### 8.9. Brightness-Contrast

The Brightness-Contrast tool adjusts the brightness and contrast levels for the active layer or selection. This tool is easy to use, but relatively unsophisticated. The Levels and Curve tools allow you to make the same types of adjustments, but also give you the ability to treat bright colors differently from darker colors. Generally speaking, the Brightness-Contrast tool is great for doing a "quick and dirty" adjustment in a few seconds, but if the image is important and you want it to look as good as possible, you will want to use one of the other tools.

| Tip
Besides using the sliders you can also adjust the settings by clicking the mouse inside the image, and dragging while keeping the left mouse button down. Moving the mouse vertically changes the brightness; moving horizontally changes the contrast. When you are satisfied with the result, you can either press the OK button on the dialog, or press the Return key on your keyboard.

#### 8.9.1. Activating the Tool

There are different possibilities to activate the tool:

- From the main menu: Colors → Brightness-Contrast….

- By clicking the tool icon in the Toolbox if this tool has been installed there. For this, please refer to Section 6.13, “Toolbox”.

#### 8.9.2. Options

Figure 16.131. Brightness-Contrast options dialog

Presets, Blending Options, Preview, Merge filter, Split view

  | Note
  These options are described in Section 8.1.2, “Colors Common Features”.

Brightness

  This slider sets a negative (to darken) or positive (to brighten) value for the brightness, decreasing or increasing bright tones.

Contrast

  This slider sets a negative (to decrease) or positive (to increase) value for the contrast.

Edit these settings as Levels

  To make your work easier, this button lets you turn to the Levels tool with the same settings.

8.8. Shadows-Highlights |  | 8.10. Levels

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