Any free 16-bit photo editors for Windows?

[Arctic amateur]

Are there any free 16-bit-per-channel photo editors for Windows? Gimp is working on it but not there yet, and Fotoxx is only for Llinux.

 

[480sparky]

What about the software that came with the camera?

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Are there any free 16-bit-per-channel photo editors for Windows? Gimp is working on it but not there yet, and Fotoxx is only for Llinux.

AdobePhotoshop, of course and I believe Photoshop elements as well.

 

[Eric Rose]

I can't wait for GIMP to get their poop together. It's been years they have been working on the 16 bit version. The one and only reason I still have a PC machine is to run PS. As soon as I have a linux version that will be 16 bit and has the features I need it will be bye bye Winbloz and PS.

 

[Arctic amateur]

AdobePhotoshop, of course and I believe Photoshop elements as well.

Neither is free and PE isn't 16-bit. It can open 16-bit files, but not edit them.

 

[Richard Boutwell]

I can't wait for GIMP to get their poop together. It's been years they have been working on the 16 bit version. The one and only reason I still have a PC machine is to run PS. As soon as I have a linux version that will be 16 bit and has the features I need it will be bye bye Winbloz and PS.

If this is a widows/linux argument then that is another story—to which I'd say get a used mac pro and be happy working and upgrading it for the next several years.

As for the aptly-named GIMP, what do you expect from a free pieced-together open source project. There is a wonderfully capable piece of software out there that has all the functionality you could dream of for a very affordable price, but people are around for waiting years for the inferior open source stuff because they are supposedto hate Adobe?

If it is about the "renting" the software argument, here is the counter argument.

Photoshop is similar to your your phone service, or netflix, or streaming music in that almost everything is moving to a software-as-a-service business model. It keeps cash flow consistent and allows companies to be able to iterate on products and ship minor releases/updates on a faster schedule, rather than waiting a year or two to get the new big version out (for 60x the price). Plus, the $50/month cost for the entire collection makes it possible for small design studios to keep up with larger ones, and opens up the market to many more people that would have used their whole suite of software if it didn't cost $2000+ (which I imagine cuts down on some pirating also—although some people who steal things will do so no matter the price).

 

[jeffreyg]

It's not free but very reasonably priced with PS compatibility or stand alone and good tech support look into OnOne Perfect Photo Suite. They do have a free trial, many tutorials and monthly free goodies to add to a library of effects. The current version is 16 bit. Mac and Windows.

HOME

 

[Eric Rose]

Naw I don't hate anyone, just like the open source mentality. Plus I am a Scottish Taurus

 

[RalphLambrecht]

If this is a widows/linux argument then that is another story—to which I'd say get a used mac pro and be happy working and upgrading it for the next several years.

As for the aptly-named GIMP, what do you expect from a free pieced-together open source project. There is a wonderfully capable piece of software out there that has all the functionality you could dream of for a very affordable price, but people are around for waiting years for the inferior open source stuff because they are supposedto hate Adobe?

If it is about the "renting" the software argument, here is the counter argument.

Photoshop is similar to your your phone service, or netflix, or streaming music in that almost everything is moving to a software-as-a-service business model. It keeps cash flow consistent and allows companies to be able to iterate on products and ship minor releases/updates on a faster schedule, rather than waiting a year or two to get the new big version out (for 60x the price). Plus, the $50/month cost for the entire collection makes it possible for small design studios to keep up with larger ones, and opens up the market to many more people that would have used their whole suite of software if it didn't cost $2000+ (which I imagine cuts down on some pirating also—although some people who steal things will do so no matter the price).

I hesitantly went for the Adobe rent program a few months ago;never regretted it;Photoshop what else is there that isn't a wastw of my time?

 

[mva196]

I use RawTherapee.

RawTherapee Blog

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Are there any free 16-bit-per-channel photo editors for Windows? Gimp is working on it but not there yet, and Fotoxx is only for Llinux.

Why would anybody work for free,do you?

 

[pschwart]

Actually the answer is "yes." Adobe has made CS2 available as a free download. It has everything you need for editing 16-bit images. Printing is less problematic in PS versions through CS3.

