Nik Software
 | |
| Formerly | Nik Multimedia |
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Digital image processing, software development |
| Founded | 1995 |
| Founder | Nils Kokemohr[1] |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people |
|
| Products |
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Number of employees | 120 (2010)[3] |
| Parent | Google LLC |
Nik Software was a software development company established in 1995 and based in San Diego, California.[4] The company developed multiple image editing plug-ins and tools (for digital image processing applications, such as Adobe Photoshop) and Snapseed, a popular image enhancement application for iOS and Android.
In September 2012, Nik Software was acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount.[5][6] DxO announced on October 25, 2017 the acquisition of Nik Collection from Google[7] and has since continued to develop it.
History
In 1995 Nik Software (originally Nik Multimedia) was founded by Nils Kokemohr in Hamburg. Nik Software focused on digital photography and graphic design. The Nik Software team developed Nils Efex! and Nils Type Efex! which were a combination of Photoshop actions and textures.[8] In 1999 Michael J Slater joined Nik Software as CEO of the company. He led the company from a small software developer company to becoming a software research and development company.
Nik Software was, until Google's acquisition, a privately held company owned by investors and Nikon, which in 2010 had a 35% stake.[3] Nikon made its investment in 2005.[9] As of 2010, the company had 120 employees — around 40 of whom were located in San Diego where the company was headquartered while the remaining staff (primarily engineering) were based in Germany.[3]
In September 2012, Nik Software was acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount.[5] After acquiring Nik, Google dropped the price of the software from $500 to $150.[10] On March 24, 2016, Google announced that they would make Nik Collection free.[11][12] Around May 30, 2017, Google announced that they had no plans to update Nik Collection or add new features over time.[13] On October 25, 2017, DxO announced the acquisition of Nik Collection assets from Google.[7]
In 2018, DxO released a new version of Nik Collection[14] and has since released a new version every year. In 2020, it introduced an eighth plug-in as part of Nik Collection 3: Nik Perspective Efex.[15]
Products
Nik Collection
 | |
| Developer(s) | DxO |
|---|---|
| Type | Digital photography |
| Website | nikcollection |
Nik Collection is a suite of eight photo editing applications for Windows and macOS. They are predominantly used as plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop but can also be used as plug-ins for Adobe Lightroom Classic, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and DxO PhotoLab. They also function as standalone applications.
The collection comprises the following products:
Nik Color Efex
A large collection of filters focused on manipulating color, tone, and contrast. It is possible to target edits using local adjustments.
Nik Silver Efex
Black and white conversion and editing, offering control over exposure, contrast, structure, tones, grain. It also includes local adjustments and a number of presets that emulate classic film stocks.
Nik Dfine
Noise reduction, with global and local adjustments
Nik Viveza
Tools for making a broad range of changes to an image, such as exposure, contrast, structure, color, shadow recovery. Changes can be made globally or targeted using local adjustment tools.
Nik Analog Efex
Simulates vintage, film-era cameras, lenses, and film stocks. It includes effects such as light leaks and textures.
Nik HDR Efex
A tool for blending bracketed images together to capture a high dynamic range. It can also tone map individual images.
Nik Sharpener
Image sharpening, either globally or targeted using local adjustment tools. It has a Pre-Sharpener for preparing raw files at the beginning of a workflow, and Output Sharpening designed to prepare images for display.
Nik Perspective Efex
Geometric distortion correction tools to address converging verticals and horizontals through keystoning. It also corrects volume distortion where a subject might appear wider than in reality due to being positioned close to the edge of frame when photographed using a wide-angle lens.
Snapseed
Snapseed is an image editing application for iOS and Android. Nik Software also sold desktop versions of Snapseed for MacOS and Microsoft Windows which have since been discontinued.[16]
Capture NX
Capture NX is a stand-alone photo editing programs co-developed by Nik Software and Nikon, released in 2006.[17] A new version of the program, Capture NX 2, was released in 2008.[3]
References
- ^ "Nik Software gobbled up by Google". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- ^ "Nik Software gets into photo-editing tools for 'Debbie Digital'". USA Today. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- ^ a b c d Graham, Jefferson (August 3, 2010). "Nik Software gets into photo-editing tools for 'Debbie Digital'". usatoday30.usatoday.com. Archived from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ^ Lardinois, Frederic (September 17, 2012). "Google Acquires Nik Software, The Company Behind The Popular Snapseed Photo Editing App For iOS". techcrunch.com. TechCrunch.
- ^ a b Miller, Claire (September 17, 2012). "Google Buys Nik to Lure Photographers to Google Plus". The New York Times.
- ^ "Google takes on Instagram with Snapseed". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
- ^ a b "DxO acquires Nik Collection assets from Google, what does this mean for the future of Nik?". www.imaging-resource.com. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
- ^ Nik Software Tools Bundle by Joshua A. Haftel. John Wiley & Sons. 3 March 2012. ISBN 9781118376096.
- ^ Lardinois, Frederic (September 17, 2012). "Google Acquires Nik Software, The Company Behind The Popular Snapseed Photo Editing App For iOS". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
- ^ Wauters, Robin (March 25, 2013). "Google bundles acquired Nik Software plug-ins for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture, drops entire set price to $149". thenextweb.com. The Next Web.
- ^ Allan, Patrick (March 24, 2016). "Google's Nik Collection of Photo Editing Software Is Now Completely Free". lifehacker.com. Lifehacker.
- ^ "Today we're making the Nik Collection available to everyone, for free". plus.google.com. March 24, 2016.
- ^ "Nik Collection Help". support.google.com. Retrieved 2017-05-30.
- ^ "DxO updates Nik Collection, releases PhotoLab 1.2 with U Point local adjustments". DPReview. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
- ^ "Nik Collection 3 by DxO announced: Includes new Perspective Efex, faster workflow & more". DPReview. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
- ^ Kinder, Lucy (September 18, 2012). "Google takes on Instagram with Snapseed". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
- ^ "Behind the scenes - Capture NX". Nikon. 2011. Archived from the original on April 12, 2011. Retrieved February 3, 2019.