ACDSee 2023 Review
ACDSee 2023.
Even though I had actually stopped using ACDSee, I still couldn't resist installing ACDSee 2023 Ultimate.
To cut to the chase, my subscription was still valid through February of the new year, so I reactivated it.
Not just because of ACDSee Photo Studio itself, but also because the Gemstone Editor is now included in the Home Plan. And I have to admit, I’d also missed the Luxea Video Editor a bit… The program is ingeniously simple for quickly editing videos. But that would be worth another article. Click here for the Ultimate version of Photo Studio.
So I downloaded and installed it.
After the Start
After launching, ACDSee 2023 displays its familiar interface; my settings and presets from the 2022 version were carried over. A new feature is the ability to manually import program options from the previous version. I chose not to do this and instead manually configured the options to suit my needs.
After that, the database conversion from the old 2022 database began, which generally completes quickly and without errors.
I've noticed a snag here:
If files have been deleted outside of the program but are still present in the database, the program will search for these missing files during conversion. I don’t know where ACDSee looks everywhere—it feels like it takes forever. However, if all files are present, the database conversion—including preview generation—for just under 50,000 images is completed in a few minutes.
ACDSee Goes AI
Several new AI-powered features have been added. These can be found on the right-hand side in Edit mode, including "Remove Background" and "Select Sky." These worked quite well in my tests. What I found lacking were customization options—unfortunately, these AI actions don’t offer any settings. So it’s questionable whether I might achieve more precise results by working with masks if, for example, I want to change the sky in an image.
Another “smart” feature can be found on the left side in Edit Mode and is called AI Face Editing. And this feature includes the options that are missing from the other AI actions. In my opinion, these options are quite powerful. With ACDSee 2023, you can not only enhance faces in the options but also alter them—for example, by creating more pointed noses. With the images I used for this, the face editing worked without any problems and pretty quickly.
Speed
Like its previous versions, ACDSee 2023 runs quite smoothly; I've only noticed slight delays in the following situations:
- Opening very large TIF files in View/Edit/Develop mode. Here you can see the image being loaded for 1–2 seconds.
- The "Undo All" function in Develop mode takes a little while if there are many development settings applied—especially when Light-EQ is enabled.
Image management itself is still lightning-fast, and for me, there’s hardly a better DAM for images than ACDSee. That was already the case in previous versions, and it’s still true for the 2023 version.
RAW Development
It becomes apparent fairly quickly that there are now significantly more presets than in the previous version. I find most of these presets quite useful, and they’re at least a good starting point for processing the images. The RAW developer impresses me in other ways as well. It feels like I can achieve a natural result with my Sony RAW images faster in ACDSee than with other programs.
Light EQ and Color EQ are real highlights—not new, but still top-notch.
All in all, I really like ACDSee 2023—which is why I renewed my subscription.
But where there is a lot of light, there is also some shadow….
What Could Be Better
Most of these issues were already a source of criticism in the previous version. I would have liked to see some of them addressed in ACDSee 2023.
- The noise reduction could be better for images taken at very high ISO settings. I lose quite a lot of detail there. Overall, though, the noise reduction in ACDSee 2023 is more than just adequate
- Masking options: I would like it if, for all settings in Develop mode, it were possible to create a mask (or gradient) that would allow me to limit changes (such as blurring) to specific areas of the image.
- When exiting Edit Mode, the image must be saved in a non-RAW format. Although ACDSee refers to this as non-destructive editing in this mode, ultimately only the layers are saved with the image (and only in the ACDSee format). Unfortunately, saving and opening PSD files with layers is not possible. Here, you are limited to the proprietary file format.
Buy recommendation?
I highly recommend ACDSee 2023 Ultimate—especially the Home plan. With this plan, you can use the included programs on up to 5 devices. For a family, that’s an almost unbeatable deal.
Regardless of the price, I believe that 95% of all photos can be “developed” and edited directly in ACDSee with good quality—without needing to use any other program.
Only in the case of heavily noisy images or if you want to spice up photos with effects will it be necessary to continue editing in another program. And you can do that right from within ACDSee as well. There, you can integrate “third-party” programs as plugins or as external editors.
Links:
ACDSee Homepage
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