Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - March 2009
Contents
========
EDITORIAL
POSTCARD CONTEST 2009: Win one of up to 45 prices by sending a postcard
to us
PHOTOFREEBIES 2.0 FOR WINDOWS: New Color Blind plugin, updated BW plugin and many new features
HYPERTYLE 1.04: Full Vista support and new installer
THE PLUGIN SITE UPDATES: The Plugin Essentials article updated with information about 64bit plugins
PLUGIN REVIEWERS NEEDED: Get a free NFR copy of a plugin for writing a
review
POLL RESULTS: Which video editing application do you mainly use?
NEW POLL: How much would you pay for a useful Photoshop-compatible plugin?
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Simulating Yarn, Bridge Problem, Hardwear Specs for CS2, CSH to JSL, PSP 7 under Vista
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Filter Forge Freepack 4, FunPix Maker, EyeRoller,
MS PhotoGallery, DVDFlick/AVStoDVD
GRAPHICS NEWS: Photoshop CS4 Update, WMF Import plugin, Lightroom 2.3 / Camera Raw 5.3, Painter 11, CorelDRAW Anniversary Edition and Contest
PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE
ABOUT THE PLUGIN SITE
Dear Reader,
We recently dropped the FilterMeister development environment for developing our Photoshop plugins. We will develop them solely in C/C++ from now on. This means that we will be able to create even more powerful plugins in a shorter amount of time in future and that new updates will become available faster. So you will get even more value for your money when purchasing plugins from The Plugin Site.
Additionally we will soon release 64bit versions of all our plugins for the 64bit version of Photoshop CS4 for Windows. The 64bit versions will become available with new updates of our plugins. This month we already released the 64bit versions of our free PhotoFreebies plugins together with their 2.0 update. See below for more information about the PhotoFreebies.
Kind regards,
Harald Heim
POSTCARD CONTEST 2009: Win one of up to 45 prices
by sending a postcard to us
-----------------------------------
The Postcard Contest 2009 asks you to write a postcard and send it to
us. The postcard can be purchased or created by yourself. The 20 best
participants can win prizes consisting of a total of 57 software products
and 5 books worth more than USD $3500. The contest runs until August 31,
2009.
Here is a list of the prizes:
Photo Tools 2: http://www.ononesoftware.com/
Exposure, Bokeh : http://www.alienskin.com/
nik Viveza: http://www.niksoftware.com/viveza/
IPX Paint Engine: http://fantasticmachines.com/
Curl Pro + Puzzle Pro: http://www.avbros.com/
DFT Light, Ozone and Power Stroke: http://www.digitalfilmtools.com/
PhotoMagic, PhotoZoom Pro 2, PhotoArtist: http://www.benvista.com/
FilterForge Standard: http://www.filterforge.com/
ContrastMaster, Plugin Galaxy: http://www.thepluginsite.com/
Fantastic Frames, Borders & Frames CDs: http://www.photoshopgraphics.co.uk/
Quasar, MetaGrad, Refiner and Conditioner: http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/
Neat Image Pro: http://www.neatimage.com/
Namesuppressed Plugins: http://www.namesuppressed.com/
DOF PRO: http://www.dofpro.com/
Fractalius: http://www.redfieldplugins.com/
FilterMeister: http://www.filtermeister.com/
SF Maskerade + SF ColorMixer Pro: http://www.simpelfilter.de/en/
recolorST: http://foksmarx.com/
Andrews Plugins, Custom Shapes & Patterns Collection: http://www.graphicxtras.com/
Photo Purify: http://www.photopurify.com/
O'Reilly Books: http://oreilly.com/
For more details on the contest see
http://www.thepluginsite.com/gallery/postcard/
PHOTOFREEBIES 2.0 FOR WINDOWS: New Color Blind plugin,
updated BW plugin and many new features
-----------------------------------
Version 2 of PhotoFreebies for Windows, a freeware collection of Photoshop
plugins, was released. It offers a new Color Blind plugin for simulating
red/green color blindness. The BW plugin now offers a dialog and lets
you choose between 7 black and white variations. The PhotoFreebies 2 plugins
are scriptable, which means that their parameters can be recorded in actions
or scripts and that they can be used as smart filters in Photoshop CS3/CS4.
