Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - July 2007
Contents
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EDITORIAL
HARRYS FILTERS 3.01: Updates for Vista compatibility
PHOTOFREEBIES 1.01: One new plugin plus Vista compatibility
POLL RESULTS: What do you do to get good prints of your photos?
NEW POLL: How often do you usually sharpen a photo that you want to print?
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Pentool Plugin, Acryllic Look, Stitch Multiple Images, PSP X Plugin Problem, Flickering Cursor in Photoshop CS3, Lightroom Photoshop Workflow
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: 3D Warehouse Plugin, Line Art Plugins, Vicanek
Plugins, Stellarscience Format Plugins, Knitted Fabric Plugin, Quad Tone
Rip, ABR Viewer
GRAPHICS NEWS: Stockxpert Annual Contest, Mega Lace Brushes, PearlyWhites & ShineOff, Adobe Camera RAW 4.1, Lightroom 1.1
PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE
ABOUT THE PLUGIN SITE
Dear Reader,
This time I have updated the freeware Photoshop plugins of The Plugin Site (Harrys Filters and PhotoFreebies) for Vista compatibility and added a few other improvements. Unfortunately there are still no MacOS X versions of them available yet. But it will change. Soon there will be a MacOS X version of the PhotoFreebies and Harrys Filters MacOS X version will follow later.
Kind regards,
Harald Heim
www.thepluginsite.com
HARRYS FILTERS 3.01: Updates for Vista compatibility
------------------------------------------------
Our most popular freeware plugin Harry's Filters, which will be 10 years
old in September, has been updated. Version 3.01 of Harrys Filters now
works under Windows Vista even if your computer has 2 GB or more RAM.
The 6 new presets (from the article at http://www.thepluginsite.com/knowhow/pluginguide/harrysfilters/)
are now included.
Additionally the Plugin Installer, known from the PhotoWiz plugins, was added to the installation. At the end of the installation the Plugin Installer tool appears and lets you copy the Harrys Filters plugin conveniently to your image application's plugin folder. Plugin Installer currently supports 25 image applications and 85 different versions of them.
For more information and downloading it see
http://www.thepluginsite.com/products/harrysfilters/
PHOTOFREEBIES 1.01: One new plugin plus Vista compatibility
------------------------------------------------
Like Harrys Filters 3.01 the PhotoFreebies 1.01 plugin package was updated
for Vista compatibility and includes the Plugin Installer tool. Additionally
a new plugin called Chroma Negative was added, which inverts the colors
of an image without making it negative. As a result cool colors get warm
and warm colors get cool. The color of the plugin dialogs was also changed
to bright gray.
For more information and downloading it visit
http://www.thepluginsite.com/products/photowiz/
POLL RESULTS: What do you do to get good prints of
your photos?
------------------------------------------------
364 people voted in the latest poll. Here are results:
1. I calibrated my monitor and/or printer and now
get great prints. 31%
2. I did not calibrate my monitor and printer or anything else, but get
good prints every time. 17%
3. I do not print my photos myself. I use a print
service. 15%
4. I need to do one or more test prints before I am able to achieve satisfying
prints. 11%
5. I use a special software to achieve good prints with my printer. 10%
6. I do not print my photos. I only view them on screen. 9%
7. I do not get good photo prints from my printer
no matter what I try. 6%
8. I use another method to achieve good prints with my printer. 1%
24% of the voters do not print their photos themselves or at all, 17% achieve good results without any efforts, 31% needed to perform a calibration, 22% need to use other means to achieve good prints and 6% never achieved satisfying prints with their printer. So we have a very mixed result with a lot of different experiences with printing photos.
For more poll results, please visit the Know-How section
at
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/
NEW POLL: How often do you usually sharpen a photo that you want to print?
------------------------------------------------
Some people recommend to sharpen a photo more than once whereas others
advice you to sharpen it only once. So the latest poll is asking you how
often you normally sharpen a photo that is meant for printing. You can
choose between 5 items ranging from "Not at all" to "More
than three times".
You can cast your vote at the bottom of the page at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Pentool Plugin, Acryllic Look,
Stitch Multiple Images, PSP X Plugin Problem, Flickering Cursor in Photoshop
CS3, Lightroom Photoshop Workflow
------------------------------------------------
Here are some interesting posts from The Plugin Site Discussion Forms:
hypnomedi asked: "where can I find a pentool
plugin for elements 5.0"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2697
jwarfield wrote: "I'm trying to find a "acryllic
Looking Paint" to be used on an old car to make it look shiny. Can
you help"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2677
chaitereye wrote: "Not sure if I'm in the right
category but is there a program that can stitch multiple images together
without a seam or line?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2694
rgreene wrote: "I just upgraded to Paint Shop
Pro X (v10.02 to be exact) and find that I can get plugins to work by
setting their location and enabling them in the "File locations..."
diaolog. But then when I exit the program and restart it, no plugins are
found again ..."
