ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2025

In summary
Photo Studio Ultimate 2025 is suitable for photo enthusiasts who already have some familiarity with the basic processes involved in ingesting, editing and outputting images. Like previous versions, the 2025 edition is an all-in-one application for Windows users and should be a good choice for those who want a complete workflow solution.
Full review
We’ve tracked the progress of ACDSee’s Photo Studio Ultimate since 2020, two years after the first ‘Ultimate’ version was launched. The last time we reviewed this software was in September 2022, when we checked out Photo Studio Ultimate 2023, so we thought it would be timely to review the 2025 edition of the software.
The product page for ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2025. (Source: ACD Systems International.)
This edition introduced a number of AI-based functions to simplify editing processes like portrait retouching and one-click AI Actions tools for removing or blurring the background, selecting the subject or the sky, or giving your subject a black and white background.
The latest version consolidates the new features and enhancements introduced in the 2024 version and also adds new functions and improvements to these tools, while improving asset management processes and making it easier to browse and manage files in a single workspace, as outlined below.
Who’s it For?
As with previous versions, the main target audience for Photo Studio Ultimate 2025 is photo enthusiasts who already have some familiarity with the basic processes involved in ingesting, editing and outputting images and also require raw file conversion. Like previous versions, the 2025 edition is an all-in-one application for Windows users and should be a good choice for those who want a complete workflow solution.
Photo Studio Ultimate 2025 can also be used as a Photoshop plug-in and, since it includes standard cataloguing functions, you can convert Lightroom catalogues for it and integrate the application with OneDrive for cloud storage. You’ll be prompted to create backups of the catalogue file each month and if you’re upgrading from a previous version you may need to convert that catalogue to the latest version to ensure compatibility.
The AI-based functions and automated processing should simplify some common editing processes, making this software attractive to anyone who is just starting out with image editing. However, more advanced users could find the lack of manual over-rides for some functions frustrating at times because of the degree of automation in the software. This has become increasingly common in recent releases of image editors across the board.
Installation and Set-up
Like previous versions of ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate the main way to purchase this software is via the company’s website. The website is also where you’ll find the link to the 15-day free trial download. If you opted for a trial version you’ll be notified as the end of the trial period approaches and offered the chance to purchase the software.
You’ll receive an activation code once you’ve paid for the software; simply enter it and you’ll be ready to go. Aside from that, the set-up process involves the same steps as we outlined in our review of ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2020.
The user interface screens largely replication those in the previous application, with layered toolbars above the main screen that let you step through the various modes. The workspace design is largely unchanged from previous editions, with toolbars on each side of and above the main window and Manage, Media, View, Develop and Edit tabs ranged below the top toolbar to allow users to move between different operations.
The Manage workspace is designed for file browsing and image management.
The main workspace for Photo Studio Ultimate 2025 in the Manage mode has a similar structure to previous editions.
Tagging images is generally done in the Manage workspace, as shown here.
The View tab, shown here, is one of the new tools provided to help you simplify the workspace.
Buttons to the right of the Edit tab open additional views for seeing People, 365 (the Cloud-based image sharing and storage service), Dashboard and Connect (the message centre). The People mode is designed for managing all your images of people and has three modes: Named, Unnamed and Person. The Named and Unnamed views can be accessed from the dedicated buttons directly above the results grid in the button bar. You can only access the Person view in the Named view.
The new ACDSee Activity Manager in Dashboard mode forms the basis for background processes, making it easier to see the edits you’ve made and manage exports and imports. These tabs let you check out the statistics for the different areas in the database. Screen grabs shown below show the various tabs you can view.
The Overview tab displays a summary of activity, based on the metadata of the images you’ve worked with.
The Database tab provides a general overview of the status of your catalogue.
The Cameras tab shows which cameras have been used and the most commonly-used ISO settings.
The Files tab shows you the relationship between JPEG and raw files in your collection and the main bit depths of saved images.
A Workspace button at the top left lets you choose between the default and your own customised workspaces. The left sidebar covers image sources like hard drives and the ACDSee Mobile Sync for uploading files from you mobile device to your collections.
All the normal workspace tools are provided in an easily-accessible form.
Buttons in the top right corner let you show and hide selected panels but most of the panels in the left sidebar are opened and closed with more familiar arrow icons. Click on the 1:1 button in the bottom right corner of the toolbar below the workspace to view the full-size image, zoom with Ctrl-Mouse Wheel, or use the slider beside it to set the zoom percentage.
The latest version provides a wide range of special effects along with browser support to make them easy to select and apply.
Those who like using shortcut keys will find Photo Studio Ultimate 2025 provides them in abundance, most being intuitively labelled with the initial for the action, such as C for crop and B for brush. Multi-key shortcuts are provided for less frequently-accessed functions.
ACDSee PicaView (shown above) is a quick and easy file viewer for Windows/File Explorer, which lets you preview files without having to open them in an application. You can change which settings you see by clicking ACDSee PicaView | Options, or through ACDSee via the Tools | Options dialog’s menu.
What’s New?
The 2024 version of ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate introduced a number of new AI-driven photo editing tools, which have been updated in Photo Studio Ultimate 2025 with the ability to harness the full power of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) in the user’s computer. We’ll evaluate the ones we’ve tested as we go.
The latest edition adds a new ACDSee AI Super-Resolution tool for upscaling images that also includes functions for reducing noise, eliminating unwanted artefacts and sharpening details.
The AI Super-Resolution workspace.
It takes a minute of more the produce the higher-resolution image.
Overall performance was very good, comparatively speaking. This illustration shows crops from upscaled versions of the same image created by the ACDSee AI Super-Resolution tool (left) and another application that includes image upscaling.
