Nik Collection by Google is now Absolutely Free

This must be an exclamatory news for photography enthusiasts that Google has turned its premium photo editing software/plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom, packed in one Nik Collection absolutely free.

Nik Collection by Google, a bundle of seven software plugins that work with Adobe Photoshop and/or Lightroom for image editing, packed with Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Dfine, which was previously priced at $150. After a recent official announcement the full collection is now available for free.

More interestingly Google will be refunding people their full money back in coming days, if they had purchased Nik Collection in 2016. Google has taken this step to expand the usage of its software beyond the photography professionals and to reach every one of you.

We’re excited to bring the powerful photo editing tools once only used by professionals to even more people now.

If you are not familiar, prior to the acquisition of Nik Software by Google back in 2012, each of the program in the collection cost around $100 with a total of up to $500 for the full bundle. Google made the whole bundle available for a single price of $150 via a single installer. But now it’s totally free.

Download Nik Collection by Google

So if you have never tried Nik Collection of plugins before, you really should now. Each of the plugins in Nik Collection are remarkable for what they do but my personal favorite is the HDR Efex Pro. To download the collection without a penny or to learn more, head towards Google’s Nik Collection website now.

System requirements for Nik Collection:

Windows:

  • Windows Vista®, Windows 7, Windows 8
  • Adobe Photoshop CS4 through CC 2015
  • Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 through 13 (apart from HDR Efex Pro 2, which is not compatible with Photoshop Elements)
  • Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 through 6/CC

Mac:

  • Mac® OS X 10.7.5 through 10.10
  • Adobe Photoshop CS4 (CS5 for HDR Efex Pro 2) through CC 2015
  • Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 through 13 (apart from HDR Efex Pro 2, which is not compatible with Photoshop Elements)
  • Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 through 6/CC
  • Apple® Aperture® 3.1 or later

GPU Compatibility:

NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series, GeForce 9 Series, GeForce 100 Series, GeForce 200 Series, GeForce 300 Series, GeForce 400 Series, GeForce 500 Series, ATI Radeon HD2000 Series, Radeon HD3000 Series, Radeon HD4000 Series, Radeon HD5000 Series, Radeon HD6000 Series.

If no compatible card is available, GPU acceleration will be disabled and the CPU will be used.

Here is the official announcement from Nik Collection/Google+

Today we’re making the Nik Collection available to everyone, for free.

Photo enthusiasts all over the world use the Nik Collection to get the best out of their images every day. As we continue to focus our long-term investments in building incredible photo editing tools for mobile, including Google Photos and Snapseed, we’ve decided to make the Nik Collection desktop suite available for free, so that now anyone can use it.

The Nik Collection is comprised of seven desktop plug-ins that provide a powerful range of photo editing capabilities from filter applications that improve color correction, to retouching and creative effects, to image sharpening that brings out all the hidden details, to the ability to make adjustments to the color and tonality of images.

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.

We’re excited to bring the powerful photo editing tools once only used by professionals to even more people now.