Alternative to Elements 12

[richard_9138]

Hello everyone, my first time here and not sure if it's the right forum for my question but here goes.......

Like many others, I've been forced to buy a new computer so that I can run W11. Previously I used W10 and had Elements 12 installed and doing everything that I needed it to do without a problem. Naturally, I tried to download it onto my new machine and, inevitably it seems, crashed the entire thing.

Having sorted that particular problem I'm now wondering what is the best alternative from the current PS offering and I see that Elements 2022 through 2024 are W11 compatible. I'm hoping that one or all of these, particularly 2024, will be a version that does everything that Elements 12 could do and maybe a few more things. Apart from doing all the usual things to manipulate my DSLR pictures, of particular importance to me is the ability to read the RGB colours of a particular part of the image. The Hue, saturation and Brightness values are also of importance. AAs you'll all know, this is easy in E12 using the pick tool to select an area of interest and then bringing up the window with the various colour values.

I would be extreemely grateful for any recommendations or points towards analternative PS.

[Greg_S.]

Elements 2025 was just released, and it is the only version that is available for purchase on the Adobe website.  However, it is important to note that there has been a major change in the licensing.  Whereas, earlier versions of Elements have a permanent license that will work as long as your hardware supports it, the latest version has a 3-year term license.   This means that the program will no longer work after 3 years from installation.  (The Organizer will continue to work permanently.)

It is still possible to buy Elements 2024 from third party retailers.  But you need to be careful about what license you purchase.  It recently came to my attention that back in 2014, BestBuy was selling a version of Elements that had a 10 year term license.  So some users were surprised to learn that their program no longer worked in 2024.  Without reading the fine print, it is impossible to know what you may be buying.

Now, any recent version of Elements should work just fine on Windows 11.  And in fact I have been able to install working copies of Versions 4, 6, and 10 through Elements 2025 on my Windows 11 machine.  (The earlier versions were installed in Compatibility mode, if you are interested in pursuing Elements 12 on your new machine.)

There have been vast improvements and addtions to the editing capabilities of the Elements Editor over the years.  Here is a comparison chart of recent versions.   So, you should see all of the features that you have used in version 12 in current versions.  In particular, Elements 2025 has a a new and easy feature to change the color of any object, using RGB references in the color picker to make the change. 

This link will allow you to download a 7-day free trial of Elements 2025 so you can judge for yourself.

This link should allow you to download a copy of Elements 2024 and allow you to use it for a 30 day free trial.  However, as mentioned above, you will not be able to buy it directly from Adobe.  You will have to do that from a third party.

[richard_9138]

Thank you very much for that, it helps a great deal. Just for my clarification, are yousaying that E12 could be loaded on my new machine in Compatibility mode? Would doing so result in any loss of functionality?

Many thanks

[Peru Bob]

of particular importance to me is the ability to read the RGB colours of a particular part of the image. The Hue, saturation and Brightness values are also of importance.

By @richard_9138

I use the portable version of the free Pixie Color Picker.
This is what you get when you hover the mouse over an image.

It  is a simple exe file that doesn't require installation.

You can download it from here:

http://www.nattyware.com/pixie.php 

[richard_9138]

Thank you so much for yoour reply, it opens up another possibility for me.

[Greg_S.]

Yes, I have Elements 12 running on my Win 11 machine in Compatibility Mode.

But since Elements 12 was the last version, I believe, to run in 32-bit mode I strongly recommend that you upgrade to a more recent version.