# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Image Editor

Blender's UV/Image Editor window serves a number of related purposes:

-   It is a place to view rendered images, and save them to files.
-   It is a place to view and edit images being used as textures.
-   It is a place to perform *UV mapping* of meshes to texture images.

In the window header, you will see "View" and "Image" menus, followed by
a menu for choosing which image to view. The rest of the window header
varies depending on your choice from this last menu.

## Viewing Render Results

![](Blender268ImageEditorRenderResultMenus.png "Blender268ImageEditorRenderResultMenus.png")

Here is what the variable part of the window header looks like when you
choose the special "Render Result" entry in the image-selection menu.
The next menu, showing the word "View", serves no useful purpose in this
case (it is only applicable to editable images, not the render result).
Next to that is a Slot menu, allowing you to select from any of 8
numbered slots. Each slot can hold a separate Render Result image. This
is handy for trying out different render settings (e.g. quality etc),
and quickly flip between them for comparison. You can also use the
keyboard shortcuts  ..
 to switch slots. When you perform a
render, the generated image is put into the slot you are currently
viewing in the UV/Image Editor.

The next two menus, showing "RenderLayer" and "Combined" in the above
screenshot, allow you to view different render layers and render passes,
if you have more than one of these configured in the render settings, as
well as the final compositor result.

The rightmost group of four icons make a further breakdown of the image
into RGB channels with/without alpha transparency layer, alpha on its
own, and Z (depth) buffer on its own. Alpha transparency only matters if
you are rendering a transparent background in place of the sky, as
discussed later.

## Viewing/Editing Texture Images

![](Blender268ImageEditorImageMenus.png "Blender268ImageEditorImageMenus.png")

Here is what the variable part of the window header looks like when you
select some other image, or create a new one. Now the editing-context
menu
![](Blender268ImageEditorEditingMenu.png "Blender268ImageEditorEditingMenu.png")
becomes useful: selecting the "Paint" item lets you paint on the image.

Note the rightmost group of icons in the header has shrunk slightly:
there is no more Z-buffer option, though the alpha-related options still
exist.

## UV Mapping

![](Blender268ImageEditorUVMenus.png "Blender268ImageEditorUVMenus.png")

Here is what the variable part of the window header looks like when you
select a texture image, and go into Edit mode on a mesh in the 3D View
window.

