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Hi.

I downloaded PhotoFreebies 32bit Windows Version 2.0. I copied the 8bf files to the correct folders in Photoshop CS3 and IrfanView 4.20 but both application crash (with Photoshop giving an error message about a bad filter/bad image ... and IrfanView a runtime error (I think it was a Visual Basic error) ...

Any information about this ? I'd be chiefly thankful ...
regards.

What operating system do you use?

XP. Thank you for looking into this.

If you did not install the 64bit version instead of the 32bit one, then maybe the downloaded installation file was corrupted and you need to download again.

thanks for getting back to me.
No, I made sure that I did use the 32bit version, not 64bit.
And the download link was certainly not corrupted, the executable ran without any problems.

I downloaded the file from this location: www.graphicsgalaxy.com/products/

And the md5 checksum of the downloaded file on my harddisk is: 3b1774bdf2be3477dd0cc95de9d197d5

Well, I can only tell you that PhotoFreebies work fine here under XP in Photoshop CS3 and Irfanview. Something must have gone wrong on your system.

OK, sorry, my bad ... I extracted the 8bf files directly from the installer without executing it. I never had any problems with my extractor, but this time I realized that some bytes were different from files extractred during execution of the .exe installer. Must have to do with the way the .exe file was created.

Anyway, the plugins DO work now. Thanks for helping me.

I'm just about to look into them,
but only a quick remark right away (in case you are the plugin coder): The RemoveTransparency plugin does not only set the opacity for all pixels to 100%, but it also ADDS pixels (by filling all pixels with 0% opacity with the currently selected background color). It should NOT do the latter, because:

1) Users who need this can do it manually in 2 seconds : create new solid color layer beneath the working layer and merge both layers

2) users who don't want to add new pixels (which is certainly by far more common), have the difficult task ahead to somehow delete the pixels, the plugin added ... certainly not as easy a task as in 1)

So the bottom line is, in my opinion no pixels should be added, or the plugin should be split in two ("remove transparency" and "remove transparency and fill with BG color") ... or otherwise provide options to choose between these two modes ...

PS: Is there a way to remove the leading space before " Photo Wiz", which prevents the correct alphabetical sorting in the Photoshop "filter" menu ... ?

Actually Photoshop itself adds the new color values for 100% transparent pixels...

To remove the space, you need to edit all .8bf files in a hex editor or use Plugin Commander Pro.

HaraldHeim wrote:Actually Photoshop itself adds the new color values for 100% transparent pixels...

well, this is certainly true, but the idea was just to act on:
pixels>0% opacity

... and this can be handled via the plugin.

To remove the space, you need to edit all .8bf files in a hex editor or use Plugin Commander Pro.

thanks for your valuable suggestions. I thought about hexing them, too ... but Plugin Commander Pro seems to be quite useful, too, thanks for that!

And I looked into the other PhotoFreebies plugins as well, they are excellent. Good work!
I'm looking forward to purchasing some other of your products, they seem promising.


Just FYI, in case it's helpful:

1) the link (you edited above) seems to be down:
http://www.graphicsgalaxy.com/products/

2) There is an Adobe plugin (Hsbhsl.8bf) on the Photoshop CD, which converts RGB->HSL. I realized that the results are not 100% identical. I didn't verify saturation and luminance, but as far as hue is concerned, I found a lot of red pixels in my test image, which were displayed black (0) in the red channel (i.e. "hue channel") by your plugin and white (255) by the Adobe plugin (or vice versa, I don't remember). Notice, that I'm talking about the exact same pixels. Of course 255 continues through to zero, so the difference is only 1, but the image is completely different (as black and white are so different obviously). I guess it's a matter of rounding ...

kind regards

boarders paradise wrote:well, this is certainly true, but the idea was just to act on:
pixels>0% opacity

Nice idea for an update.

2) There is an Adobe plugin (Hsbhsl.8bf) on the Photoshop CD, which converts RGB->HSL. I realized that the results are not 100% identical. I didn't verify saturation and luminance, but as far as hue is concerned, I found a lot of red pixels in my test image, which were displayed black (0) in the red channel (i.e. "hue channel") by your plugin and white (255) by the Adobe plugin (or vice versa, I don't remember)...

Yes, there are probably small differences. But if you use the same product for converting HSL back to RGB, then you are on the safe side.

HaraldHeim wrote:

boarders paradise wrote:well, this is certainly true, but the idea was just to act on:
pixels>0% opacity

Nice idea for an update.

wow, that would be dearly appreciated !

Yes, there are probably small differences.

OK, I just thought I'd let you know.

But if you use the same product for converting HSL back to RGB, then you are on the safe side.

Good remark. I just tried that on a rainbow (spectrum) gradient. In 8 bit mode there are considerable distortions visible after converting back to RGB, but in 16bit they go nearly unnoticed. But that's the bit depth limitation, nothing to do with your plugin of course.

Anyway,
thanks so much for looking into this issue initially and I hope I had useful information for you too. cheers