When it comes to photo editing software, there’s no denying that the space is fragmented and in desperate need of a 21st century makeover. Even the Adobe Creative Cloud is leagues too pricey at $20 (£20, AU$29) a month – that’s $240 (£240, AU$348) every year!
With ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018, on the other hand, not only are you charged but a one-time $149 (about £115, AU$187) fee for a lifetime license, but you’re getting more features for a significantly lower long-term cost.
That’s because this successor to ACDSee Ultimate 10 is positioned as a fine alternative to both Photoshop CC and Lightroom, allowing you to load and edit RAW images seamlessly without relying on any outside applications for post-processing.
One software package to rule them all
As a photographer, it’s a bit of a relief when you’re faced with the opportunity to eliminate any step of the post-production process and still achieve equally satisfying results. With ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018, however, you can expect to do so without compromising on performance, so long as you’re toting a competent enough PC.
Because ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 boasts GPU-accelerated layers, you can count on your graphics card to do much of the heavy lifting. Whether you’re working with a 15-inch MacBook Pro or a custom-built gaming rig, an AMD Radeon Pro 555 or a GTX 1080 Ti, this software will experience unspeakable benefits from just about any video card.
So optimized your grandparents could run it
While we’re on the subject of specs, you’ll be hard-pressed to beat ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018’s low, low hardware requirements. All you need is at least a 2GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor, 2GB of RAM, 512MB of VRAM, a DirectX 10 compatible graphics adapter, 2GB of free storage space and a 1,024 x 768 display resolution.
As for what ACD recommends for the best outcome, plan on having 6GB of RAM and a 1,920 x 1,080 screen to complement the aforementioned components. And, as software is concerned, you’ll need Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or greater, Internet Explorer 9 or higher, at least DirectX 10 and Windows Media Player 9.0.
Unique features that make the competition jealous
So now that you know ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 is fast and fluid and gets a boost when a discrete GPU is in the picture, not to mention the flexible system requirements, it’s time to talk function. What can Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 do for you that a more expensive Adobe Creative Cloud account can’t accomplish already? Well, as it turns out, a lot.
Most notably, Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 introduces a Smart Erase feature that you won’t find anywhere else. By selecting the tool and scrubbing certain objects within an image, you’re able to effectively remove these aspects of the photo and, in turn, retain all information contained in the background, even that which isn’t visible in the original image.
Unlike the Magic Wand or Quick Selection tools in Photoshop, Smart Erase makes it easy to remove obstructions like telephone poles and photobombers from your images, less the need to exert a cumbersome amount of effort to keep it looking natural. After all, the last thing you want is for your edited photographs to appear as such.
A lifetime supply of comprehensive tools at your fingertips
When you shell out the $149 (about £115, AU$187) asking cost of ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018, you’re signing up for only the most efficient and versatile suite of photo manipulation tools money can buy – and, best of all, you only have to pay once. Never again will ACDSee ask you for money to keep using Photo Studio Ultimate 2018.
Combined robust performance and digital asset management capabilities that leave Bridge in the dust, ACDSee’s Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 is made better only by its resilience to go totally cloud-based. While the competition requires the internet to access your photo collection, ACDSee accesses your local hard drive for a painless (and more nimble) user experience.
All of these facets considered, Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 is in a category of its own. Where others have decided to “innovate” (i.e. mandate unwanted DRM and subscription models) to make a quick buck, ACDSee focuses on the needs of the end-user to ensure that the software is affordable, functional and quick to boot.
