There is a main menu at the top of the interface, but most of what’s here can be more easily accessed from the panels on the right. The main editing interface follows the standard we’ve become used to from most editing software available, with the toolbar on the left, an image window in the centre and the Layers, histogram and history etc. The raw editing window is composed of a main image window with all the controls on the righthand side and sliders presented in bright blue against dark grey that makes them easy to see. (Image credit: James Abbott)Įase of use is at the heart of beginner to intermediate editing software, and Gemstone 12 certainly follows this path with an intuitive and simply presented interface. Results are mixed, and in some cases the software selects the subject or background well to provide a reasonable result, while in others it can’t even identify a prominent subject against a fairly plain background.

These include Remove Background, Select Subject, Blur Background and Black and White Background. What sets Gemstone 12 apart from Adobe and Affinity software is the inclusion of Quick Actions, which provide automated AI-powered tasks that essentially select the subject or background in different ways. Overall, the editing features on offer allow you do almost anything to images, with the range of features sitting somewhere between the full version of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements There are more Adjustment Layers available than even in Photoshop and Affinity Photo, which ultimately makes finding specific adjustments easier than trawling through cavernous menus.

The image editing workspace has a focus around the use of Layers, which is great because this makes non-destructive editing an integral part of the software. These can work well, but they can also fail badly.

Acdsee photo studio version differences