Today, Google announced that it is offering the complete set of Nik Software plug-ins for free. That’s right, the suite that used to cost over $400 is now freeware. That’s excellent news for anyone looking to get these professional image editing tools (and maybe not so excellent news for those of us who purchased them for full price). However, as stated in their announcement, Google will offer anyone who purchased the Nik Collection in 2016 a full refund:
Starting March 24, 2016, the latest Nik Collection will be freely available to download: Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Dfine. If you purchased the Nik Collection in 2016, you will receive a full refund, which we’ll automatically issue back to you in the coming days.
Nevertheless, Google continues to support this software, and I still think that it’s the best out there for certain applications. I use Color Efex Pro 4 all the time, and Silver Efex Pro 2 is still one of the best monochrome editors around. Viveza is incredibly useful if you are into digital infrared photography. All the Nik plug-ins feature Control Points for making local adjustments.
The Nik Collection Includes:
- Analog Efex Pro (Film effects)
- Color Efex Pro (Color and monochrome effects)
- Silver Efex Pro (monochrome conversion)
- HDR Efex Pro (HDR tone-mapping)
- Viveza (color & contrast adjustments)
- Sharpener Pro
- Dfine (Noise reduction)
Visit this page to download the Nik Collection by Google