Plugin Newsletter - April 2001 - 1

Contents
========

EDITORIAL
EASTER SPECIALS
SITE UPDATES: HTML SHRINKER 2.01b, VISITOR GALLERY

POLL RESULTS: Your favorite vector graphics application
NEW POLL: Your favorite tool in your image editing application

FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
GRAPHICS NEWS

PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE
THE PLUGIN SITE MAP

Dear Reader,

This issue comes just two weeks after the last one. So there will be two
April issues of the Plugin Newsletter. They will be a bit slimmer than
the previous monthly issues, but therefore you'll get the news a bit
earlier.

Unfortunately there was a big problem with our web hosting provider who
suffered on a major crash in their data center. That's why
thepluginsite.com was (partially) unavailable for a few days last week.
Luckily the problems have been solved now and the web site is running
properly again.
If you still have a problem e.g. with getting a message about the
crash, please delete the cache of your browser completely to access the
Plugin Site again. You will find the appropriate option under Internet
Options (IE) or Preferences (Netscape).

Hopefully this is not applicable to you, but please notice that there's
a new unsubscribe system for this newsletter. You don't have to guess
the email address you are subscribed with anymore. There's a link
inserted at the bottom which lets you initiate the unsubscription
procedure instantly.

Wishing you all the best and a Happy Easter,
Harald Heim

P.S: If you know a good and free vector graphics application for
Windows, please email the URL to me, so I can present it here.

The Plugin Site - Your guide to image and video effects
http://thepluginsite.com/

EASTER SPECIALS
------------------------------------------------

With the Easter holidays to come The Plugin Site is offering some
extraordinary favorable prices for Edge & Frame Galaxy CD (Win/Mac) and
Plugin Galaxy (Win). Both can be ordered for $39.95 instead of $49.95
which is a 20% discount. These prices are only valid until the 15th
April 2001.

The Edge & Frame Galaxy CD-ROM is a creative collection of more than
1600 edges and colored frames in more than 120 distinct categories. You
can use the supplied edges and frames to give your photos a personal
touch, but you can also use them as backgrounds for titles and credits,
to design greeting cards, CD booklets and labels and last, but not least
to create unique shaped buttons, animations and special video effects.

Plugin Galaxy is a collection of 20 graphics plugins containing over 120
different image effects. The product offers frequently needed functions
like transparency manipulation, blurring, texture and pattern
generation, noise creation, mirroring and warping. It also includes
amazing metal, chrome, neon, pop art, glass, rainbow, sunshine and star
effects. Additionally you can enhance, colorize, add edges to your
photos or even encrypt them. Last but not least, there are some effects
that can be rarely found like feedbacks, grids and zooming.

Two other offers that are constantly on a low price (20% savings) are
our CD Bundle offers (for Windows). The Plugin Galaxy/Plugin Commander
Pro CD Bundle and the Plugin Galaxy/Ultimate Paint CD Bundle.

For more details please visit
http://thepluginsite.com/products/

SITE UPDATES: HTML SHRINKER 2.01c, VISITOR GALLERY
------------------------------------------------

HTML Shrinker 2.01c was released. As the version number proposes, it is
just a small update. A window resizing problem was fixed and file
processing problems (e.g. if the html syntax isn't correct) don't lead
to a crash anymore. Also a bug in previous 2.01 versions converted
shrunken file names to lower case. This has been fixed now. Additionally
support for XHTML files was added to the Pro Version of HTML Shrinker.
Registered users will get an extra email with the download details.
http://htmlshrinker.com/

The Visitor Gallery was updated again... Some really good images were
contributed by Simon Chmura, Liam McLaren, Ann Green, D'Nero Armani,
Duncan Crozier, Mario Carini and "Pete".
http://thepluginsite.com/gallery/visitors/

POLL RESULTS: Your favorite vector graphics application
------------------------------------------------

175 people contributed to the result of the last Plugin Site poll about
vector applications. Here are the results:

1. CorelDRAW! (52) 30 %
2. Adobe Illustrator (47) 27 %
3. Other (e.g. bitmap applications with vector capabilities) (36) 20 %
4. Macromedia Freehand (19) 10 %
5. Xara X/Corel Xara (12) 7 %
6. Serif DrawPlus (4) 2%

Some interesting comments were placed on the message board of the poll.
Most of them in favor of CorelDraw:

- "I have tried a most all from the list Illustrator, Freehand, Canvas,
Xara, and more But none were good in comparison with COREL DRAW."
- "CorelDraw is the best vector graphic application I have used since,
Illustrator had only one page at a time, Freehand is messy to use,
specially with its gradient tools and so is Illustrator."
- "For my money, CorelDraw is just more user-friendly ... Illustrator is
a fine program. But in a production environment, it can't compare to
Draw."
- "... struggling on a steep learning curve? Give XaraX a shot and look
forward to a pleasant surprise."

Previous poll results can be viewed at
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/

NEW POLL: Your favorite tool in your image editing application
------------------------------------------------

Our next poll is about your favorite tool in your image editing
application. What is meant by tool is one of those things that can be
activated by clicking on a tool bar and which let you do some image
manipulations by working with the mouse on the image, such as the zoom
tool, brush tool or selection tool. This poll was kept as
application-independent as possible, but if your favorite tool is named
differently, please select the best matching choice. And again you can
comment your choice on the appended message board.

Please cast your vote at http://thepluginsite.com/

FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
------------------------------------------------

The CorelDraw 8 Limited Edition is available for free for Macintosh
(Unfortunately not for Windows, probably because Adobe Illustrator is
quite dominant on the Mac, while CorelDraw is already quite popular
under Windows). This offer is rather old, but nevertheless attractive if
you dare to download 53 MB.

http://www.corel.com/draw8mac_le/

Serif offers WebPlus 1 (for Windows) as a free and fully functional
download. WebPlus 1 is a web publishing software with professionally
designed templates, animated GIF wizards, Web wizards for instant Web
sites, animated marquee wizard, logo/graphic module, FTP upload and many
more features.

http://www.serif.com/webplus1/index.asp

AMA's Plugins for Adobe Premiere 5 & 6 (Windows only) consists of six
nice free video filters (called After Image, Border, Brilliance,
FrameDifference, Mosaic, Segmentation) and five Shareware video filters
(called Blur, IndexColor, Jolt, Ripple, Scramble, Tracking).
Additionally there's a free transition plugin called MeshDissolve.
ATTENTION: This is Japanese software, but it should be usable with a bit
of experimenting. Secondly, don't let yourself be confused by the
Japanese web site, it has a good language-free navigation. Thirdly, the
plugins are only available as LZH archived files. You need a tool that
can extract LZH archives e.g. Windows Commander
(http://www.ghisler.com/).
If these comments didn't turn you off, here's the URL:

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA017787/

Another plugin for Adobe Premiere 5 & 6 is Ogata's TextEdge Plugin
(Macintosh only). You guessed it. Another Japanese plugin! The Download
link is available at the bottom of the following page:

http://www.macdtv.com/formtomail/PremPlug.html

GRAPHICS NEWS
------------------------------------------------

Not many news this time, just that LVS opened registration for
their May 19th, 2001 semester. Besides classes for Painter 6, PSP 6/7,
Fireworks 4, Photoshop 5 and many other applications the two Filter
Frenzy courses are offered again. The Filter Frenzy classes teach
working with Plugin Commander and Plugin Galaxy and many other plugin
products.

If you missed the opportunity last time, you will have another chance
now. For new students it costs $20 per course, returning student only
pay $12. All classes include full documentation and last for 6 weeks.

Full descriptions can be found here:
http://lvsonline.com/courses.html

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