Nik Software

Nik Software was a software development company established in 1995 and based in San Diego, California.[5] 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.

Nik Software
FormerlyNik Multimedia
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryDigital image processing, software development
Founded1995
FounderNils Kokemohr[1]
Headquarters
San Diego, California
,
United States
Key people
  • Michael J Slater (CEO)
  • Nils Kokemohr (CTO)
  • Adam Christianson (Chief Web Developer)
[2][3]
Products
  • Nik Collection
Number of employees
120 (2010)[4]
ParentGoogle LLC

In September 2012, Nik Software was acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount.[6][7] DxO announced on October 25, 2017 the acquisition of Nik Collection from Google 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!, these 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 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 in it.[4] Nikon made its investment in 2005.[9] As of 2010, the company had 120 employees — around 40 of whom are located in San Diego where the company is headquartered while the remaining staff (primarily engineering) are based in Germany.[4]

In September 2012, Nik Software was acquired by Google for an undisclosed amount.[6]

Products

Nik Collection
Nik Collection
Developer(s)DxO
TypeDigital photography
Websitenikcollection.dxo.com

The Nik Collection is a set of image enhancement tools and photographic filter plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Lightroom, Apple's Aperture[10] and DxO PhotoLab.

The collection comprises the following products:[11]

  • Analog Efex Pro — Applies film-era camera, lens, and film simulation to digital images.
  • Color Efex Pro — Package of filters that comes with many effects e.g. HDR effect
  • Dfine — Noise reduction
  • HDR Efex Pro — Specialized program for processing HDR pictures
  • Sharpener Pro — Image sharpening
  • Silver Efex Pro — Black & White conversion
  • Viveza — Color control with advanced functions to change contrast and saturation

The collection was originally priced at $500, but after Google acquired Nik, the price was dropped to $150.[10] On March 24, 2016, Google announced that they would make the Nik Collection free.[12][13] Around May 30, 2017, Google announced that they have no plans to update the Nik Collection or add new features over time.[14] On October 25, 2017, DxO announced the acquisition of the Nik Collection assets from Google.[15]

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.[4]

References
  1. "Nik Software gobbled up by Google". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  2. "Nik Software gets into photo-editing tools for 'Debbie Digital'". USA Today. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  3. "Nik Software, Inc. - Current & past teams". ChrunchBase Aol Inc.
  4. 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.
  5. Lardinois, Frederic (September 17, 2012). "Google Acquires Nik Software, The Company Behind The Popular Snapseed Photo Editing App For iOS". techcrunch.com. TechCrunch.
  6. Miller, Claire (September 17, 2012). "Google Buys Nik to Lure Photographers to Google Plus". bits.blogs.nytimes.com. The New York Times.
  7. "Google takes on Instagram with Snapseed". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  8. Nik Software Tools Bundle by Joshua A. Haftel. John Wiley & Sons.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. "About the Google Nik Collection".
  12. Allan, Patrick (March 24, 2016). "Google's Nik Collection of Photo Editing Software Is Now Completely Free". lifehacker.com. Lifehacker.
  13. "Today we're making the Nik Collection available to everyone, for free". plus.google.com. March 24, 2016.
  14. "Nik Collection Help". support.google.com. Retrieved 2017-05-30.
  15. "DxO acquires Nik Collection assets from Google". DxO Labs. 25 October 2017.
  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.
  17. "Behind the scenes - Capture NX". Nikon. 2011. Archived from the original on April 12, 2011. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
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