Actually, all of the Studio presets should have sorting options.
Excellent! coyote!! You now have the keys to the kingdom…or at least some of them.
I’m using Studio with Paint Shop Pro 6 and am having the same problem with getting the free Clarity update for it. I’ve followed the instructions to validate plugins several times and am told the plugins have been validated but the Clarity section of Studio only gives me the option to go pro. (I’m using the same email address for the Studio and Topaz Labs accounts so it’s not that.)
I installed the very latest version of Studio this morning (V1.1.9) and tried to validate plugins on both the standalone version and Studio as a plugin but it still didn’t work. I sent a ticket in yesterday but thought I’d report that the latest Studio update didn’t solve my problem.
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Same issue- downloaded and installed latest Studio, validated plugins and do not have the features as described in the Clarity e-mail. Followed all directions carefully. Get partial features with the Try Pro in blue at bottom. Do own Clarity and it was validated and works from Plugins tab within Studio. First screenshot from Clarity Update e-mail page and second screenshot is what I have- NO advanced controls under HSL Color Tuning for Overall Hue, Saturation,Lightness, Details or Suppress Artifacts.
Something is wrong for Clarity 1.1 update to not get the full features as depicted. It’s like an abbreviated form of Clarity 1. Several people have posted this same issue and NO Answers from Topaz—
An earlier post from Topaz suggests that some specific accounts aren’t validating, and mine appears to be one of them, as does yours. I raised a ticket yesterday, and I guess we just need to wait for a Studio update that fixes the problem or “individual” treatment, but I am assuming the Topaz people are a bit busy at the moment.
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Working on this in the current development sprint. 
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Rondo,
We found and addressed an issue in the 1.1.8 update that fixed this validation problem in a hotfix (v1.1.9) Please try updating to that version.
If thats not working:
- Are you logging into Studio with the same email account that you purchased clarity under? Make sure you’re logging in to Topaz Studio with the same email account that owns Topaz Clarity on plugins side. This email account is how we verify your purchases, if you’re logging into Studio with one account and Your plugin licenses are under another, then it’s not going to validate those purchases because theres nothing linking the accounts.
To login to your Topaz Labs Plugin account you can go here: Topaz Labs Account - Topaz Labs
this will show which plugins you own.
To login to your Topaz Studio account, or to create one, or to reset your password go here: Topaz Labs Account - Topaz Labs
This account email should match your Topaz Labs email at the one above. Then when you log into Studio w2ith this account, the application will automatically give you the Clarity in Studio upgrade for free, if you previously purchased, the Clarity Plugin, or the Complete Collection.
If you want more information on exactly what is included in the update, or why you should make the switch (including faster startup / processing time, refined masking tools, please check out this article that lists all the changes and new features.
If you’re still not seeing them after confirming these, Shoot us a support ticket and we can make sure they get validated for you.
Alternatively you both can PM me your account that you’re signing in with and i can fix the issue for you now 
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Hi, JoeFedric and the other moderators! It’s so sad that you must babysit, and try to reason with, so many Topaz malcontents on this forum. Personally, I love your software and plugins, and I’m always eager to get the latest updates. And I love the work you continue to do keep it “state of the art.”
Topaz has done a lot of good for the image-enhancement field, both for the professional and the hobbyist, but yet there are a lot of big babies out there who can only throw out criticisms and insults at you as a “thank you” for improving your software and creating new products. I can’t believe the amount of cynicism and unreasonableness shown by some of these Topaz users.
I would love to get my hands on Topaz Studio, but I found that my graphics card is too old. But you won’t hear me CRY about it like some other users on this forum. I understand that Topaz Labs and other big name companies MUST create new products and processes that have to keep up with the newer and faster operating systems being made available in the image processing marketplace. I’m not about to cast blame on Topaz Labs for doing so. Competition requires that ALL software developers create new products and packages that can offer what the graphics specialist and the professional and serious photographer needs.
I am also an ON1software owner. Of course, ON1 is another well-known graphics software company. In keeping with the latest advancements and demands in the graphics market, ON1 - like Topaz Labs - also created a new product: ON1 Photo Raw. And, as with Topaz Studio, I can’t use ON1 Photo Raw, either. My graphics card can’t handle it. So I’m “stuck” with the older ON1 Photo 10. But I’m not going to be a big baby and condemn ON1 for “leaving me behind.” That’s because I know that good software products must evolve and that older operating systems and graphics cards will be left behind.
