ACDSee is a shareware image organizer, viewer, and editor software for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X 10.5 and higher developed by ACD Systems. It was originally distributed as a 16-bit application for Windows 3.0 and later supplanted by a 32-bit version for Windows 95.^[1]

ACDSee displays a tree view of the file structure for navigation with thumbnail images of the selected folder, and a preview of a selected image. Although primarily an image organizer, basic image editing capabilities are also provided. The thumbnails generated by ACDSee are cached so that they do not need to be regenerated.^[2]

The photo manager is available as a consumer version, and a pro version which provides additional features primarily such as raw image format file processing,^[3] and additional image editing capabilities.^[4]

ACDSee Pro

ACDSee Pro was released on January 9, 2006 to provide a software program for professional photographers. ACD Systems decided to separate its core release, ACDSee Photo Manager, into two separate products; ACDSee Photo Manager, aimed at amateur photography enthusiasts, and ACDSee Pro which would target Professionals by adding a new package of feature sets. ACDSee Pro s development team is based out of Victoria, British Columbia and was originally led by Jon McEwan and more recently by Nels Anvik who oversaw ACDSee Pro 2.5 through to Pro 5. The original ACDSee software was created by David Hooper who also added a number of features to ACDSee Pro such as Lighting correction (formerly known as Shadows and Highlights) and Develop Mode (in version 2.0). ACDSee Pro is written in C++, with the interface built using MFC.

Version 1.0

The first version was simply known as ACDSee Pro without any version number. However, in the About box, it was identified as being Version 8.0 , the same version number used in the ACDSee Photo Manager product released around the same time. Future versions of ACDSee Pro restarted the version numbers, beginning with 2.0. It retail price was $139. The first version of ACDSee Pro included:

• Interactive and batch RAW processing (non-destructive RAW editing)
• Color management
• Patented Lighting and Contrast Enhancement (LCE) / single-exposure HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology, created by David Hooper (known as Shadows and Highlights in the product itself.
• Image comparison tool for comparing multiple images, including their histograms and metadata.

Version 2.0

ACDSee Pro 2 was released on September 11, 2007. It included a new demosaicing algorithm which significantly improved the quality of RAW processing. Its new features included:

• More advanced Lighting (LCE) technology including the Light EQ , which was also built into the raw image processor
• Highlight recovery for recovering blown highlight detail in raw images
• Improved raw viewing performance through the use of raw image previews
• Selections, opacity and blending in Edit mode
• Advanced red-eye correction in Edit mode

Version 2.5

ACDSee Pro 2.5 was released on September 10, 2008. New features include:

• Ability to organise and catalog images while importing
• Protecting and sharing custom metadata via XMP fields
• Saved searches
• Custom borders, drop shadows and edge effect
• Slideshows

Version 3.0

ACDSee Pro 3 was released on September 29, 2009. It made significant improvements in its handling of RAW files and enabled full non destructive editing. It also improved the interface and added more online publishing tools. New Features included:^[5]

• ACDSee Online storage and sharing
• Advanced color
• Non destructive developing of RAW files in Process mode
• Fimstrip in View mode
• Noise reduction

Version 4.0

Released 5 April 2011, ACDSee Pro 4 increased in price to $239. Pro 4 saw a major improvement in its rendering of RAW images which were closer to the manufacturer's default settings. New features included:^[6]

• A new raw image processing engine which significantly improved the color conversion and tone mapping of raw images
• Full IPTC Core 1.1 support
• New metadata panel
• Map view and geotagging
• Vignette correction
• Chromatic aberration and defringe correction

Version 5.0

Released on September 27, 2011. ACDSee Pro 5 was released just 6 months after ACDSee Pro 4. As a result, users of ACDSee Pro 4 could upgrade to ACDSee Pro 5 for $30. New features included:

• Dodge and Burn
• Color Labels
• Batch Export
• Split Toning
• New Special Effects: Orton, Lomography, Collage
• Advanced Sharpening
• Remove Metadata
• Drawing Tools

Beta Versions

ACDSee Pro 2, 2.5, 3 and 4 all participated in a Beta program which incorporated feedback from users into the full releases.

Easter Eggs

• ACDSee Pro 2.0 was the first version of ACDSee known to include an Easter Egg , which can be seen every April 1 by holding down the Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys while ACDSee starts up. It was hidden in some obfuscated code by the original developer of ACDSee and can still be found in the latest edition of ACDSee Pro.

• Since ACDSee Photo Manager 6.0, if you save an Edit mode preset with the name 'tonywashere' (a reference to one of the lead developers, Tony Luchin) then a credit dialog box will appear.

See also

• Comparison of image viewers

References

External links

cs:ACDSee de:ACDSee fr:ACDSee ko:ACDSee id:ACDSee it:ACDSee he:ACDSee nl:ACDSee ja:ACDSee pl:ACDSee pt:ACDSee ru:ACDSee uk:ACDSee zh:ACDSee