Plugin Newsletter - February 2001
Contents ========
EDITORIAL PLUGIN COMMANDER 1.52 RELEASED HTML SHRINKER 2.0 RELEASED NEW IMAGES IN THE VISITOR GALLERY FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS GRAPHICS NEWS Dear subscribers,
This issue comes with a week delay, because I have been busy with a lot of other things. But to compensate it, I have released new versions of two of my software products in the meantime. Additionally 19 images created by different people have been added to the Visitor Gallery. As usual you will find information about free plugins and tool as well as the latest graphics news. See below for more details. I hope this newsletter contains something useful for you. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Yours sincerely, Harald Heim
http://thepluginsite.com PLUGIN COMMANDER 1.52 RELEASED
Version 1.52 of Plugin Commander (for Windows) has been released. Although the version number may not suggest it, it features some major enhancements for users of Paint Shop Pro. These new features make it most easy to manage and maintain your collection of different PSP materials. Plugin Commander 1.52 now supports 10 different PSP file types including PSP tubes, PSP 6 patterns, PSP 6 textures, PSP 7 shapes, PSP 7 textures/patterns, PSP brushes, PSP frames, PSP gradients, PSP images, PSP masks and PSP styled lines. They are displayed in Plugin View, can be disabled or enabled and the Pro Edition of Plugin Commander even allows you to view most of them in the Preview window. PSP textures, patterns and masks are moreover displayed in the Picture Editor and Browser. Best of all, the new FX Download dialog lets you search for specific PSP tubes (among over 1000 tubes) and directly connect to the internet for downloading them. Additionally two major restrictions of the free Light Edition of Plugin Commander were removed. You can now open JPG files with it and the Plugin View displays plugins and other effects from all sub folders instead of only the top folder. http://thepluginsite.com/products/picopro/ HTML SHRINKER 2.0 RELEASED
Version 2.0 of HTML Shrinker (for Windows) was released a few weeks ago. If you still use Version 1.07, it is highly recommended to get the much improved new version. Version 2.0 consists of a free Light Version and a commercial Pro Version. In addition to a larger main dialog, both versions include improved shrinking of JavaScript code as well as fixes for several shrinking problems and other bugs. There's a new Backup dialog, new Overwrite dialog, new 'Show Source' command and the ESC key can now be used to interrupt the shrinking process. The Pro Version achieves an up to 50% higher shrinking rate and works almost double as fast when shrinking a large amount of files. It supports WML (wap), WMLS (wap script) and PL (perl) files and offers an improved shrinking of ASP and XML files. HTML Shrinker Pro makes it possible to recursively shrink all sub folder as well as the clipboard and to simulate the shrinking of files. Additionally options for creating backups or saving shrunken files in special folders are offered. There are also command line options available and you can use HTML Shrinker Pro directly from the Windows Explorer. http://htmlshrinker.com/ NEW IMAGES IN THE VISITOR GALLERY
18 new images and a gif animation have been added to the Visitor Gallery at The Plugin Site. The artists are Torsten Haberland, Roberlan Borges, James Bilderback, Brett East, Michael Cavallo, Bill Haddick, Andre Salters, Francesco Manfredi and Amelia Bohr. Don't miss these impressive images! http://ThePluginSite.com/gallery/visitors/ FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
Version 0.4.19 of Filter Meister (for Windows), a sophisticated filter plugin development tool, is now available. The latest version offers open/save dialogs, an enhanced source editor, support for Fireworks as well as new functions and variables. Beside the filter development plugin itself there are some interesting Photoshop-compatible plugins included that were created with Filter Meister. Filter Meister is free to use, but if you want to compile your own plugin, you have to register it for $25 (later $50). http://www.filtermeister.com/ Get the Kewlpack Professional Action Pack containing over 60 Photoshop Actions for free. These actions were previously partly sold commercially. They were created with Adobe Photoshop 5 for Windows, but should work with Version 6 and with a few tricks on the Macintosh, too.
