Changelog

First Windows release. This entry describes the app as it stands today: the accumulated feature set, not each Mac version bump replayed as a separate Windows release.

Background removal

• On-device, not Apple Vision. Apple's Vision framework, which the Mac build uses, is part of macOS and has no Windows equivalent. This build lifts the subject with rembg (a U²-Net model) instead, bundled inside the installer, still entirely on-device, still nothing uploaded. Cutout quality should be close to the Mac build, but it hasn't been independently verified to match on every kind of photo. That comparison is exactly what this beta is for.

Backgrounds & compositing

• Replace the background with transparency, a solid color, a blur of the original, a gradient, or your own image. Switch modes instantly: the cut-out is cached so it never re-runs.
• Pan and zoom a custom background image: Zoom/X/Y sliders under Background → Fit, working with both Cover and Contain.
• Keep original slider fades the original background back in, from fully removed (0%) to untouched (100%), with a soft, ghosted backdrop anywhere in between.
• Eyedropper and a full color picker (a saturation/brightness square, a hue slider, and a hex box) for exact solid or gradient background colors.

Touch-up & edge

• Edge refinement to tighten and feather the cut-out so hair and fine detail look natural.
• Touch-up brush with Erase and Restore modes (press R to flip). Hold Shift to constrain a stroke to a straight line, click one point then Shift-click another to connect them. Fixes carry through to every background, Copy and Export.

Shadow, trim & subject

• Soft drop shadow with Soft, Natural and Long presets, or manual blur/opacity/offset. The shadow tracks the subject when it's moved or scaled.
• Trim-to-subject auto-crop with aspect ratio, output size, and round-crop control, plus one-tap presets for marketplace, profile and social sizing.
• Subject panel with Scale/X/Y sliders to nudge or resize the cut-out within the canvas.
• Appearance toggle pins the app to Light or Dark, or follows your Windows setting.

Batch & presets

• Process a whole folder at once with six built-in presets (Transparent PNG, Product White, Studio Gray, Soft Shadow, Portrait Blur, Social Gradient), or save your own background-and-export setup as a named preset alongside them.
• Recent-folder chips disambiguate same-named folders by their parent folder.

Export & sharing

• Before/after compare slider, and a shareable before/after reveal GIF export in one click.
• Export PNG, JPG, HEIC and TIFF, transparent where the format supports it.
• Copy the cut-out to the clipboard, or drag it straight into another app.
• Every export writes a new file: Liftr never writes over a photo already in your list.

Windows fit & finish

• Per-user install into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Liftr: no UAC prompt, no admin rights.
• Adopted the shared twoplus11 design system, so Liftr's accent, type and spacing now come from the same generated theme as the rest of the Windows fleet instead of a custom palette.
• Segoe UI Variable throughout. The inherited Apple font families and keyboard-shortcut symbols are gone, replaced with Windows equivalents (Ctrl instead of ⌘, "File Explorer" instead of "Finder").
• Self-update in place. Liftr downloads the new installer, verifies its Authenticode signature and that its version matches what was advertised, installs over itself and reopens. Any check that fails deletes the download and sends you to the download page instead.
• Fixed the update feed itself: an earlier build could offer a Windows user the macOS installer, which would never run. Windows now gets Windows updates, and the update check correctly reports which version is currently running.
• The License / Updates / Help / Review / Tip / Shortcuts links now live in a quiet footer row next to the twoplus11 wordmark, freeing the toolbar for editing controls.

Language & accessibility

• 13 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (BR), Dutch, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean. The language follows Windows OS detection and can be pinned from the language picker.
• WCAG 2.1 AA: full keyboard path, Windows High Contrast support, live announcements for async results, and measured contrast in both light and dark.

Known in this beta

• Cutout quality against the Mac build hasn't been directly compared by real users yet (see "Background removal" above). This is the single most useful thing beta feedback could confirm or challenge.
• Not yet on Windows, though present on Mac 1.4.0: saving the alpha mask as a PNG, 16-bit PNG/TIFF output, per-image retry that preserves full edit history, "Clear all" with an Undo toast, and setting one image's settings as the default for new images.
• No Windows equivalent of the Mac build's Finder Quick Action or command-line tool exists in this build.
• SmartScreen may still warn on first download despite the signature; reputation builds per file. See the install notes.
• No screen-reader pass with Narrator or NVDA has been done by a human yet. The accessibility work is tested structurally, but assistive technology has not driven the app end to end. If you use one, that feedback is the most valuable thing you could send.