ACDSee 9.0 available

[masu]

http://www.acdsee.com/products/acdsee/whatsnew

http://downloads.acdsystems.com/en/acdsee.exe

[Carol Haynes]

Anyone else feel ACDSystems are taking the michael ?

They seem to come out with new versions every six months or so without adding much usually. I am beginning to the think the company are in it for the money !!

[sri]

What about http://www.iview-multimedia.com/mediapro/ ? Has anyone used it? How does it compare w/ ACDSee?

[masu]

my current favourite is XNView 

[mwb1100]

Anyone else feel ACDSystems are taking the michael ?

I'll have to ask what you mean by "taking the michael" - I looked it up in Google, but the best I could find said it meant "To make fun, tease, satirize".    So, what's it really mean?

[JeffK]

In Oz, we usually say "take the mickey". 

I notice the price has come down.  I was seriously considering buying v8.0 but was hesitating as I already have SmartPix and just yesterday took the plunge and got its upgrade to v9 for $US13.70.

Jeff

[Darwin]

Variaions on "take the Michael" are "take the piss" and "take the mickey". My understanding of the expression(s) is that it describes a situation in which someone is flagrantly thumbing their nose at someone else, or some rule. I first heard it in Oxford in 1994 when a friend I was with took a bag of crisps (chips) into a pub (Eagle and Child) and the bartender came over and pointed to a sign prohibiting outside food or drink from being consumed in the pub. Then he told her that bringing them into the pub was: "really taking the piss".

[Carol Haynes]

Thanks Darwin that is what I meant ...

It bugs me that ACDSee seem to bring out endless 'upgrades' most of which seem like little more than tinkering with the interface so it looks a bit different - has anything of value really been added since about version 3 or 4 ? True it has gained bloat and is now much slower than it used to be - plus the download is a lot bigger, but I can't really see that much has been added that is worth a couple of upgrades every year.

Maybe I'm just getting old and cynical.

[Lashiec]

What about http://www.iview-multimedia.com/mediapro/ ? Has anyone used it? How does it compare w/ ACDSee?

Microsoft? What is Microsoft doing buying that company? Could be that program the new Picture Viewer built in Vista?

Anyway, besides Microsoft purchases, I've never considered ACDSee as a program I could use. I've always found very bloated, and its interface is not that intuitive. I prefer XnView, even more now that version 1.90 is on its way, seems better than ever.

[JeffK]

Please just confirm for me that one can't view pictures or thumbnails from different directories in Xnview at the one time?  That is really my prime requirement for an image viewer.

Jeff

[sri]

JeffK, how about Google's picasa then? Tried that?

[masu]

yeah XNView and Picasa are a great team 

[zridling]

They seem to come out with new versions every six months or so without adding much usually.

Ah, lots of companies are tossing out their last upgrades before Vista hits. Corel dumped Paint Shop Pro 11 and Adobe dumped Acrobat Pro 8 onto the market with no response because they didn't add any real benefit to those looking to upgrade. Actually, ACDSee 8 was released 07 September 2005, and with 9.0, the price went down 25% for new users and even more for upgraders. ACD Systems releases a new version every year in September (at least the last four were released this way), thus the cheaper price. One of the better things is that unlike many companies, ACD Systems keeps most of its functionality in the regular version, saving only the big fat power features meant for pro/amateur photographers for its Pro version. When many companies split their product, they completely gut the regular version making it useless. This is the best (and easily the fastest) version since 5.0 (really), and since you asked here's what's new:

(1) Faster speed throughout the program. Who doesn't like to see this? File management is much stronger and there's no more waiting for files to cache.

(2) Quick View mode is fantastic! Whether opening an image attachment to an e-mail, or double-clicking on a JPEG from Windows Explorer, the Quick View mode is a fast, sleek, and efficient, pared down viewer which displays your photos instantly (I don't know how they accomplish this either).

(3) ACDSee 9's new Shadow/Highlight tool is a hybrid gamma tool that lets you make adjustments in one-click, letting you trash fewer bad photos due to exposure problems.

(4) Private Folders protects your personal photos in a secure area so only you can view them.  If you have photos or files that you want to remain confidential, just move them to a Private Folder, set a password, and ACDSee Photo Manager will keep them under lock and key. Great for keeping porn from spying eyes.

(5) New filtering and sorting options like 'Filter by' and 'Group by' allows you to sort and view photos into more detailed subsets based on EXIF, IPTC, file properties, names, or ACD database info.

(6) Increased printing options built right into the program rather than needing an add-on now.

Like NewsLeecher, ACDSee 9 has become progressively better with every version since 6, and it's not a big, fat program either. Picasa and XnView are very good, but ACDSee 9 is better (IMO).

[JeffK]

I'm still deciding.  I find the user interface of Picasa a bit hard to get used too.  I had another look at Picajet FX and find it really intuitive.

Jeff

[zridling]

PicaJet FX has a really nice interface and the program is updated constantly. Can't go wrong there. There's lots of good choices in this category. We're really fortunate.

[cettolox]

I in ACDSEE v9 I cannot find the "tagging" feature of v8. In v8, during the picture slideshow, I can hit backslash to quickly tag piclures I like, without dealing with categories or rating.

I cannot find this in v9: did you ?

/Stefano

[moerl]

I love ACDSee 9 but it seems to me that it's lacking in the organization department.. and that's what's most important to me. It's definitely much less of a beast than is Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0.. but the latter beats ACDSee in just about every way imaginable when it comes to image organization. Too bad