Increased capabilities and more AI Sky Replacement choices through the addition of two new categories: Overcast and Fireworks.
The new Fireworks category in the AI Sky Replacement function provides plenty of adjustments for positioning, refining and adjusting the replacement layer but is limited in what it can actually achieve, as shown by the two samples above.
The Overcast function provides similar adjustments, again with variable results.
It can be difficult to fine-tune the Sky Replacement layer when subjects have areas with fine details (outlined in yellow) in the foreground.
A redesigned Masking Group in Develop Mode gives you more ways to create non-destructive selection masks with a new AI Object Masking tool, Colour and Luminance Range masking options and AI-powered refinements for selection masks. These tools can also be used for raw file editing.
The Masking options shown in the left sidebar include AI-based selection plus manual tools for selecting different masking methods.
The adjustable Radial masking tool lets you select circular areas.
Inverting mask selections requires you to select the icon shown by the green arrow in this screen grab. You can also use the Repair tools in conjunction with the masks – but, because they don’t use generative AI processing, they won’t necessarily deliver the results you want.
Workspace tabs act like a web browser making it easy to open multiple folders and switch between them within a single workspace.
The Advanced Search facility enables you to search for images based on tagging categories.
Photo Studio Ultimate 2025 supports most raw file formats from the major manufacturers and is reasonably up-to-date. But while this support operates almost seamlessly within the program and plenty of adjustments are available for tweaking files, the end results aren’t quite up to the standards of Adobe Camera Raw.
Raw file editing uses the same tools as provided for editing other file formats and most manufacturers’ proprietary raw files are supported.
Support has been added for reading and writing smaller AVIF files.
ACDSee Mobile Sync makes it easy to transfer photos and videos from an iPhone or Android phone to a PC/Windows-based computer by simply scanning the QR code on the screen.
You can also send photos directly from Photo Studio Ultimate 2025 by clicking on the Send tab on the Workspaces toolbar.
The Photomerge tools have been simplified to make panorama stitching, focus stacking and HDR merging easier and more effective.
Creating panoramas from groups of images is easy. As usual, you start by selecting the images you want to merge.
The software offers the option to automatically correct vignetting and crop the image to a rectangular format.
Improvements to digital asset management with the ability to select multiple keywords or categories for labelling, or delete all unassigned keywords or categories in one smooth step. You can organise your files into separate Albums for People, Places and Events, apply ratings from 1 to 5 and sort images according to keywords and colours.
You can also sort images into Collections and Smart Collections and create new collections by right-clicking in the left folder panel. Up to five image baskets can be created in the area below the main display area for holding files you’re working on temporarily.
Tagging faces so they can be accessed for future use is easy and up to 9,999 faces can be registered for detection (assuming you have the time to tag that many).
When naming a face, the Auto Advance in People Mode will automatically shift to the next face when you press enter. In addition up to 9,999 faces can be registered for detection, ensuring greater clarity in the number of faces detected per person.
Migrating to Photo Studio Ultimate from other image editors is easier since the AI-powered Face Detection & Facial Recognition tool will find any matching faces in their databases and add them to your ACDSee database.
Upgrading to the latest version of ACDSee Photo Studio should be quick and easy if you have ACDSee 2022 or higher installed. As long as you are upgrading from the same edition (Ultimate to Ultimate) on the first launch of ACDSee Photo Studio 2025 your options and selected Presets will be automatically imported, allowing you to pick up quickly where you left off. If upgrading from version 2024, your custom keyboard shortcuts will also be automatically imported.
Issues Identified
During our tests, the program occasionally paused for a minute or two before embarking on the task we’d selected and completely froze when we attempted to tag an image. After a couple of minutes we attempted to close it and restart it, at which point an error message appeared indicating a software problem.
On restarting the application, the image we’d marked for tagging was, in fact, tagged. We could then choose a coloured label for it.
Conclusion
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SPECS
Build: 18.0.0.2988 (64-bit)
Hardware: Intel i5 or better or AMD processor with 64-bit support
Systems compatibility: Windows 10 (64-bit editions only) & Windows 11, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft DirectX 10 or higher, Windows Media Player 9.0, Microsoft Office 2010 or above
Display support: 1280 x 800 display resolution (1920 x 1080 recommended); DirectX 10 compatible graphics adapter (DirectX 12 with feature level 12_0 or later recommended)
Disk space requirement: 4 GB of available hard disk space (software download is 6.46MB)
Minimum RAM: 4 GB RAM (8 GB RAM or more recommended); 512 MB Video RAM (VRAM)
Supported image formats: ABR, ACDC, AFPHOTO, ANI, BMP, CUR, CVX (thumbnails only), DCR, DCX, DNG, EMF, GIF, GPR, HEIC/HEIF, ICO, JPG, JP2/JPC, JPG, PBR, PCX, PCT, PNG, ProPhotoRGB, PSD, TGA, TIFF, WBMP, WEBP, WMF
Raw formats supported: ARW, CR2, CR3, cRAW (Sony), CRW (Canon). DCR, DNG, ERF (Epson), GoPro RAW, HDR, MRW, NEF, ORF, PEF, RAF, RAW, RWL, sRAW, SRW
Computer interface: Internet connection and registration are necessary to download 237MB file and for software activation and access to online services
Batch processing: Yes, for editing, resizing, renaming and exporting
Export to social media: Yes via email and most popular sharing sites, SendPix integration
Mobile device support: Limited; requires ACDSee Mobile Sync app
Distributor: ACD Systems International Inc.
Rating
RRP: US$149.99 for Lifetime Licence; US$8.90/month or $89/year subscription plans
- Features: 8.9
- Ease of Use: 8.3
- Versatility: 8.7