Prime/Grade™ OFX & DCTL Plug-In
“This tool literally combines 3 nodes in my workflow and makes it incredibly easy to work fast without worrying about what is happening under the hood. This is a must have tool!”
Individual license, for productions with budgets up to $5 million USD. Studios and larger productions: see Studio licensing.
COMPLETE THE WORKFLOW
Test it in your own project before you buy.
Build a clean, balanced image in one step, not a node stack. Prime/Grade™ is an all-in-one primaries tool for DaVinci Resolve, bringing exposure, contrast, and color controls together. It ships in two formats under one license: an OFX plug-in (beta) that runs in Resolve Studio and the free edition, and a DCTL for Studio.
Best suited for colorists, DPs, and editors who want to move faster through primaries while keeping results consistent.
New to DCTLs? See our complete guide to DCTLs in DaVinci Resolve.
Flat to finished, in one node

Ungraded

Prime/Grade™
Both formats included. Pick per shot, not per project.
OFX Plug-In (beta)
Included with every purchaseThe same primaries in one node, rendered on your GPU. Reach for this when you want faster playback, or when the project lives in the free edition of Resolve. Runs in DaVinci Resolve Studio and the free edition. macOS, Windows, Linux. Still in beta: new features are landing over time.
DCTL
Included with every purchaseThe Prime/Grade™ DCTL plus its PowerGrade, with the five built-in checkers on its own node. Reach for this when the shot's already deep in a DCTL-based tree and you want the process to match it. Requires DaVinci Resolve Studio.
Note: on Windows, GPU render runs on NVIDIA (CUDA) cards today. AMD (OpenCL) cards fall back to the CPU path while we finish validating them. It renders correctly, just slower. If you're grading on an AMD box under Windows, know that going in.
Prime/Grade™
The One-Node Primary Tool
Prime/Grade™ is an all-in-one primaries tool for DaVinci Resolve, available as an OFX plug-in or a DCTL. Exposure, contrast, balance and saturation live in one step, so you can build a clean, balanced image without stacking nodes.
Set exposure with Linear Gain, Gain or Offset. Flare and Fill shape the toe, and Fill lifts shadows without flattening the rest of the image. Contrast runs as an S-Curve or a straight Linear curve. Temp and Tint balance across the same three exposure modes. Saturation is tuned to hold up under heavy grading the way film does.
Five built-in checkers help you read the image as you grade: a ±5 stop False Color, Skin Tone, White Balance, Middle Gray and Negative. Prime/Grade™ works in DaVinci Wide Gamut Intermediate and supports the same 23 Transfer Functions as the rest of the PixelTools line, so it drops into ACES, RCM and manual CST workflows.
Straight from the grading suite
based on 57 reviews
Prime/Grade In Action
Used daily by professional colorists: learn more inside.
Prime/Grade™: Frequently Asked Questions
Does one purchase include both the OFX plug-in and the DCTL?
Yes. Every Prime/Grade™ purchase includes the OFX plug-in (beta) and the DCTL, plus the PowerGrade and the five built-in checkers. There is no separate tier and nothing extra to buy.
What is Prime/Grade™?
Prime/Grade™ is an all-in-one primaries tool for DaVinci Resolve, shipped as both an OFX plug-in (beta) and a DCTL. It consolidates exposure, contrast, balance and saturation into a single step, so you build a clean, balanced image without stacking nodes. Exposure works through Linear Gain, Gain or Offset; Flare and Fill shape the toe; Contrast offers both S-Curve and Linear behavior; and saturation uses a subtractive model for a more film-like response under heavy grading. Built for colorists, DPs and editors who want to move faster through primaries.
What's included?
Both formats (the Prime/Grade™ OFX plug-in (beta) and the DCTL) plus five built-in checkers for reading your image as you grade: a ±5 stop False Color, Skin Tone, White Balance, Middle Gray and Negative. It works internally in DaVinci Wide Gamut Intermediate and supports 23 transfer functions, dropping cleanly into ACES, RCM and manual CST workflows.
Can I try Prime/Grade™ before buying?
Yes. A free Prime/Grade™ demo is available, so you can load it into your own footage and see how it behaves in your pipeline first.
Do I need DaVinci Resolve Studio?
For the DCTL, yes: DaVinci Resolve Studio 20+ is required, since DCTLs don't run in the free edition. The OFX plug-in (beta) runs in both Studio and the free edition. Both formats come with every Prime/Grade™ purchase, no separate tier.
Is the OFX version finished?
Not yet. The OFX version is in beta and included with your purchase. The DCTL version is included too. Updates are free for the version you own. Major versions are discounted paid upgrades for owners.
Is the OFX plug-in fast enough to grade in real time?
Yes, on an M1 MacBook Pro the OFX plug-in holds real-time playback at UHD, so you're grading at cinema frame rate rather than scrubbing a preview.
Is it a one-time purchase or a subscription?
One-time payment, no subscription. Updates are free for the version you own. Major versions are discounted paid upgrades for owners.
How do I install it?
Installation is handled by the free PixelTools installer app: download it, run the installer, and both the Prime/Grade™ DCTL and the OFX plug-in are placed in the correct Resolve folders automatically, no manual file-copying.
I am buying for a facility or a production over $5 million. Is this the right license?
The price on this page is the Individual license: one colorist, your own machines, productions with budgets up to $5 million USD. Facilities, teams, and bigger productions need Studio seats: the same grading features, with PO invoicing, priority support, and offline activation today, plus floating seat management delivered within 12 months of purchase. See Studio licensing.


