ACD System’s Photo Studio for Mac 8 adds M1 compatibility, better tools and more

ACD Systems has launched Photo Studio for Mac 8, a digital asset management tool that runs natively on macOS. The new version is the first Photo Studio software to run natively on Macs with M1-based Apple Silicon, including the new MacBook Pro models.

Photo Studio for Mac 8 includes user-friendly graphical user interface improvements that allow for easier navigation. The look of Photo Studio for Mac 8 better fits with the existing macOS presentation. While your computer is idle, a new customizable Indexer efficiently organizes your assets.

The software also includes new color-related tools for photo editing, such as Color LUTs, Color Wheels, Tone Wheels, Dehaze, Skin tune and the addition of Contrast to the Color EQ tool. Users can precisely target and adjust saturation, hue, brightness, contrast, highlights, midtones, shadows, and contrast balance.

To summarize, per ACD Systems, Photo Studio for Mac 8 includes the following new features:

• With widespread performance gains, ACDSee Photo Studio 8 is a Universal app that runs natively on Macs with an Apple Silicon chip.
• Use the ACDSee Mobile Sync app to wirelessly and instantly send photos and videos directly to ACDSee Photo Studio 8 from your iOS or Android mobile device.
• With the ACDSee Indexer, background indexing of your assets occurs while the computer is idle, keeping the ACDSee database up-to-date automatically.
• Filmstrip View provides a full-size view of your photos in Manage mode while you browse and organize.
• Navigator is used to zoom into an image and quickly pan around it for up-close viewing and editing in View and Develop modes.
• The Color Wheel in Develop mode intuitively targets adjustments to specific color ranges in your image. Accurately brightens grey skies and dull reflections.
• Tone Wheels in Develop mode make easy work of split-toning highlights, mid-tones, and shadows.
• Color LUTs in Develop mode apply unique effects with a single click. Choose from eight default Color LUTs or import new ones for unlimited potential.
• Dehaze in Develop mode restores contrast, detail, and lost color to your images. Especially useful for images that have been captured through a haze.
• Skin Tune in Develop mode evens tones by brightening, smoothing, and restoring your subject’s glow.
• Color EQ Contrast/Balance in Develop mode further manipulates image contrast using the new Contrast and Contrast Balance adjustments in the Color EQ tool.

Photo Studio for Mac 8 includes new color and contrast tools, such as Color LUTs, a new Color Wheel and more. Click to enlarge.

In addition to the above new features, Photo Studio for Mac 8 includes many improvements. The color picker tools in Develop mode now display the RGB color values of pixels. The app offers improved performance when cataloging a folder with many subfolders. There’s a new Zoom Lock button in View Mode to lock the zoom level when browsing images.

You can read the full list of addition, improvements and known issues in the release notes. To get an overview of Photo Studio for Mac 8’s general features, visit ACD Systems. The software is a digital asset management application, meaning that you can easily sort, rate and add labels and tags to your library of photos. The app is also a RAW photo editor, and as you can see above, there are new editing tools in the latest version.

Photo Studio for Mac 8 includes new photo editing tools, including Dehaze and Skin Tune. Click to enlarge.

Photo Studio for Mac 8 is available now for a special introductory price of $70, a $30 savings off the full retail price. The special introductory offer ends on November 24. Special upgrade pricing is also available if you log in via the above link using your acdID account.