Accessing Lightpanel

Lightpanel works hand-in-hand with Adobe Lightroom Classic. Lightroom must be running to use Lightpanel. If you launch Lightpanel without Lightroom running, you will see an error.

Launching Automatically

By default, Lightpanel will launch automatically when you launch Lightroom. You can control this behavior in the Preferences in Lightpanel. If you do not see Lightpanel when you launch it may be behind Lightroom. 

Launching Manually

If you choose to launch Lightpanel manually instead of automatically, you can do so in Lightroom from the File > Plugin Extras menu by selecting Lightpanel > Start.

Don't launch Lightpanel from the Applications folder or Program Files directory by itself by double-clicking on it. It will not be able to communicate with Lightroom.  You will get this Error Dialogue:

Positioning and Sizing Lightpanel

Lightpanel is a tall and skinny floating window. It is most commonly used by positioning it to the right of the Lightroom window. Do this by scaling the Lightroom window to be smaller and placing the Lightpanel window next to it. 

However you can place the Lightpanel window on the left of Lightroom, or on another display. It is important that you can see both Lightroom and Lightpanel at the same time, and that one does not obscure the other. Lightpanel will remember its size and location.

Quiting 

Lightpanel will automatically quit when you quit Lightroom. If you need to manually quit, use the File > Quit option, or the Stop option in the Plug-In Extras menu in Lightroom.

Bringing Lightpanel Forward When You Click on Lightroom

In the preferences, on the General tab, there is an option to bring Lightpanel forward when you activate Lightroom. This is on by default. In a multi-tasking environment where you may cover Lightroom or Lightpanel with other application windows, if you click back on Lightroom (activate) it will also bring forward Lightpanel if is it running.