The dialogs are resizable and support XP/Vista visual styles. Additionally
the Remove Transparency plugin works correctly on grayscale images, the
plugins are compatible with Data Execution Protection (DEP) and offer
improved compatibility with some applications. Their installation was
also improved.
PhotoFreebies 2 are available as 32bit as well as 64bit versions. The 64bit versions work in Photoshop CS4 64bit under 64bit Windows.
For more information and downloading them see:
http://www.thepluginsite.com/products/photowiz/photofreebies/
HYPERTYLE 1.04: Full Vista support and new installer
-----------------------------------
Version 1.04 of HyperTyle offers full compatibility with Windows Vista.
Occasional program error messages under Vista do not occur anymore. Also
the memory error message that was displayed when opening some presets
was fixed. HyperTyle 1.04 is now installed by a new multilingual installer.
For more information and a demo version see:
http://www.thepluginsite.com/products/hypertyle/
THE PLUGIN SITE UPDATES: The Plugin Essentials article
updated with information about 64bit plugins
-----------------------------------
Our "Plugin Essential" article, which was initially released
in 2002 and contains all essential information about Photoshop plugins,
was updated with information about 64bit topics. There are two new sections
called "64bit Photoshop Plugins" and "Running 32bit Photoshop
Plugins under 64bit Operating Systems". Additionally there is a new
Contents table and various places in the text have been updated.
http://www.thepluginsite.com/knowhow/tutorials/introduction/introduction.htm
PLUGIN REVIEWERS NEEDED: Get a free NFR copy of a
plugin for writing a review
-----------------------------------
We plan to add more content to our Review section at http://www.thepluginsite.com/reviews/.
Therefore we are looking for people who would like to write reviews of
Photoshop plugins consisting of at least 500 words. As a reward the reviewer
will get a NFR copy of the reviewed product and can keep it. If you are
interested, please contact us with a list of plugins that you would like
to review. We also need some references about you, e.g. URLs where you
wrote something, so that we can see that you already have some experiences
in writing.
Please contact us at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/about/contact.htm
POLL RESULTS: Which video editing application do you
mainly use?
-----------------------------------
183 people voted for their favorite video editing application in our recent
poll. The results are the following:
1. Adobe Premiere Pro 23%
2. Other 16%
3. Adobe Premiere Elements 14%
4. Pinnacle Studio Plus/Ultimate 9%
5. Sony Vegas Pro 6%
Pinnacle Studio 6%
Ulead VideoStudio 6%
6. Apple Final Cut Pro 4%
Ulead MediaStudio 4%
7. Adobe After Effects 3%
8. Sony Vegas Movie Studio 3%
9. Apple Final Cut Express 2%
Magix Video Pro 2%
10. Avid/Pinnacle Liquid 1%
Seems that Adobe is also quite dominant in the world of video editing with 40% of all voters using Adobe products. Pinnacle gathered a second place with 16%. Ulead follows with 10% and Sony with 9%.
For more poll results, please visit the Know-How section
at
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/
NEW POLL: How much would you pay for a useful Photoshop-compatible plugin?
-----------------------------------
Our latest poll asks you how much you would pay for a Photoshop plugin
that you consider useful. There are various options from $0 to $300. There
was a similar poll in 2003, but things may have changed in the meantime.
Please vote at the bottom of the page at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Simulating Yarn, Bridge Problem, Hardwear Specs
for CS2, CSH to JSL, PSP 7 under Vista
-----------------------------------
Here are the latest post from The Plugin Site Forums:
Simulating Yarn
aixspecial wrote: "Does anyone know of a plugin that simulates yarn
in Photoshop? Example: If I draw a line, it will look like a string of
yarn. I would greatly appreciate any info."
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3141
Bridge Problem
Allen-H wrote: "Hi, I am having a small problem with Photoshop Bridge
which was installed as part of the Photoshop CS4 package. My problem is,
that suddenly, my RAW images will not display as an image, just the PS
Logo. Probably operator error and I have clicked something. Any help appreciated
Thanks"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3149
Hardwear Specs for CS2
atchy wrote: "As a relative newcomer to Photoshop (but not to photography)
Can anyone recommend what specifications I should look for in a desktop
computer to effectively run Photoshop CS2. Thanks."
