Alternative sharpening software for Pixel Genius Creative Sharpener

I have been using Pixel Genius Creative Sharpener for years and love it dearly. Sometime, hopefully not soon, I will have to upgrade to Mac Catalina, and Creative Sharpener will no longer work. I know much of the “guts” of it has been incorporated in Lightroom and it is possible to get similar effects there, but what I love about Pixel Genius is how simple it is to use. No sliders, or number values to pick, just choose from a list of different sharpening styles, choose the degree of sharpening (1-3 or 1-4), press ok and the sharpening happens and a new layer is created with the sharpening on it. My workflow is then to examine the photos, and if the effect is too much, or not enough, I increase/decrease the level from 1-4, or even simpler if I want to decrease the effect, lower the layer opacity. I have developed my favorite sharpening styles and rarely have to change a pick. So, I am looking for replacement software that is similarly easy to use and set up with similar choices: style and degree, no sliders or number choices, other than degree… Any suggestions? Yes, I can sharpen in Lightroom or Photoshop but I am lazy!

Hi Tony,

Nothing out there that is similar to Pixel Genius. I use the Nik Sharpener pro and it works very well for me. DXO has released this package after Nik closed up shop and they have Mac versions available. Tony Kuyper has methods for sharpening for printing using luminosity masks and Sharpener Pro too. Hopefully, a company will purchase and provide updates for Pixel Genius. I tried some of the Topaz products for sharpening and found that they produced results lower in quality than the Nik products…Jim

Thanks for the info!

Although Photoshop can give you some customized results with smart sharpen and unsharp mask filters used on layers with opacity sliders and masks to tweak the results other plug ins or programs may be more to your liking. I was underwhelmed by the first Topaz sharpening program but their current Sharpen Ai can produce some incredible results. I too use NIK at times. Currently for images beyond LR, especially higher iso Fuji images, I use Capture One 20 for my initial Noise Reduction and Sharpening, then back to LR. Then if I am having some problems, I will use Sharpen Ai.