Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - June/July 2016
CONTENTS
PHOTOWIZ / PLUGIN GALAXY FOR MAC:
Installation support for Photoshop Elements 14 and Affinity Photo
ELEMENTSXXL 3.51 FOR WINDOWS: Improved ActionsXXL support, Improved HiDPI support, Bug Fixes
LAYERSXXL 1.51 FOR WINDOWS: German manual, Faster menu display, Improved HiDPI support
METARAW 2.04 FOR WINDOWS: Support for Photoshop CC 2015.5, New "Raw Correction" feature, Extended camera support
ACTIONSXXL 1.02 FOR WINDOWS: New Trial Period, Override features for batch processing, Insert Shape feature, New Videos
REVIEWS: JixiPix Pastello
POLL RESULTS: Which versions of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro do you use?
NEW POLL: Which vector graphics application(s) do you use?
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: FilterMeister Plugins in Paint Shop Pro Problem, Any Paint.net users?
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Telegraphics 64-bit
Plugins, WallPampered, Artweaver Free, SketchUp Make
GRAPHICS NEWS: Photoshop CC 2015.5, Flood 2, Lattice, Corel AfterShot Pro 3, Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 11
Dear Reader,
ElementsXXL for MacOS X (with 130 new features for Photoshop Elements 11 to 14) will finally be released soon. There were several problems when developing ElementsXXL for Mac, which almost made it look as if it was not possible to create it at all. The biggest problem was a severe bug in the plugin API of Photoshop Elements 11-14 for Mac (which does not occur under Windows), for which it cost a lot of headache and time to find a workaround. After our Mac developer had gaven up I took the challenge, although I only had experience with Windows development so far. After getting more and more familiar with Mac software development and using some new strategies I was finally able to solve all problems that kept ElementsXXL for Mac from getting finished. So ElementsXXL for Mac will very likely be released in July 2016.
It is strange that Adobe comes up with a name like "2015.5" for a Creative Cloud release in 2016. Are they still planning to release a 2016 version this year? Or will the 2016 version come in 2017? Time will tell. But it rather seems that they chose the name because only Photoshop got significant new features wheareas other CC apps didn't.
All of our plugins run fine in Photoshop CC
2015.5. Only MetaRaw had to be updated to work without causing problems.
The installers of our plugins support it too, but most of them display
"Photoshop CC 2016" instead of "Photoshop CC 2015.5".
This will be corrected with the next updates.
Kind regards,
Harald Heim
The Plugin Site
PHOTOWIZ / PLUGIN GALAXY FOR MAC
Installation support for Photoshop Elements 14 and Affinity Photo
The installers of our MacOS X plugins now use the correct installation folder for Photoshop Elements 14 and also offer to install them into Affinity Photos if it is available. In Affinity Photo you additionally have to activate "Allow unknown plugins to be used" check box under Affinity Photo > Preferences > Photoshop Plugins in order to make the plugins appear on the Filter > Plugins sub menu - in case you have not already done that.
For more information and demo versions visit
PhotoWiz Product
Page
Plugin Galaxy
Product Page
ELEMENTSXXL 3.51 FOR WINDOWS
Improved ActionsXXL support, Improved HiDPI support, Bug Fixes
ElementsXXL 3.51 now supports HiDPI system settings above 200% and in Photoshop Elements 14 it adjusts to non-standard menu font sizes, which are set in the control panel. Additionally there is improved ActionsXXL support and six important bug fixes. The paths of duplicate ElementsXXL plugins are now displayed in the appropriate error message, so that you can remove them more easily.
ElementsXXL adds up to 430 powerful features to Photoshop Elements for Windows that were previously only available in Photoshop.
For more information and a 14-day trial versions visit
ElementsXXL
Product Page
LAYERSXXL 1.51 FOR WINDOWS
German manual, Faster menu display, Improved HiDPI support
LayersXXL 1.51 finally offers a German manual as well as many typo fixes in the English manual. Like ElementsXXL it also supports HiDPI system settings above 200% and in Photoshop Elements 14 it adjusts to non-standard menu font sizes. Additionally the Image menu is now displayed without any delay even on slow computers (thus the Fast Menu Display option in the LayersXXL preferences was removed).
LayersXXL adds up to 180 photo and design features to Photoshop Elements for Windows that were previously only available in Photoshop.
For more information and a 14-day trial versions visit
LayersXXL Product
Page
METARAW 2.04 FOR WINDOWS
Support for Photoshop CC 2015.5, New "Raw Correction" feature, Extended camera support
MetaRaw 2.04 has been updated to work in Photoshop CC 2015.5. Older versions of the MetaRaw file format plugin do not work in Photoshop CC 2015.5 and in some cases may even keep Camera Raw from functioning, because Adobe changed the plugin scanning algorithm. So please get MetaRaw 2.04 if you want to use it in Photoshop CC 2015.5.
