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Plugin Newsletter - August 2005





Contents
========

EDITORIAL


PLUGIN COMMANDER 1.60 RELEASED

PLUG-TALK: Interview and Give-Away with Jeff Butterworth from Alienskin, FilterMeister Give-Away Winners

DIGITAL PHOTO EFFECTS: Polarizer Plugins Reviewed, Photo-Plugins Tutorials


POLL RESULTS: Commercial Photo Effects Plugins

NEW POLL: Selective Brightness Tools

THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: PSP9 Mouse Problem, Photoshop Mac Upgrade, Pattern Fill, Heart Shape, Old Documents, CD/DVD Labels


FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Xero Nostalgia, PTLens 6.1, Photoshop Album 3 SE, Opanda PhotoFilter, Easy Picture2Icon

GRAPHICS NEWS: Cybia Alienator, Extensis Plugins Sold, TIF ConvertToBW, Painter 9.1, Adobe Bridge 1.02, Fluid Mask, Quasar

PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE

ABOUT THE PLUGIN SITE

 

 

Dear Reader,

There have been some commercial plugin releases lately, but not many freeware plugins became available. Seems that summer holidays are taking their toll. Anyway, I interviewed Jeff from Alienskin, which turned out to be the funniest and maybe the most interesting contribution to the Plug-Talk series so far.

A long awaited update of Plugin Commander was just released. Some technical problems and our concentration on the PhotoWiz products delayed this update. So now I am happy that Plugin Commander is again up-to-date with the latest graphics applications and add-on types. There will certainly be more releases of Plugin Commander in future as well as updates of our other pre-PhotoWiz products.

We are also preparing for a major redesign of The Plugin Site web site to make it more attractive and visually up-to-date. Additionally we will add new things to it to make it a even more useful resource for plugin users. I'm sure you will like it.


Wishing you a nice summer time,
Harald Heim

http://www.thepluginsite.com

 

 


PLUGIN COMMANDER 1.60 RELEASED
------------------------------------------------
Plugin Commander has just been updated to Version 1.60. Plugin Commander is a tool for dealing with various image formats, plugins and effect types from various graphics applications. It allows you to manage and preview your plugin, tube and add-on collection quickly and easily. There is a commercial Pro Edition as well as a feature-limited Light Edition of Plugin Commander, which is freeware.

Version 1.60 now supports plugin types with more than three file extension letters and the latest Paint Shop Pro file types. The Picture Editor has been improved with new "Revert", "Use as Preview Image" and "Zoom" features. In addition to many bug fixes there have been some cosmetic changes regarding menu icons and the dialog gradient bars. Step by step instructions have been added to the help files and first-time users are now prompted for a plugin folder.

The Pro Edition of Plugin Commander now displays PSP tubes, PSP frames and PSP images in the browser and preview window and lets you open them in Picture Editor by double clicking them. You don't need to have Paint Shop Pro installed anymore to view these PSP files. In Plugin View the Photoshop Mode check box now simulates the Filter menu structure of Photoshop 6, 7, CS and CS2. Registered users of Plugin Commander Pro will receive Version 1.60 as a free update by email within the next 24 hours. If your email address has changed in the meantime, please contact us and mention your old as well as new email address.

For more information and for downloading the free Plugin Commander Light please go to

http://thepluginsite.com/products/picopro/

 

 

PLUG-TALK
------------------------------------------------
This month I interviewed Jeff Butterworth from Alienskin Software. He tells us how he got started with Alienskin, what his favorite plugins are and how he sees the future of Alienskin and Photoshop plugins in general. You may also win a copy of Eye Candy 5: Impact by answering a question on the interview page.

http://thepluginsite.com/reviews/plug-talk/JeffButterworth.htm


We also have three winners in the FilterMeister Give-Away: Barry Gregg, Donald P. and Tndemayo. The answer to the question "Which decorative and mythological creatures are Alex's favorites?" was garden gnomes. Luckily only 5% of all participants had it wrong. Someone thought it were minotaurs.

http://thepluginsite.com/reviews/plug-talk/AlexHunter.htm


For more interviews see
http://thepluginsite.com/reviews/

 

 

DIGITAL PHOTO EFFECTS
------------------------------------------------
Issue 28 of the Digital Photo Effects magazine contains a total of 32 Photoshop projects. For example it shows you how to take great flower photos, add interesting effects to them afterwards in Photoshop, conjure warm skies in dull landscapes, create a soft-focus portrait and how to remove UV haze from summer landscape snaps. Furthermore, you will learn how to compose an underwater scene, create vector illustrations from your photos and fashion your own Dali masterpiece from your photos. On the cover disk you will find two hours of video guides, more than 60 free pictures and the full version of NetObjects Fusion 7.3.

