How to Install Styles Easily in Capture One Pro

Capture One Styles are an important feature in Capture One and Capture One Pro. Styles are perhaps the single most important aid to your branding, and can save you both time and money when re-creating your unique creative vision.

In addition to the Built-in Styles that are supplied with Capture One Pro (and the Express versions), which you can use as a starting point to editing your images, you can also buy additional Styles or “Style Packs” from the official Capture One site [official link*] or ambassador sites, like this one [link to our shop].

While Styles can greatly improve your workflow and reduce the time you spend editing, they’re not an instant fix for problem images. It’s important to realise that you will most likely need to make some tonal adjustments and that may even apply to images that have a well-balanced density (exposure), though it depends on many variables to start with.

Installing Styles

Capture One Pro (version 10.1.2 or later) has several methods to install Styles, as it depends on the file format and how they’re delivered.

Style Packs

If you’ve purchased a Style Pack, they’ll most likely be delivered as a single file with the .costylepack extension, possibly within a Zip file, as they are from the Capture One site or from our store. Simply double-click on the Zip file to unpack the contents, then double click a second time on the file with the .costylepack extension with Capture One Pro open to install them. 

Alternatively, once unzipped or unpacked, you can drag and drop the .costylepack file onto the CO icon in the dock (macOS) or drop it in the Viewer area, or import them from the menu in the Style and Presets’ contextual tool. I’ll go into more detail with that option shortly, when importing individual Styles.

Individual Styles

Identified by their .costyle extension, individual Styles are likely to be delivered in a separate folder or folders within a Zip file. Once again, double-click on the Zip file to unpack the contents, then if the Styles are in a single folder, the simplest and safest method to import them is to adopt the install option from Styles and Preset tool.

Navigate to that, then from the tool’s toolbar, click on the contextual icon or ellipsis (…) and select Install Styles from the menu. A system window will open allowing you to navigate to your downloaded Style Pack folder. Select the folder, click open, select all of the Styles, then click open a second time. All of the selected Styles will be imported.

If inside the parent folder the Styles are arranged in sub-folders, you’ll have to select each Style in each folder in turn to import them this way (from the tool’s contextual menu). Otherwise, if you want to import them within their folders, thereby maintaining their organisational structure in the Styles & Presets tool, then you’ll have to import them using a slightly more complex method.

Install and Organise Styles within Sub-Folders

With macOS you’ll need to navigate to the Library from the Finder.

1.From the Finder’s main menu, select Go then press alt (option) to reveal the Library in the menu (it’s hidden using the default selection).

2. From the Library folder click on Application Support, then double-click to open the Capture One folder, then open the Styles folder.

3. Now drag and drop your Styles Pack folder into this window.

4. Close it and restart Capture One. The Styles Pack will now be available with the folder structure from the Styles & Presets tool and also from the Adjustments menu.

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An earlier version of this article stated that Express versions weren’t able to import Style and Presets. The latest version 20 does now fully support the importing of ‘User Styles’ (as well as Styles and Styles Packs bought from the Capture One site and third parties). That has been now been corrected.