CombineZP vs OpenFocus

CombineZP is a Windows focus-stacking program that combines focused regions from multiple photographs into an image with greater depth of field. Its documented methods include Do Stack and Pyramid Maximum Contrast. It provides quick and thorough image alignment, with rotation correction in thorough alignment. Batch processing can stack images, and users can adjust memory use for image sets that demand more from the computer. Macro parameters are editable for additional control over close-up stacking. JPEG is the documented output format. The program is free and the repository identifies its license as GPL-3.0. The repository preserves code originally created by Alan Hadley and shared under the GPL; it contains CombineZ5 and combineZP directories, a README, a license file, and an installer. The README refers to a compiled Windows x86 version 1.0, updated January 27, 2012, in a file named combinezp.msi. The repository says it is kept for posterity, lists no published releases, and a microscopy tools page describes the software as not maintained. Windows is the listed platform; a third-party microscopy tools page also says it works with Wine on Linux.

OpenFocus aligns and fuses multi-focus image sequences to create images with focus throughout. It offers ECC and Homography alignment and several fusion methods: Guided Filter, DCT, DTCWT, GFG-FGF and the StackMFF V4 AI model. A wipe view lets users compare source frames with results, and the software can generate depth maps showing focus position per pixel. It supports folder-based batch processing and a headless command-line interface for scripting and CI. Listed inputs include JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, MP4 and numbered image folders; the manual also describes decoding additional video formats. Outputs include those image formats, image-sequence folders and GIF animations. Research functions include metadata-calibrated scale bars and multi-page TIFF stacks that preserve 16-bit depth. The interface supports English, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish, with automatic system-language detection. OpenFocus is free under the MIT License, though included algorithms may have separate license terms. Its Windows and macOS app builds are unsigned and may trigger SmartScreen or Gatekeeper warnings on first launch.