The new releases come less than 12 months after the last major updates, but offer competitively priced upgrades that are less than half the price of the full versions at $29.99 and $59.99 respectively.
The new releases include a number of additional editing tools and filters in addition to a tweaked user interface and enhancements to key areas such as image management.
Both tools gain a new Radial Gradient tool, which can be applied to other editing effects to subtly progress across the user’s photo. Uses for the tool include off-centre and multiple vignettes and drawing focus to a specific object. ACDSee Pro also adds a similar Linear Gradient tool.
Other new features common to both applications include a new Home base allowing users to create multiple ACDSee databases, an improved user interface placing photos firmly at its centre, the ability to find images with no assigned keywords and support for the new WebP format.
ACDSee Pro 7 users gain a large number of exclusive new features on top of these updates. Chief among these is support for non-destructive photo repairing using the program’s Heal and Clone options to erase dirt, dust and other unwanted objects.
Also new in version 7 is a sharpen/blur brush, allowing users to selectively paint over parts of an image to bring them into (or out of) focus. These are joined by a Detail brush, which works in a similar way to dodge and burn tools by accenting specific details via the stroke of a brush. Users can emphasise parts of an image by repeatedly brushing over the same area.
The ACDSee 17 and ACDSee Pro 7 are a match made in heaven. Now that Seattle based systems has released both of these, we get to learn about some of the much needed filters and image enhancing tools to bring out more of what we want to capture. I can't wait to test this one out.