DxO – Nik Collection 2026 v9.1.2 for Windows

• U Point™ Local Adjustment Engine: Place targeted Control Points and Control Lines to selectively tweak luminance, contrast, and color without building tedious manual alpha masks.
• AI-Driven Masking in Nik 9: Built-in AI object and subject recognition, plus an AI Depth Mask engine that creates camera-distance depth maps for atmospheric separation.
• Dedicated High Dynamic Range (HDR) Tone Mapping: Merge exposure brackets or extract dynamic range from single raw files with realistic or artistic tone-mapping presets.
• High-Fidelity RAW & TIFF Support: Native non-destructive RAW development and 16-bit TIFF image pipeline integration.
• Three-Way Color Grading Wheel: Master shadow, midtone, and highlight chromatic balances simultaneously with dynamic tonal range shift sliders.
• Instant Hover Preset Preview: Hover over any factory or custom preset to preview visual changes on your canvas in real time.

• Nik Analog Efex:
  Recreates vintage cameras, classic wet-plate photography, classic film stock grain, light leaks, lens vignettes, and retro bokeh flaws with fully adjustable processing chains.

• Nik Color Efex:
  A vast creative toolbox containing over 80 filters and more than 200 tonal presets for advanced color grading, contrast extraction, landscape polarization, and portrait skin smoothing.

• Nik Dfine:
  Wavelet-based noise reduction calibrated to camera sensor noise profiles; isolates and eliminates high-ISO chrominance and luminance noise automatically or with selective control.

• Nik HDR Efex:
  High-dynamic-range photo merging and single-exposure tone-mapping processor that balances highlight details and deep shadow recovery.

• Nik Pre Sharpener:
  Early-stage input sharpening engine designed to counter soft optical captures and sensor anti-aliasing filter blur prior to creative adjustments.

• Nik Sharpener Output:
  Final-stage sharpening engine calibrated specifically for final destination media, calculating target resolution, viewing distance, paper type (matte/glossy), and physical print processes.

• Nik Silver Efex:
  The definitive digital black-and-white darkroom module, offering authentic silver halide grain models, color filter simulations, dynamic range mapping, and selective zone-system exposure controls.

• Nik Viveza:
  Color and light balancing module powered by U Point technology for changing saturation, warmth, hue, and shadows across local sections of a composition without multi-layer masking.

Version 9.1.2 Updates:

• Resolved a Windows launch bug where individual Nik modules could hang or freeze on the application splash screen.
• Enhanced stability and rendering performance across the latest NVIDIA GeForce / Studio display drivers.
• Fixed GPU-accelerated canvas stutter and rendering glitches.
• General performance enhancements and bug fixes.

Version 9.0.0 Major Features:

• Native AI Masking: Object and subject isolation without manual lasso tools or Photoshop layer dependency.
• AI Depth Map Masking: Automatically generates depth z-buffers to grade backgrounds and foregrounds independently.
• Non-Destructive Local Layers: Masks can be saved, duplicated, and copied across different Nik filters.
• 3 New Creative Filters:
  • Chromatic Shift: Emulates offset ink misregistration from vintage print presses.
  • Glass Effect: Simulates looking through textured, fluted, or stained architectural glass.
  • Galia: Recreates natural film halation and luminous edge glow.
• 18 Photoshop-Style Blend Modes added directly inside Nik Color Efex and Analog Efex.
• Unified Color Grading Panel: Three-point color wheel system with global shadow-to-highlight balance sliders.

Installation Steps:

1. Close Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and all image viewing tools before starting.
2. Run Nik_Collection_9_byDxO.exe as Administrator (Right-click -> Run as administrator).
3. Complete the setup wizard, selecting your host application integrations and target directory.
4. Do not launch any Nik Collection module or host application after setup finishes.
5. Run DxO Nik Collection 9.1.2.1 Activation.exe as Administrator and apply the patch.
6. Launch Nik Collection in Standalone mode or through Filter -> Nik Collection in Adobe Photoshop.

To prevent configuration conflicts or startup errors from older installations, delete the following directories and registry keys before installing:

Directories to Remove:

• C:\Program Files\DxO
• C:\ProgramData\DxO
• C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\DxO
• C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Nik Collection 9 Palette
• C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\DxO

Registry Entries to Delete:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Nik Collection 9
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\DxO
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\DxO