I’m not sure if this means that Google are abandoning the software (hopefully not, although they mention in their announcement that they are focusing on mobile technology more these days).
The software bundle originally sold for $149, but for whatever reason Google has decided to make it completely free. Ordinarily the only way to do something like that in Photoshop was with the use of layers and lots of layer masks, but the Nik Tools make finite adjustments of specific areas of an image very easy. The software works both as a standalone product as well as a plugin for Photoshop and Lightroom. Probably the coolest thing about the software is the ability to use control points to specify exactly what area of an image you’d like to work on (you can also just have the software apply itself to an entire image). In any case, it’s further proof that just because you paid for something doesn’t mean it’s safe from the Silicon Valley acquire-and-kill model.Google has just announced that their entire Nik Collection is now 100% free! I’ve been using this software for years and I can attest to how powerful and unique it really is. Why this matters: Google is in the business of selling ads though online services, not direct sales of online software, so while it’s unusual that the software lasted this long, Nik users probably should have seen the end coming. (One exception: Those who bought the collection in 2016 will get an automatic refund.) For everyone else, powerful photo tools don’t get any cheaper than this. (A desktop version of Snapseed was killed off by Google just before the initial price cut in 2013.)įor longtime Nik Collection users, the giveaway is bad news, as it means the software they paid for has almost certainty reached the end of the line in terms of updates. All along, Google seemed more interested in Nik’s Snapseed photo editor, and the mobile versions in particular.
At the time, Nik offered six desktop plug-ins as a $500 bundle, and Google dropped the price to $149 roughly six months after the acquisition.
Google bought Nik, a German software developer, in 2012.
0 kommentar(er)
