DxO relaunches their first new version of the Nik Collection, promising stability and support

 

 

Alongside DxO PhotoLab 1.2, DxO has announced the first release of the newly-branded Nik Collection. After acquiring Nik Collection from Google in 2017, DxO's new plugin suite comes many years after the last update to the popular photo editing software and will finally give users a fully-functional, modern Nik Collection. 

Nik Collection 2018 by DxO promises an improved user experience and stability. The team at DxO has spent the last sixth months digging into the underlying code, which had long been ignored by Google, to fix bugs and other stability issues which had rendered the plugin suite useless for many users on the latest versions of Adobe software. In addition to stability, there is now active customer support for users as well. Of the process of modernizing the plugin suite, Bruno Sayakhom, Product Owner at DxO, said, "The process was long and complex. It was necessary to recover and recompile source code that had not been maintained for a long time in order to make it compatible with the latest versions of Adobe products and the latest Apple OS updates. This is a first step that allows us to start afresh."

Of the Nik Collection 2018 by DxO, DxO's VP of Product Strategy and Marketing, Jean-Marc Alexia, said, "We are proud to relaunch the Nik Collection, which users have been waiting for. We have put all of our know-how into offering photographers and creative artists the best possible user experience. This is just the first step: using uservoice-type surveys, we will be reaching out to the user community from whom we greatly desire to gather feedback about their experiences and gain insight into their expectations."

 

Color Efex Pro

You may notice that both DxO personnel used the term "first step," indicating that they intend to not only release the improved and stable version of the suite to photographers, but also to continually improve the software and introduce new features.

If you're unfamiliar with the Nik Collection plugin suite, it comprises seven powerful and versatile plugins which are compatible with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. Analog Efex Pro applies analog film, camera and lens simulations. Color Efex Pro includes a set of filters for color correction, touch-up and creative effects. Dfine is designed to reduce noise in images through a specific and precise process. HDR Efex Pro is, unsurprisingly, an HDR processor. Sharpener Pro sharpens images for specific usage scenarios, including different types of papers and viewing distances. Silver Efex Pro is a black and white converter which has taken inspiration from darkroom techniques. Finally, Viveza is a local editor.

As a longtime user of the Nik Collection in my own workflow, I am incredibly excited to spend time with the new plugin suite and you can expect a review to arrive soon. You can try it for yourself now and purchase it for $49 until July 1. After this introductory offer expires, the suite will cost $69.

Edit on June 15: A reader has shared with me that downloading a trial of the new version on Windows deletes existing Nik Collection files. If you want to be able to try the new version without losing the files for the old version, be sure to back up existing installation files if you still have them. Thank you to the reader for the heads up!