I praise Topaz Labs for creating their new Topaz Studio…and for coming up with the new Clarity that goes with it! Similarly, I praise ON1 for their new product, ON1 Photo Raw. Yet, I can’t use either one!
Of course, there are incentives to encourage users to try and buy the new product, but I’m not going to be an unreasonable a**hole and accuse Topaz - nor ON1 - of merely creating a “money grab”. I’m not that much of a spoiled child. And accusations that Topaz Labs will forever abandon its plugin users sound ridiculous.
If one day Topaz chooses to update its current Clarity Photoshop plugin with the newer enhanced features, that would be great. But if they choose not to, that’s fine with me, too, because my current Clarity plugin works great as well.
Having to make do with older or outdated plugins is not new to me. It’s understood that I won’t have continued access to the newest stuff. I can live with that. The older stuff still works fine for me.
So, Topaz, keep on truckin’. Keep on creating. Keep on meeting the competition.
Sorry that you have to deal with a few pouty-poopers!
I am like others here who own the Clarity regular plugin, and purchased the HSL Color Tuning for Studio but NOT Precision Contrast.
Hearing that owners of the Clarity Plugin would get free versions of the Clarity in Studio package (with both HSL and Precision Contrast tools), I have been trying to get it to work but have been unable to. I have not been able to get Precision Contrast to turn blue TILL I READ Aidon’s STATEMENT ABOUT “VALIDATE PLUGINS”! Yes, that did the trick. So I urge others to give this a try.
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Thank you Don.
I did put in a help request per your recommendation. The reply was to go to my account and download the current version and reinstall, which I had already done twice. To fix this trouble I had to:
Uninstall Studio
Delete user/AppData/local/Topaz Labs/Topaz Studio folder.
Reinstall download of version 1.1.9
Enter my Studio Account credentials
Wait for the initial download, then wait for the second batch of downloads.
When all the downloads finished, the task bar was greyed out except for help [Topaz Studio Help] or what ever it is called. I had to force close Studio, shut down and restart the computer and then all was well with the precision icon and controls.
Unfortunately, using Studio as a plugin from CS6 still doesn’t work and I’m waiting for Topaz help for further suggestions to fix that problem. I just may ask for the 1.1.6 installer because that seemed to have worked. Version 1.1.8 and 9 will not even start up as a plugin. Stand alone ok, plugin fails.
Unfortunately validate did not solve my trouble. I’m not sure if Topaz fixed my account while I was troubleshooting or not but I had to go and delete all Topaz Studio folders on my machine. Then do a reinstall. I listed my steps in the thread.
Hi - since we seem to be on the topic of difficulties with Topaz Studio, I will relay what is happening on my system. Briefly I installed TS and did the validation of plug-ins step. Everything OK. The standalone product was available on my Desktop and I could access (within Photoshop) all my plug-ins (Detail, Clarity) and these continue to work fine. However, though I can see and click on Topaz Studio as a Plugin (and Clarity right above it in the Filter Menu), I get this error message:
Background Layers cannot be used. Please create a duplicate layer.
Also, I cannot access (via the Desk top icon or in any other way) the standalone version of Topaz Studio. So it is there and installed but whatever I click on results in nothing happening…
I am running version 1.18 (and I also had to do a major uninstall using Revo Uninstaller - to get all aspects of the program removed. I then re-installed and am having the same problems…namely, the error message: “Background Layers cannot be used. Please create a duplicate layer.”
What should I do? and what additional info do you folks need from me?
If you’re running 1.1.8, please try updating to 1.1.9 via the Check for Updates item in the help menu, this should resolve the launch issue
See this thread it isn’t a ERROR:
Just found a bug that may have been causing issues validating Clarity users, who owned legacy or older bundles. We’ve fixed that so if you’re having issues please try it again.
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This one applied to me; I logged into Topaz Studio account and the Validate step now worked giving me full access to Clarity in Studio. YAY 
As always, thanks for your efforts Topaz folk.
Best regards
Thanks to HeathRobinson for quickly resolving the issue for me- all works fine now.
So, I purchased Clarity 1.0 many years ago as part of the Topaz Collection bundle.
I now have Topaz Studio 1.19 installed. If I understand how this is supposed to work, I should have free access to the Clarity tools (Precision Contrast and HSL) when I log into Topaz Studio and “validate” my plugins.
However, even after doing that, I still get both of those tools showing that I need to “Go Pro.”
Am I supposed to get the full version of those tools, or did I misunderstand how this is supposed to work?
I did submit a ticket, but it took several days for someone to get back to me, and all I got was a canned response.
