At long last, it’s really happening! Backlight’s release candidate is now with testers who are putting it through its paces for a final round. We have scheduled a tentative release date of Wednesday, May 4th. Update: Backlight is released!

At launch, Backlight and its Pages add-on will be available in the following formats:

Backlight

The core Backlight application and publisher plugin.

Enables the publishing of albums and album sets from Lightroom.

The best option for users wishing to supplement an existing website with Backlight’s gallery functionality (i.e. users who do not need Pages functionality).

$125

Pages

The Pages add-on enables the creation of static pages and contact forms.

Requires Backlight, above; cannot be used on its own.

$25

Backlight + Pages

The core Backlight application, bundled and preconfigured with the Pages add-on.

The best option for users wishing to build their entire website on Backlight.

$135

So the two items will be available for individual purchase ($150 total), or combined and at a 10% discount (for $135). For that price, you’re getting a publishing system more agile than Lightroom’s Web module has ever been, and one that’s poised to grow, rather than withering on the vine, as the Web module has done.

Upgrading from CE3 and CE4

Traditionally, we have offered upgrade discounts only between contiguous versions of our software, such as when upgrading from CE3 to CE4. This time, we are also offering some lesser discounts to CE3 users as an incentive to migrate to our new platform; details below.

In the past, we have also offered free upgrades for very recent purchases. I bought Fujifilm’s X-T1 camera right before they announced the X-Pro2, and I’ve been kicking myself ever since for not waiting just a little bit longer; we know how it feels, and we want to prevent such feelings of buyer’s remorse. That said, Backlight is more expensive than CE4, so we can not offer free upgrades. But for qualifying purchases, you will be able to use your previous purchase as credit against Backlight, so that you need only to pay the difference between the two. We opened a new shop late in January, and that’s our cutoff for “recent purchase” status. So if you purchased CE4 on our current SendOwl store, then qualifying purchases may be used as credit toward purchasing Backlight; if your order is on our older Shopify store (with downloads served by FetchApp), you will be provided with a standard upgrade discount.

Upgrade discounts will be available for owners of the following products:

CE4 Web Publishing Bundle

SendOwl $85 / Shopify $35

Applicable only to the Backlight + Pages bundle.

Available through December 31, 2016.

CE4 Gallery

SendOwl $25 / Shopify $12.5

Applicable either to Backlight, or Backlight + Pages.

Available through December 31, 2016.

See “Other Qualifying Purchases” below.

CE3 Bundles

$25

Applicable only to the Backlight + Pages bundle.

Available through September 30, 2016.

Discount codes have been attached to existing orders as TXT files, and may be downloaded now by accessing your orders. For purchases of CE4 Gallery or the CE4 Web Publishing Bundle on our current, SendOwl shop (Feb. 2016 or newer), click here. Else, for purchases of CE4 Gallery, the CE4 Web Publishing Bundle or one of our CE3 bundles made on our older Shopify store, click here.

Other Qualifying Purchases

If you purchased multiple plugins as individual items, and not in one of our bundles, your purchases qualify for discounts under the following conditions:

• From CE4:
  • You purchased CE4 Gallery as a standalone product.
  • You also have purchased one or both of CE4 Pages and CE4 Publisher.
• From CE3:
  • You purchased CE3 Gallery as a standalone product.
  • You also have purchased one or both of CE3 Pages and CE3 Publisher.

You may request a review of your purchase history here. We will review requests in the order in which they are received, so be patient and please do not submit multiple requests.

Upgrade information based on the following CE4 items will be made available when relevant Backlight products are released:

• CE4 Blog & Galleries Bundle
• CE4 Cart
• CE4 Client Proofing Bundle
• CE4 Client Response Gallery
• CE4 Stage
• CE4 Theme for WordPress