 

[OzJohn]

Actually the answer is "yes." Adobe has made CS2 available as a free download. It has everything you need for editing 16-bit images. Printing is less problematic in PS versions through CS3.

That's an excellent suggestion. I paid the full bucks for PS CS2 years ago but I have since downloaded Illustrator CS2 and InDesign CS2 this way. Strictly speaking you are supposed to have owned the programs once upon a time in order to avail yourself of this largesse but they are all there for downloading on Adobe's web site together with the activation keys. If you do download CS2 make sure you're hooked up to Adobe's website - there are other sharks out there offering the downloads too but while you may get the files you'll probably also get heaps of pop-ups, spam and possibly some real nasties. OzJohn

 

[alanrockwood]

Possibly Krita.

 

[alanrockwood]

The latest development version of GIMP (version 2.9.5) has 16 bit color and also color management. It is, however, considered an unstable release. Supposedly a stable release is coming sometime in 2017, which I assume means sometime in 2018 or 2019. I have played around with version 2.9.5, and so far it seems OK, e.g. no crashes yet. I had to hunt around the web a bit to find the windows executable file for this version.

 

[Lee L]

Yes, there are lots of them now. Many even use 32 bit floating point. There's a good list at

https://pixls.us/software/

Many of the programs listed there are cross platform. And some of the developers of those programs hang out at the discussion part of that site and respond to feature requests and other requests for help.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

This is an old thread obviously, but since it popped up again I would suggest Hasselblad's Phocus software. It is free and kind of like CaptureOne. You'll probably need to convert some raw digital files into a TIF before you start working on them, but from what I recall it will handle any normal images. It is better than Lightroom in some ways too. It is designed to handle film scans and the massive files from Hassy digital cameras. It will blow away any "free" open source type software. Price is right too!

Hope that helps someone.

 

[Sirius Glass]

What about the software that came with the camera?

For scanned film?

 

[Sirius Glass]

I can't wait for GIMP to get their poop together. It's been years they have been working on the 16 bit version. The one and only reason I still have a PC machine is to run PS. As soon as I have a linux version that will be 16 bit and has the features I need it will be bye bye Winbloz and PS.

I have been waiting for is as fast as I can for years. A Mac version would be better. Of course when it becomes available I will have to buy a 16 bit/color scanner. I will probably just continue with my darkroom for years.

 

[spijker]

For scanned film?

This a DIGITAL section of the forum, dude. Why don't you just disable the digital section of Photrio. You obviously don't like digital photography, which is fine, so you have no nothing to contribute here and only make silly (putting it politely) remarks that are completely out of place. Stay in the analog/film section.

 

[Nodda Duma]

I believe ImageJ works in 16-bit.

 

[Oren Grad]

Picture Window Pro 7.0 is now free:

http://dl-c.com/site/products/buy-pwp.php

 

[alanrockwood]

Picture Window Pro 7.0 is now free:

http://dl-c.com/site/products/buy-pwp.php

This is good news. I downloaded an evaluation copy a while back, but it is expired, so I took your advice and downloaded it (again). I uninstalled the version that was on my computer and installed the most recent download, and it seems to work.

By the way, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Picture Window Pro works very differently from PhotoShop.

A program that is quite similar to PhotoShop that is relatively inexpensive (59 Euro) is called PhotoLine. Here is their web page. https://www.pl32.com/. I bought it and have used it quite a bit.

 

[alanrockwood]

I believe ImageJ works in 16-bit.

I played around with ImageJ a few years ago. As I recall, it is mainly oriented toward scientific imaging. I used it very briefly for digitizing some electrophoresis gels.

 

[Sirius Glass]

This a DIGITAL section of the forum, dude. Why don't you just disable the digital section of Photrio. You obviously don't like digital photography, which is fine, so you have no nothing to contribute here and only make silly (putting it politely) remarks that are completely out of place. Stay in the analog/film section.

Just because I am not a digital junkie like you does not mean that I do not work with digital. I started taking digital photographs in 1977, way be most people.