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2198
AmandaR wrote: "I have a problem with a flickering
cursor and very slow to respond in my recent upgrade to CS3. CS2 works
perfectly but CS3 is troublesome. I have contacted Adobe and got very
little in the way of help so I thought I'd put it out there. ... "
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2695
aspect_ratio_16x9 wrote: "Im starting to get
into Lightroom ... but find the import/export between Photoshop and Lightroom
cumbersome. I see the "edit in PS" thand in LR, but no similar
function in PS to LR. Can anyone tell me if theres an available patch,
script, whatever to better facilitate workflow between the 2 applications?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2687
For more interesting discussions and posting your own comments or questions
please visit
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: 3D Warehouse Plugin, Line Art Plugins, Vicanek
Plugins, Stellarscience Format Plugins, Knitted Fabric Plugin, Quad Tone
Rip, ABR Viewer
------------------------------------------------
Adobe released a free plugin (for Windows/Mac) that provides access to the Google 3D Warehouse from within Photoshop CS3 Extended. With it you can participate in the 3D Warehouse community by searching, storing and sharing thousands of free 3D models and other content. Models include everything needed for a 3D world including: buildings, houses, bridges, statues, sculptures, couches, cars, people, pets and more.
http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/pscs3_google3d_plugin.html
Martin Koch offers three freeware plugins (for Windows) that produce line
art and dithering effects. The Line plugin applies a 1-bit black and white
horizontal or vertical line screen, Random Dither randomly dithers an
image to 1-bit black and white line art and the Dither plugin uses a special
dither effect that looks better than standard dithering algorithms. Finally,
there is a fourth plugin that costs $10 and deletes stray dots in a line
art image. The plugins only work on 8bit images.
http://verlagmartinkoch.at/software/
Martin Vicanek offers two new freeware plugins (for Windows). The Pinocchio
plugin is meant as a fun tool for distorting images and the Vignette Corrector
removes or applies vignetting effects.
http://www.vicanek.de/
Stellarscience.com offer three file format plugins for opening NITF, JPEG
2000 and ECW files in Photoshop-compatible applications. Unfortunately
they do not allow you to save to these formats.
http://www.stellarscience.com/products.html
Birgit Wegner-Spinella (for Windows) created a new freeware plugin called
Knitted Fabric for making knitted backgrounds.
http://www.shaman-journey.dk/backgroundmaniac_filter/
Quad Tone Rip (for Windows/Mac) is a software package that offers a more
sophisticated way for printing black & white images on Epson inkjet
printers. Beyond its printing capability it also includes tools that allow
the user to create a complete color-managed workflow with the help of
B&W ICC profiles for both printing and soft-proofing within Photoshop
or other applications that allow soft-proofing. Quad Tone Rip is a fully
operational product without limitations, but the developer asks you to
pay a shareware fee of $50 if you use it regularly.
http://www.QuadToneRIP.com
ABR Viewer (for Windows) from Luigi Bellanca is a freeware tool that lets
you view .abr Photoshop brushes. This is especially useful if you have
downloaded some of the numerous brushes that are available on the net.
You do not need to install these brush files in Photoshop before you can
investigate them, instead you can view them in ABR Viewer and decide which
brushes to keep and which to delete. To run ABR Viewer you need to have
the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 installed.
http://abrviewer.sourceforge.net/
In case you do not already have it, you can download
the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=262d25e3-f589-4842-8157-034d1e7cf3a3&displaylang=de
GRAPHICS NEWS: Stockxpert Annual Contest, Mega Lace Brushes, PearlyWhites
& ShineOff, Adobe Camera RAW 4.1, Lightroom 1.1
------------------------------------------------
The first annual photo competition of the Stockxpert site has just been kicked off and will run until September. You are encouraged to upload photos or graphics that show how the global community is helping to make the world a cleaner and greener place. The winner will have the choice between one of three high-end DSLR cameras or a MacBook Pro. A Honorable Mention winner will have a choice of two cameras, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Premium or a lens of equal value. The winning entries will also be part of the site's October or November online and print marketing creative, as well as being showcased in Stockxpert's Photoplus International exhibit in October.
http://www.stockxpert.com/big_contest/
Photoshopgraphics.co.uk now offers Set 1 of Mega Lace Brushes, a collection
of 40 Photoshop brushes. Each piece is 900 pixels wide and prints at 1
inch deep at 300 dpi. You can duplicate and nudge them together to create
seamless designs.
http://www.photoshopgraphics.co.uk/megalace01.shtml
Image Trends Inc. announced the new PearlyWhites and ShineOff Photoshop
plugins, which automatically whiten and brighten teeth and remove the
shine from face and skin. Image Trends was formed by the core of the former
Applied Science Fiction company which was acquired by Kodak.
http://www.ImageTrendsInc.com/
The Adobe Camera RAW 4.1 update for Photoshop CS3, Elements 4.01 (Mac)
and Elements 5.0 (Win) adds support for the Canon EOS-1D Mark III, Fuji
FinePix S5 Pro, Nikon D40X, Olympus E-410 and SP-550 UZ, Sigma SD14 and
various Phase One cameras.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html
The free Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.1 update offers a new image management
system, improved noise reduction, sharpening and raw processing as well
as support for Windows Vista and a dozen new camera types.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/