MetaRaw 2.04 also includes a "Raw Correction" feature for correcting color and crop problems of camera raw formats, so that you do not have to wait for a new MetaRaw version to be able to use raw files of a brand new camera. There was also improved support for 18 camera models added since version 2.02 of MetaRaw. Three rarely encountered but annoying bugs were also fixed. Finally the latest Adobe DNG Converter 9.6 is supported.
For more information and a 14-day trial version visit
the
MetaRaw Product
Page
ACTIONSXXL 1.02 FOR WINDOWS
New Trial Period, Override features for batch processing, Insert Shape feature, New Videos
ActionsXXL 1.02 offers a trial version that can be used for another 14 days even if it expired before. Two Override check boxes on the Batch dialog allows opening images via action, e.g. to apply recorded Camera Raw settings, and saving batch processed images in an action, which makes saving multiple file formats in one pass possible. The new Insert > Shape menu item is for recording the current shape layer with two action steps.
Thanks to Ken Payne there are now 8 videos about using ActionsXXL available. Additionally we linked 7 videos about Photoshop's actions panel that can be applied to ActionsXXL too.
ActionsXXL empowers Photoshop Elements users to create, record, play and save Photoshop actions. ActionsXXL also offers a Batch feature for automatically processing multiple document or image files with actions, scripts and other features.
For more information and a 14-day trial version visit
ActionsXXL
Product Page
REVIEWS
JixiPix Pastello
Kay Michael Kuhnlein who is a connoisseur of digital painting effects checked out JixiPix Pastello and collected his impressions in a review which is equipped with many painting effect examples.
Have fun reading the reviews in the
Reviews section
POLL RESULTS
Which versions of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro do you use?
More than 430 people have cast 665 votes in the latest poll about their versions of Photoshop, Elements and PSP. The percent values in the results refer to the 430 participating people to make them comparable:
1. Photoshop 66%
2. Paint Shop Pro 53%
3. Photoshop Elements 35%
1. Photoshop CS6 22%
2. Photoshop CC 2015 19%
3. Photoshop CS5 8%
4. Photoshop CS3 5%
5. Photoshop 1-7 4%
6. Photoshop CC 2014 2.5%
Photoshop CS2 2.5%
7. Photoshop CC 1.8%
Photoshop CS4 1.8%
8. Photoshop CS 0.5%
1. Photoshop Elements 14 14%
2. Photoshop Elements 13 5%
Photoshop Elements 11 5%
3. Photoshop Elements 12 3.5%
4. Photoshop Elements 9 2.3%
5. Photoshop Elements 1-5 1.4%
6. Photoshop Elements 10 1.2%
7. Photoshop Elements 8 0.9%
Photoshop Elements 7 0.9%
Photoshop Elements 6 0.9%
1. Paint Shop Pro X8 20%
2. Paint Shop Pro X7 10%
3. Paint Shop Pro 9 4%
4. Paint Shop Pro X6 3.7%
5. Paint Shop Pro 10/XI 3.5%
6. Paint Shop Pro X2 2.8%
7. Paint Shop Pro X5 2.5%
8. Paint Shop Pro 1-8 2.3%
9. Paint Shop Pro X4 1.8%
Paint Shop Pro X3 1.8%
As expected half as many people use Photoshop Elements as Photoshop and 50% more people use Paint Shop Pro compared to Photoshop Elements. As there are more votes than users 54% of all voters use at least two of the three applications in the poll: It looks as if half of all Photoshop and Photoshop Elements users also utilize Paint Shop Pro. Much less people will probably use Photoshop as well as Photoshop Elements or even all three.
Photoshop CS6 still seems to be employed by slightly more people than the latest CC version (at the time of the poll) and both together make up for 62% of all Photoshop users.
Compared to previous polls many more people have upgraded to the latest version of Photoshop Elements than usual, but this could also be explained by the fact that this poll was conducted later after the latest release. Photoshop Elements 13 and 14 are used by nearly 54% of all Photoshop Elements users.
Paint Shop Pro X7 and X8 are utilized by 57% of all Paint Shop Pro users. Two years ago it was only 44% for the latest two versions. Paint Shop Pro 9 is now only used by 7.5% of all Paint Shop Pro users whereas this figure was 13% two years ago. So seems that many users finally migrated to a newer version.
Photoshop has indeed the biggest problem of users not wanting to update to the latest version. No surprise with the restrictive renting model. Only 35% of the whole user base adopted the CC versions. If this poll is more or less representative, it means that Adobe has effectively shut out 65% of all Photoshop users from the CC versions.
Paint Shop Pro also has 12% of its users on the pre-Corel versions 1-9, which are more than 10 years old. This is less alarming and can be considered as normal. Photoshop Elements has 21% of its users on versions 1-10, but otherwise it has the most fluent upgrade progression of all three applications.
For more poll results please visit the
Resources section
NEW POLL
Which vector graphics application(s) do you use?