http://www.kewlpack.com/ Lattice Composer (for Windows) from Mr. Redfield is free Photoshop-compatible plugin for designing grids and nettings. You can produce great variety of weave patterns, fabric textures, body art tattoos and skeleton simulations. Lattice Composer replaces the old Mesh 3D filter. http://redfield.webzone.ru/ Teph's Tricks by Lynn A. Davis is a collection of 15 simple filter plugins created with Filter Factory. The SLIDE X/Y and OFFSET WRAP filters wrap an image vertically and/or horizontally. The 12 other filters of this collection produce transparency effects according to certain image parameters. To use these plugins on the Macintosh you need FF Decompiler (http://studwww.rug.ac.be/%7Etdgroote/p2i/FFDecomp/index.html) and the Filter Factory plugin from the Photoshop CD. While visiting this appealing site you can also have a look at the backgrounds, Blade Pro presets, PSP tutorials, tubes and vector shapes that are featured there.
http://www.sector13.org/~tephra/graphics/ AIST MovieXone 1.03 (for Windows) is a free video production software including tools for editing, animation and audio so that you can produce more than silent movies and a titler. Suitable transitions and impressive effects are also included. The live preview in realtime allows you to experiment, as all changes to your clips are shown immediately. MovieXone is available in German, English, French, Spanish and Italian.
http://www.aist.com/products/moviexone/moviexone.html Have a look at this interesting tutorial, if you are used to Filter Factory plugins and use a Macintosh computer. It is called "Customizing Your Filter Factory Interface - Using ResEdit to give your own Photoshop filters a personal touch".
http://www.digitalmediadesigner.com/cgi-bin/getframeletter.cgi?/2001/02_feb/tutorials/ffinterface/ffinterface-page1.htm GRAPHICS NEWS Jasc recently updated Paint Shop Pro to version 7.02. Grab the update patch, a 10 MB download, from http://www.jasc.com/patches.asp? Version 2.1 of Achroma (for Windows) is now available. Achroma is a software component that allows programmers to support graphics plug-ins within their applications. This means you don't need to create your own effects and file exports - you can just add Achroma and let your clients add whatever plug-ins they want. Achroma is for example already used in Plugin Commander Pro. Find out more about it at
http://www.websupergoo.com/ On March 17th 2001 two Filter Frenzy online classes will start at LVS. The Filter Frenzy I course is held a second time now and teaches the usage of major plugin products as well as working with Plugin Commander Light. The new Filter Frenzy II class, subtitled Adventure Underway, will last six week and builds on Filter Frenzy I. It will cover Plugin Commander Pro, Plugin Galaxy, a week each for Kai's Power Tools 3, 5 and 6, and a freeware week. Participants of both courses will get resources and tips for each filter, as well as projects to complete. Prepare yourself for a very busy message board and study group when joining these highly recommended classes! For just $15 you will be able to go aboard.
http://lvsonline.com/ Pinoy7 has started its February PSP challenge, titled "Picture Your Dream--Wallpaper Challenge!". The deadline for sending in your creations is March 1st. Besides Plugin Galaxy, you can also win prizes from Jasc, AlienSkin and Muska & Lipman.
http://www.pinoy7.com/pixelarena/default.cfm
Panopticum Engraver for Windows is a Photoshop-compatible plugin for stylizing your image as black-and-white or colored print and for doing alpha channel image cutting with various geometric patterns. Engraver gives you wide variety of strokes for cutting such as lines, waves, circles, spirals and dots as well as different color schemes.
http://www.panopticum.com/plugins/photoshop/engraver/engraverpsd.html Segmentis have developed a simplifier tool called buZZ.Professional for Win and Mac. It contains 13 filters overall, including a simplifier tool which allows the removal of details without loss of focus. The filters are coupled with the "Stack" which allows different combinations of effects.
http://www.segmentis.com/ Adobe announced Photoshop Elements, an image application which was designed especially for amateur photographers, hobbyists, and business users who want an easy-to-use, yet powerful digital imaging solution. Image tools make you free to explore your creativity while mastering the elements of digital imaging. Image-capture options let you work with photos taken with digital or traditional cameras, and delivery features enable you to prepare images for print, e-mail, or posting on the Web.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopel/main.html Back to the News Page
|