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3131
CSH to JSL
RubberDucky wrote: "Does anyone know if there is a way to convert
PS custom shapes .csh to PSP preset shapes .jsl?"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3143
PSP 7 under Vista
gunsan wrote: "I am still using good old PSP 7.04. ... Works well
in Vista too but I have got such an irritating problem, The menues that
are supposed to roll up when I don't use them, have stopped doing so.
I have to close them and open them not to get mad since they cover working
space and often the buttons up to the right ... Do anyone know a solution?
reinstall doesn't help."
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3139
For more interesting discussion please visit our forums
at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Filter Forge Freepack 4, FunPix
Maker, EyeRoller, MS PhotoGallery, DVDFlick/AVStoDVD
-----------------------------------
Nr. 4 of the Filter Forge Freepack (for Windows) with the subtitle "Distortions" was released. It includes 7 plugin filters for creating distortion effects.
http://www.filterforge.com/download/
MAGIX FunPix Maker (for Windows) lets you deform images with the mouse
for creating caricatures or artistic distortions. The result can be saved,
printed or emailed. The web site also offers other freeware tools for
creating video slide shows and printing CD covers.
http://www.magixphotowidgets.com/magix-funpix-maker-12.html
EyeRoller (for Windows) is a free fun tool that lets you import a portrait
photo and let the eyes of the person follow your mouse pointer. It offers
a face editor for defining an eye mask and choosing an iris from the included
library. The result can be exported for use on a web site.
http://www.jockersoft.com/english/eyeroller_index.php
Microsoft PhotoGallery (for Windows) is a free photo management tool.
It can find people in your photos and let you add a name to each face.
Later you can then search for all photos of a certain person. PhotoGallery
also offers simple options for photo editing and panorama creation. It
also lets you upload photos to an online album, send them via email or
order prints of them.
http://download.live.com/photogallery
DVD Flick (for Windows) as well as AVStoDVD (for Windows) are freeware
applications that let you convert your video files to Video DVD format
and even burn them as a Video DVD. Both support a large amount of video
formats. Unlike the AVIToDVD tool that was mentioned a few months ago,
both have their own UI and do not simply launch other tools for various
tasks. So check out both and see which one you like better.
http://www.dvdflick.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/avstodvd/
GRAPHICS NEWS: Photoshop CS4 Update, WMF Import plugin,
Lightroom 2.3 / Camera Raw 5.3, Painter 11, CorelDRAW Anniversary Edition
and Contest
-----------------------------------
Photoshop CS4 Update
Photoshop CS4 (for Win/Mac) received an update which fixed a number of
issues: Slow performance problems, pen barrel rotation problems with Wacom
tablets, 3D textures edited by a plugin not being recognized, improved
Auto-Blend Layers (Stack Images) and crashes when pasting formatted text
or from a corrupt font.
http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/
WMF Import plugin
The MFImport plugin (for Windows) allows to open Windows metafiles (WMF,
EMF) in Photoshop. All metafiles are opened antialiased in Photoshop with
a transparent background. While importing the files you can indicate the
required resolution.
http://wmf.wholegroup.com/wmf-emf-photoshop.html
Lightroom 2.3 / Camera Raw 5.3
The final version of Photoshop Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3 was released.
Both offer support for Nikon D3X und Olympus E-30. Lightroom 2.3 is now
also available in eight different languages.
http://www.adobe.com/de/downloads/updates/
Painter 11
Version 11 of Corel Painter, a leading painting and illustration software,
includes more than 40 new and improved features. New pressure-sensitive
brushes support fluid working and produce precise brush strokes. Additionally
drawing tools were enhanced and customizable media can be used.
CorelDRAW Anniversary Edition and Contest
Corel has introduced an International Design Contest and a special edition
of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 to celebrate its 20-years-anniversary.
The contest is meant for CorelDRAW users and closes on May 31, 2009. The
contest features six entry categories plus a separate category for students.
The prizes are worth a total of $75,000.
The special anniversary edition of CorelDRAW includes CorelDRAW Graphics
Suite X4, a Wacom Intuos3 tablet and new Painter Sketch Pad sketching
software in one complete package. It will be available in nine languages.
it is only available in limited quantities.
