree	Off by default. Label: Path.	Adds the full SourcePath string. This can be long, so it is disabled on fresh installs.
Duration (video)Free	On by default. Label: Duration (video).	Adds duration only for VideoItem values with Duration.HasValue. Formatting is m:ss under one hour and h:mm:ss at one hour or more.
Image-sequence frame countFree	Automatic when overlay text is enabled.	For ImageSequenceItem values with frames, BuildOverlayParts inserts N frame(s) at the beginning of the overlay parts list. There is no separate field checkbox for this line.

Layout, color, and clipping

Setting	Default / label	Technical behavior
Text layoutFree	Vertical by default. Options: Vertical, Horizontal.	Vertical joins overlay parts with new lines. Horizontal joins parts into one line and uses floating layout.
Text sizeFree	11.0 by default. Label: Text size.	Settings save clamps entered values from 6.0 to 640.0. The renderer also clamps the effective display font size inside that range.
Allow overlay to extend outside image boundsFree	Off by default.	When off, FenSight clips the overlay panel to the item rectangle. When on, vertical overlay text can float up to 480 px wide; horizontal layout always uses floating text.
Image text colorFree	#FFFFFF by default.	SyncBoardSurfaceOverlaySettings parses ImageOverlayColor into OverlayImageBrush. Invalid parsing falls back to white.
Video text colorFree	#FFD65A5A by default.	VideoItem overlays use OverlayVideoBrush. Invalid parsing falls back to white.
Overlay backgroundFree	Dark rounded panel behind text.	The renderer uses a semi-transparent black OverlayBackground and 3 px corner radius for the panel.

Markers, badges, and outlines

Layer	Default / label	Technical behavior
Sequence Corner MarkerFree	On by default. View menu label: Sequence Corner Marker.	Draws an upper-left triangle on ImageSequenceItem values when ShowSequenceCornerBadge is true and the item is at least 14 px on its smaller screen dimension.
Video Corner MarkerFree	On by default. View menu label: Video Corner Marker.	Draws the same upper-left triangle style on non-playing VideoItem values when ShowVideoCornerBadge is true. Playing videos show the underlying VideoView instead.
AI BadgesPro	On by default. View menu label: AI Badges.	Draws a bottom-right AI badge for records with AiEnriched true, non-empty Path, non-empty AiCaption, a non-local model version, and a source path outside the generated cache path. The badge can expose the caption through badge hit testing.
Highlight duplicate files (red outline)Free	On by default. Settings label: Highlight duplicate files (red outline).	OutlineDuplicates builds duplicate paths from cached item signatures. A group is considered duplicate only when matching signatures appear in more than one source directory.
Tag dots and star badgesFree	Appear when the related tag/rating state exists.	Tag dots are drawn from matching TagDefinitions and item tags. Star badges are drawn from StarRating/rating tags. These layers are independent from Overlay Info Draw.
File Size Visualizer badgesStudio	Controlled by the Studio visualizer, not the general Overlay display checkbox.	BoardSurface draws file-size labels only when FileSizeVisualizerBadgesEnabled is true and the visualizer has labels for the item.

Rendering rules and limits

Rule	User-facing behavior	Technical behavior
File-backed items onlyFree	Labels, shapes, strokes, and other annotations do not get metadata text panels.	DrawItemOverlay returns unless item.IsFileBacked is true.
Placeholder LOD skipFree	Text overlays wait until the item is drawn with enough actual item detail.	DrawItemOverlay returns when item.CurrentLod is Placeholder or when the viewport rectangle is under 8 px wide or high.
Playing video skipFree	Metadata text does not cover an actively playing video surface.	The board loop calls DrawItemOverlay only when showUnderlyingVideo is false.
Interactive renderingFree	Markers and badges may pause during heavy interaction.	Corner markers, issue badges, AI badges, file-size badges, and tag dots draw during idle/settling states, or during interaction only when SmoothInteractionUpdates is true.
Skip overlay updates during re-layoutFree	Keeps relayouts smoother on dense boards.	Settings -> Rendering -> Skip overlay updates during re-layout maps to PerfSkipOverlayDuringLayout. Layout completion skips UpdateAllItemOverlays when this setting is on.
Large-board overlay shutoffFree	Can turn metadata text overlays off automatically during load or ingest.	Board load disables OverlayEnabled when virtualized surface rendering is active or total item count is at least 400. Large incoming boards and GDI emergency paths also force virtualized surface input and turn OverlayEnabled off; ingesting 800 or more items does the same.

Labels and cluster text

Control	User-facing behavior	Technical behavior
Labels & TextFree	Shows or hides label and text items.	View -> Labels & Text updates the LabelsToggleButton state, BoardViewState.LabelsVisible, selection visuals, and the board surface. It is separate from OverlayEnabled.
Alt + mouse wheelFree	Resizes cluster label text in the current surface input path.	BoardInteractionController intercepts Alt + wheel without Ctrl and calls AdjustOverlayTextSizeFromWheelDelta, which changes ClusterLabelTextSize by 2 px steps and saves it later.
Settings -> LabelsFree	Controls label text color, background color, and cluster label size.	Label style settings apply to labels that do not have custom per-item colors; cluster label size is persisted as ClusterLabelTextSize.

Do not use this page as Path ID documentation. The metadata overlay field named Path displays the full source path. Path IDs, routed output, and Pathing layouts are covered by the dedicated Path IDs and routed output page.

The Settings checkbox Show overlay module warning on startup is still present, but UpdateOverlayWarningBanner collapses the banner in the current build because BoardSurface uses DrawingContext-based rendering. Safe Graphics remains available in Settings -> Rendering as a fallback for graphics-driver issues.

Connected guides

Follow these related pages when the workflow crosses into setup, search, organization, export, security, or another board-level system.

Image sequencesTreat numbered frames as one board item.Video playback and thumbnailsReview video files directly on the board.Labels, shapes, and connectorsAnnotate boards without leaving FenSight.Tags and filtersAdd meaning that filenames do not carry.Star ratingsMark favorites directly on items.Organize dock and batch renameRename, copy, move, and prepare batches.

Linked from

Interface overview Tags and filters Star ratings