The Essential Plugins column reviews three plugins for simulating polarization plugins and the Plugin Guide offers three tutorials for creating nice photo effects with the free Photo-Plugins. As usual you will also find other software and digital camera reviews.

http://www.dcmag.co.uk/news/article/mps/UAN/655/

 

 

POLL RESULTS
------------------------------------------------
Here are the results of the 181 votes of the poll with the question "Which of these commercial photo effects plugins do you like best?":

1. Other (61) 33.70%

2. Auto FX Mystical Tint Tone and Color (33) 18.23%
3. nik Color Efex (25) 13.81%
4. Andromeda Photography Filters (21) 11.60%
5. ChromaSoftware Photographic Filters (13) 7.18%

6. PowerRetouche (8) 4.42%
7. The Imaging Factory (8) 4.42%
8. PixelGenius PhotoKit (6) 3.31%
9. DFT 55mm (3) 1.66%
10. DFT Digital Photo Lab (3) 1.66%

The results are quite interesting. The AutoFX and Andromeda plugins unexpectedly received a high ranking and DFT plugins were rated surprisingly low. The Other item also indicated that there are a lot more plugins that are used for photo effects.

For more poll results, please visit the Know-How section at
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/

 

 

NEW POLL
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This months poll asks "Which is your favorite tool for selective brightness corrections?" and gives you 15 choices plus an "Other" option.

Please vote at the bottom of the page at
http://thepluginsite.com/

 

 

THE DISCUSSION FORUMS
------------------------------------------------
Here are the latest interesting posts from The Plugin Site Forums:

Bob wrote: "I just loaded up PSP9 to do a looksee. ... Something weird with the mouse. Very slow, like half speed, and no double click on the middle button. ... Outside of PSP9, PSP8 and all apps work fine. In PSP9, slow and no middle button ... Any thoughts ..."
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1670

Jones wrote: "... Photoshop 6 won't install on ... MacOS X without Classic being installed on that computer ... If I upgrade to Photoshop 7 (with a legal upgrade disk), will I be able to use one of my older Photoshop disks ... when I'm asked to put the disk in?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1687

chaitereye asked: "When I make a pattern from an image & try to fill a canvas [in Photoshop] I get a bunch of little squares. Does that mean I have to make it a seamless pattern & if so, how?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1674

ice-man wrote: "sorry to be a pain but im after a plugin that will put a love heart round a picture and frost the outer edge is there any thing i could use or get for this"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1682

david wrote: "I'm searching for plugings working with scanned images of documents, usually old and with problems of conservation ... I think that many Archives work with such a software, but I don't know if it is a plugin or a program itself, and of course I don't know its name."
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1634

Alex wrote: "Is there any plugin that would allow me to print CD/DVD labels or even CD Printing directly on disc from PS? I usually use Nero Cover Designer, but I have too many problems with color management ..."
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1673

For more interesting discussions please visit
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/

 

 

FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
------------------------------------------------
Xero now offers the free Nostalgia plugin (for Windows), which produces tinted monochrome effects.

http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/freeware.htm


Version 6.1 of PTLens (for Windows) from Thomas Niemann now lets you lens-correct photos taken with fisheye lenses. It also includes chromatic aberration correction features and an improved anti-vignetting feature. PTLens is certainly the most convenient and easy-to-use lens correction tool (unless you use a not so popular lens or compact cameras).

http://epaperpress.com/ptlens/


Adobe has released Version 3 of its free image management software Photoshop Album Starter Edition (for Win/Mac). It offers some of the features of the commercial Photoshop Album like basic image editing, organization, slideshow and emailing images.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopalbum/


Opanda PhotoFilter is a freeware tool (for Windows) that imitates Kodak, Hoya and Cokin lens filters. It offers adjustable density and auto luminosity compensation. Its interface has a MacOS X look.

http://www.opanda.com/en/pf/


Easy Picture2Icon (for Windows) is a simple tool for converting images or photos to Windows icons. It also lets you choose a color that will become transparent in the icon. The icon files can contain multiple icons of different sizes.

http://www.picture2icon.com/

 

 

GRAPHICS NEWS
------------------------------------------------
Alien Colors With The Alienator Plugin
The Alienator plugin from Cybia takes an alternative approach to colour-modification effects and produces unusual and unpredictable results. So if you like colorful surprises and use Windows, this plugin is for you.
http://www.cybia.co.uk/alienator.htm

Extensis and LizardTech Sell Their Plug-ins To onOne
Extensis and LizardTech, which belong to Celartem Inc, sold SmartScale, PhotoFrame, Intellihance Pro, Mask Pro, PhotoTools, QX-Tools Pro and Genuine Fractals to onOne Software, which consists of former Extensis employees.
http://www.extensis.com/en/about/press_release_content.jsp?releaseId=4200014

TIF BW Plugin Updated
The Imaging Factory updated its ConvertToBW Pro plugin to Version 3.0. The user interface was completely redesigned, was optimized for 16-bit processing and even offers preliminary 32bit support.
http://www.theimagingfactory.com

Corel Introduces Painter Update and Broad Upgrade Offer
The Corel Painter IX 9.1 update is available as a free download for Painter IX users, while the competitive upgrade makes Painter available for almost half price.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2979

Improved Adobe Bridge
Adobe released a software update for its Creative Suite file browser, which is also delivered with Photoshop CS2. Adobe Bridge 1.02 update delivers overall improved stability and performance.
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2969
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=2968

Vertus Fluid Mask Plugin Seeks to Speed Photoshop Mask Creation
The new plugin is said to automatically detect edges within an image and build a mask out to each edge, providing more control over the cutout.
http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2973

Shape Your Own Star with Quasar
The Quasar plugin from Xero Graphics tries to simulate a traditional starburst filter and even goes beyond it. Any star you want, Quasar will draw it for you.
http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/products.htm



 

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