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DxO takes over Nik Collection from Google

Wednesday 1 November 2017, 11:44 by Michelle Peeters | 6,561 views | 5 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

DxO has acquired the Nik plug-ins for photographers from Google. When Google acquired Nik Software, the developer of Snapseed, in 2012, it immediately gained control of the plug-ins for Photoshop and Lightroom. The plug-ins will now continue to be developed by DxO.

DxO will create a new version of the plug-ins, and this Nik Collection 2018 Edition should become available halfway through next year.

Will it no longer be free?

Many people paid a lot for the software for years in the past. First through Nikon, then NIK, the Germans, and later Google, who eventually gave it away for free.

DxO will probably start charging for the plug-ins again, but the amount is not yet known. It is also not yet clear what the changes will be.

About the Nik Collection

The current Nik Collection consists of seven desktop plug-ins for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. These plug-ins add advanced forms of, for example, noise reduction, sharpening, HDR effects and conversions to black and white. The current Nik Collection line-up contains:

Analog Efex Pro: Contains film-era camera, lens and film simulations for digital photos
Color Efex Pro: An extensive set of filters for colour correction, retouching and creative effects
Dfine: Noise reduction software for camera-specific digital images
HDR Efex Pro: A specialised programme for processing HDR images
Sharpener Pro: Image sharpening for digital images
Silver Efex Pro: Black-and-white conversion of images with darkroom-inspired controls
Viveza: Selectively adjusts image colour and tonality without complicated masks or selections

DxO has already released new software that uses technology from the Nik tools. The new package is called DxO PhotoLabs and features Nik Software's U Point technology, which lets you make precise selections so that adjustments and enhancements can easily be applied to a specific part of the image.

The existing version with plug-ins is still available to download for free after registration, at the moment. You have to provide your email address for this. You can now do this through a DxO website.

Unfortunately for Nik software users, Google announced in May 2017 that it would no longer develop or update Nik Collection. When it took over the company, it was probably only interested in the Snapseed app for smartphones and tablets.

Want to learn how to use NIK and Snapseed?

Photofacts Academy also offers a complete Dutch-language course on both NIK and Snapseed. If you want to get started with this software, these courses may be of interest to you.

» Start a 14-day free trial membership

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About the author

Michelle Peeters is fotografe en oprichter van DeuxBleus Fotografie. Michelle herkent het bijzondere in het gewone en het gewone in het bijzondere. Ze heeft zich nooit willen specialiseren en is daardoor van alle markten thuis.

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5 comments

Ine Tesser wrote on Wednesday 1 November 2017 at 13:48 | reply
Do I have to register somewhere or something to keep receiving updates? (I have Google's free NIK collection.
Thanks in advance for the answer!
Ine
Translated from Dutch.

Michelle Peeters wrote on Wednesday 1 November 2017 at 14:06 | reply
@Ine: honestly, I don't know. Nothing has been announced about it yet. I assume that all this will be communicated. In any case, we will continue to follow it and inform you about it!
Translated from Dutch.

CC wrote on Wednesday 1 November 2017 at 15:56 | reply
Of course those plugins aren't free with DxO. You don't need them at all, by the way, because they don't do anything new. Photoshop contains all the features of those plugins and much more.
Translated from Dutch.

martinphili wrote on Wednesday 1 November 2017 at 16:06 | reply
It really is a great tool, the whole set. The only thing is the Sharpener, I've never had any use for it. Unsharp mask or highlights in Photoshop itself does just as good a job.
Translated from Dutch.

PvRFotografie wrote on Thursday 2 November 2017 at 12:46 | reply
You can leave your email address on the site nikcollection.dxo.com to be notified when version 2018 becomes available.

From the text " the current Nik collection will remain for free" you could infer that the next version will (again) cost money.
Translated from Dutch.

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