Making Plug-ins, how hard is it?

Phineus · Post by **Phineus** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 4:37 pm

I have a task that would be much simpler if a plugin existed for it. Trouble is, it's not a common application and so it's unlikely anybody will ever make a plugin for it... and I can't really afford to pay somebody to make it. So, the question becomes how can I make a plugin? Is it hard to learn, how time consuming would it be (especially since this is probably the only plugin I'd ever make), and where is a good starting point.

For the sake of the idea, this would need to
- determine the image dimensions, and if they are a certain size..
- add borders
- then slice up the image into tiles and move them to specific locations on the larger canvas
- then duplicate parts of the image to fill the remaining blank spaces

I have no doubt it's a complex set of instructions, but I've seen a lot of this done already as parts of other plugins but not in ways usable to this configuration.

Any insights?

Thanks.

Post by **HaraldHeim** » Wed Dec 24, 2003 12:44 am

First of all, please test if your idea can't be implemented with the help of an Action (in Photoshop) or a script (in PaintShopPro). Actions can't be programmed that flexible while PSP Scripts can be made flexible with the Phyton programming language. A similar approach is to use the Scripting plugin of Photoshop and to use e.g. Visual Basic to perform these tasks in Photoshop.

Your plugin idea requires to enlarge the image, so you can't use a filter plugin, unless you use the combination of an action or script for enlarging the image and two filter plugins for performing the tasks before and after the enlarging. For creating filter plugins, you can have a look FilterMeister (www.filtermeister.com) which is easier to use than the Photoshop SDK.

If you use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you could also write an automation plugin to perform these tasks. In this case you need C programming knowledge and the Photoshop SDK which costs $195, unless you have the Photoshop 4,5 or 6 CD which contains an older version of it.

Phineus · Post by **Phineus** » Sat Dec 27, 2003 5:08 pm

Thanks for the reply. You've given a lot of information I didn't have before, and so a lot of direction. The automation plugin sounds like the ticket. I have photoshop 5 on disk so I'll have a look-see. Again, this is a great start. Thanks.