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Exporting

Exporting a single image is File > Save As. Converting a whole folder at once is a different feature - see Batch conversion - and the two do not share a naming pattern: this page covers Save As specifically.

Save As

Choose File > Save As and type a name into the native dialog. The extension you type does not matter - NextDither ignores it and writes whatever extension each ticked export format actually produces, all from the one filename you typed. Saving as cellar with the stock preset's default format writes cellar.NX2 (or cellar.NXI if the frame is 256 wide); ticking more formats writes more files beside it, all sharing that same chosen name.

The Out tab's batch naming pattern has no effect here at all - see naming pattern applies to batch only below.

Export always re-converts from the current settings rather than packing whatever the preview happens to be showing, so what gets written is guaranteed to match the settings on the rail, even if the preview display is a step behind them.

The export formats

The Out tab's Export formats group has four checkboxes, and any combination may be ticked:

  • Bitmap (.NXI / .NX2) - the raw indexed picture with its embedded 512-byte palette. .NXI at 256 pixels wide, .NX2 at 320.
  • Bitmap, ZX0 compressed - the same bitmap, ZX0-compressed, named by appending .ZX0 to the bitmap's own name (or the 8.3 synonyms .NXZ / .N2Z if short ZX0 extensions are enabled).
  • NXP palette - the palette alone, as <name>.NXP.
  • PNG - an ordinary indexed PNG of the converted result, as <name>.png.

Bitmap alone is the default. ZX0 is a deliberate tick, not a default: it costs about 8.6 seconds per 320x256 image in release, so shipping it ticked by default would make every batch of pictures slow for output an author may not even want yet. Whichever formats are ticked, every one of them derives its filename from the one name you typed in the Save As dialog, never from anything else.

Overwrite policy

The Out tab's Overwrite existing files control decides what happens when a target already exists:

  • Ask - declines, and the toolbar names what already existed: "already exists and the overwrite setting is Ask. Nothing was written. Choose another name, or set Overwrite to "Replace existing files" in the Out tab."
  • Never replace - declines the same way, worded slightly differently: "already exists and the overwrite setting is Skip. Choose another name, or set Overwrite to "Replace existing files" in the Out tab."
  • Replace existing files - writes over whatever was there.

The check runs against every format you have ticked, and the decision is all-or-nothing: if even one of the files a Save As would write already exists and the policy declines, nothing is written - not even the formats whose own targets were free. A multi-format export is one logical output, and writing half of it under the old palette and half under a new one, with nothing recording that a name is now split across two runs, is worse than declining the whole thing.

While it saves

A ZX0 export takes real time - about 8.6 seconds for a 320x256 picture - and the window stays fully usable throughout. The toolbar shows a spinner and names the file:

Saving cellar... compressing, this can take several seconds

(or just "Saving cellar..." when no ZX0 format is ticked, since an uncompressed export finishes almost immediately). File > Save As is greyed out until the write finishes, so a second save cannot start over the first, but the preview stays interactive and the window stays draggable the whole time. Once it lands, the spinner is replaced by the usual "Saved ..." line naming every file that was written.

The naming pattern is for batch only

The Out tab also carries a Batch naming section with a pattern field. Its own hint text shows {n:3} for a zero-padded number, {stem} for the source filename and {ext} for NXI or NX2, but {n:3} is only the field's own example - any width from {n:1} to {n:6} works, see The preset file for the full range. Its label says exactly what it governs: "Names every file a batch writes. Save As uses the filename you choose in its dialog." Whatever this pattern is set to, Save As always uses the name you typed in its own dialog and nothing else - changing the naming pattern cannot change what a Save As writes. See Batch conversion for what it does govern.

What Save As does not check

Transparency covers this in full, but it is worth repeating here: the pre-flight refusal that stops a batch run outright when a preset's transparency slot is anything other than 255 has no equivalent on this path. Save As will write a file under a misconfigured transparency slot; the one thing that reliably tells you something is wrong is the amber collision ring in the palette dock. If you have hand-edited a preset's transparency slot, check the dock before you save.