A similar poll about vector graphics tools was conducted 15 years go (with CorelDraw barely winning over Illustrator), so it was time to do it again. You can vote for 20 vector graphics applications and an Other option.
Please participate in this poll by visiting the
Main page...
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS
Here are the latest interesting posts from The Plugin Site Forums:
FilterMeister Plugins in Paint Shop Pro Problem
Leslie wrote: "I have been using Filtermeister
plugins forever. Until a few days ago, all worked perfectly. Now, however,
I cannot get most of them to work. I run X8 on Win 10. ... I did a system
restore~~no help. I reset X8 to default. No help.
I booted up X6 and they worked for a short time. Same with X7. I am desperate
..."
Read
More...
Any Paint.net users?
promytius wrote: "New to the forum; I stopped PS
at CS3 and switched to paint.net for all simple graphic/photo work. It
is not quite as refined as PS, but it has all the tools and once you realize
effects=filters, and how the layers work a little differently, it is really
a nice program to work with; so I'm wondering if there are any other paint
users out there? p.s. Between paint and Color Stylizer, I'm all set."
Read
More...
Feel free to post comments or start a discussion topic
at
The Plugin Site Forum
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
Telegraphics 64-bit Plugins, WallPampered, Artweaver Free, SketchUp Make
The free Telegraphics plugins are now
available as 64-bit plugins (for Win/Mac) except for two or three plugins.
If you are on a Mac, you should download the "CS5/CS6" versions
to get the 64-bit versions. Most of the plugins open certain file formats,
the rest produces image effects. Unfortunately the Filter Foundry plugin
was not updated for 64-bit, but hopefully it will happen soon.
Visit
website...
WallPampered is a 32-bit Photoshop
plugin (for Windows), which allows you to set your Windows desktop wallpaper
from within Photoshop itself. It is actually shareware costing $5, but
has no feature limitations. Actually this plugin is from 2002 and has
not been updated, so it will not work in 64-bit applications.
Visit
website...
Artweaver Free is a freehand painting
tool (for Windows) with many predefined realistic brushes. Artweaver allows
working on the same document with other artists over the internet. A commercial
Plus version with more features and better performance is also available.
Currently there is support for Photoshop plugins only in the 32-bit version
of Artweaver Plus 5. It will be added to the upcoming 64-bit version of
ArtWeaver Plus 6 according to the developer.
Visit website...
SketchUp Make is a free 3D modeling
software for architectural, interior design, civil and mechanical engineering
as well as film and video game design. There is an online library with
more than 2 million free 3D models called 3D Warehouse. There is also
a rather expensive commercial version with enhanced features. SketchUp
was previously owned by Google, but sold again.
Visit website...
For more free plugins and tools, please visit the
Resources section
GRAPHICS NEWS
Photoshop CC 2015.5, Flood 2, Lattice, Corel AfterShot Pro 3, Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 11
Photoshop CC 2015.5 comes with a new
UI look that subscribes itself to flatness, but at the same time feels
a bit more responsive. It also offers the following main new features:
The Refine Selection dialog was replaced with Select and Mask panel, there
is a new content-aware crop feature that fills transparent areas, a new
Match Font feature for font detection in photos and face detection in
the Liquify filter.
Photoshop CC 2015.5 also comes with two new unpleasant surprises: First
of all, Adobe started out with making no installation files of the CC
applications available and only allowing the upgrade via the CC desktop
tool. In the meantime there is a installer download for at least Photoshop
CC 2015.5 available (See below). Secondly, according to graphics.com the
trial period has dropped from 30 days to 7 days. It seems that Adobe is
trying to become more and more user-unfriendly, but user protests partially
seem to thwart that scheme :-).
Visit
website...
Photoshop
CC Direct Downloads
Richard Rosenman released the Lattice
plugin (for Windows) for creating 3D line effects. It produces particles
from 3D cubes, spheres, cylinder2 or 3D model files, manipulates them
and connects them with lines or dots.
Visit
website...
Corel AfterShot Pro 3 (for Windows,
Mac and Linux) is now a 64-bit only photo editing and raw conversion application.
It includes the following new features: a Lens Correction Development
Kit for custom lens corrections, a built-in plugin manager, a Highlight
Recovery algorithm, enhanced watermarking features, a Blemish Removal
& Correction tool, a preset library and the ability to instantly download
new raw profiles from within the AfterShot. It claims to be 4 times faster
than Lightroom as far as batch processing is concerned.
Visit
website...
Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 365
(for Windows) is an integrated image editing as well as vector graphics
application. The new version 11 includes a new Cross Process photo effect,
new Dodge and Burn blend modes, 25 new photo effect presets, new magnetic
lasso and paintbrush tools, new text enhancements, new SmartShapes, an
enhanced Online Content Catalog with 500,000 royalty-free photos and some
more.
Visit
website...
