Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - September/October 2012
CONTENTS
FILTERHUB 1.0 FOR WIN/MAC: Forget Photoshop's
Filter Menu with this Powerful Replacement
TPS PANEL 1.50 UPDATE: Fast Startup & Support for Photoshop CS6 and ColorStyler
POLL RESULT: For what purpose
do you use Photoshop Plugins?
NEW POLLS: What kind of
Photoshop extensions would you like to see from The Plugin Site?
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Framing
Action, Timestamp Removal
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Jazzman’s
Filters, Quick Pattern & Noise Shampoo 3, Adobe Interpolate, Nvidia
Texture Tools, ACDSee Free
GRAPHICS NEWS: Nik Acquired by Google, Photoshop Elements 11, DxO ViewPoint
Dear Reader,
After updating the free ThePluginSite Panel an idea got hold of me, which I have had since the first release of ThePluginSite Panel in 2009, the idea of a panel that can run all Photoshop filters and offer many additional features. So I decided to finally work on it, which resulted in creation of the new FilterHub product. It is based on the ThePluginSite Panel, but FilterHub was improved greatly, so that it scans all plugins in the fraction of a second and offers many new features. Some people may compare FilterHub to Plugin Commander, but it is actually quite a different beast. It runs inside Photoshop and enhances the abilities of Photoshop filters, thus making them even more powerful.
In the aftermath of FilterHub new pages with links to free and commercial Photoshop panels will soon be added to The Plugin Site. Additionally a new section about Photoshop panel extensions is planed for the Plugins Essentials article. Other Photoshop panel products may be developed by The Plugin Site in future, so please participate in our latest poll and let us know which one you would like.
Kindest regards,
Harald Heim
FILTERHUB 1.0 FOR WIN/MAC
Forget Photoshop's Filter Menu with this Powerful Replacement
FilterHub is a panel extension for Photoshop CS4, CS5 and CS6 that runs under Windows and MacOS X. It is a powerful replacement for Photoshop's Filter menu and offers many additional advantages. FilterHub supports built-in Photoshop filters (from the Filter and Adjustments menus), filter plugins and third-party automation plugins.
FilterHub lets you access your filters and plugins faster and more conveniently, e.g. by running them with a simple double click. You can make FilterHub display all installed filters, show only third-party plugins, enter key words to display only certain filters or add your preferred filters to a favorites list.
FilterHub additionally allows you to apply the last effect of any filter (not just the last used one) without displaying its dialog and enables you to paint or erase filter effects with the brush tool. Even more, it runs multiple filters (from the favorites list) with one click, renders the same filter effect on multiple layers in one pass or both: It applies multiple filters on multiple layers with one click.
FilterHub can automatically create a duplicated layer, a merged copy of all layers (stamped layer), a smart object or flatten the image before running a filter, which can be very handy. FilterHub also applies all filters to smart objects, even those that are disabled on the Filter menu. Furthermore, if a filter does not support the current image mode, FilterHub automatically displays a list of supported modes, preselects the best suited one and converts the image accordingly. So you do not need to try out different modes until you find the right one.
For a full feature list, screenshots
and a web demo see
FilterHub product
pages
TPS PANEL 1.50
ThePluginSite Panel (for Win/Mac) is the predecessor and free version of the new FilterHub product. Unlike FilterHub it only supports our own plugins and offers fewer features. One of its inconveniences, the long startup time, caused by the slow plugin scanning, was mainly fixed with this new 1.50 release. When running it for the first time it still needs several seconds to launch, but it starts up almost instantly from the second time on. Only if you installed a new plugin from The Plugin Site, you have to click the Rescan button to find the new plugin.
ThePluginSite Panel 1.50 supports ColorStyler
and stays in style with the dark UI of Photoshop CS6. Double clicking
a list item now runs the appropriate plugin. If you enjoyed ThePluginSite
Panel so far, we recommend that you have a look at the new FilterHub tool.
For more information and for downloading this free
extension for Photoshop CS4-CS visit
TPS Panel product
page
POLL RESULT
For what purpose do you use Photoshop Plugins?
338 votes were collected in
the last poll about plugin usage. Here are the results:
1. Creative Expression: Producing artistic images for their own sake 41.7%
2. Personal: Using images for personal matters 32.8%
3. Commercial: Creating or improving images for earning money with them
10%
4. Journalistic: Enhancing images for documenting
something 4.7%
5. Other 4.4%
6. Educational: Editing images for teaching purposes 3.8%
7. Scientific/Technical: Processing images with the aim of gathering information
2.3%
Almost 75% of all voters use Photoshop plugins for creative and personal purposes. Only 10% use it commercially. Another 11% voted for journalistic, educational, scientific and technical purposes. Either The Plugin Site does not attract many professional designers and photographers or these pros are a smaller part of all Photoshop plugin users. My own experience and our plugin sales tell me that the second statement is probably true. So producing only plugins that are affordable for professional users would ignore a large part of the user base.
For more poll results please visit the
Resources section
NEW POLL
What kind of Photoshop extensions would you like to see from The Plugin Site?
Having warmed up with the development
of the new FilterHub panel we are exploring ideas for other potential
panel extensions, either free or commercial. So we are interested in knowing
what kind of panels you would like to have developed by The Plugin Site.
You can choose between 15 proposed products and an Other option, whose
text field lets you enter your own suggestion.
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS
Framing Action, Timestamp Removal
Here are some of the latest posts on the forums:
Framing Action
ScotsDave wrote: "I used to have a Photoshop Action that would copy
an image, paste & resize it then blur the larger back image allowing
you to rotate the smaller inner frame but cannot find it to reload and
cannot remember the name of it. Does anyone know the Action I am talking
about or something similar that will make to picture inside a pic etc.?"
Read
More...
Timestamp Removal
Methen wrote: "Does anyone know a good filter that will remove timestamps
? I use both psp version 6.03 and psp version 7.04"
Read
More...
Feel free to post comments or start a discussion topic
at
The Plugin Site Forum
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
Jazzman’s Filters, Quick
Pattern & Noise Shampoo 3, Adobe Interpolate, Nvidia Texture Tools,
ACDSee Free
Jazzman’s Filters offers
seven Photoshop plugins (for Windows). The Histogram equalization plugin
adjusts the image contrast, Jazzman’s Colour Magic plugin replaces
colors while retaining saturation and brightness, Graphic Spell adds text
to images including text effects, Fast Blur produces blurring and blending
effects, Unsharp Mask applies a classical sharpening effect, White Balance
fixes the white balance of an image and last but not least the Enumerator
plugin adds number labels to an image. Jazzman’s Filters are free
for non-commercial use, but there is no payment link for commercial users
yet.
Visit website...
Mehdi updated his Mehdi Plugins (for Windows).
There is a new plugin named Quick Pattern (bundled with Quick Mirror)
and Version 3 of Noise Shampoo includes a new algorithm and UI change.
Additionally all plugins are now compatible with Photoshop CS6. The HSL
Plus, Color Megabit, Contrast Balance and Absolute Color plugins include
a new out of gamut clipping method. The Blots plugin has a transparency
bug fixed.
Visit website...
Adobe released the free Interpolate extension
for Photoshop CS6 (for MacOS X only) that provides two filters for smoothly
blending between colors. The Interpolate filter fills the transparent
areas of the current layer with a smooth mix of the colors in the opaque
areas. The Match Edges filter changes the colors at the edges of the current
layer to match those of the layer below it and smoothly distributes this
change through the layer.
Visit
website...
The NVIDIA Texture Tools for Photoshop (for Windows)
now offer support for Photoshop CS5.1 and CS6 and support 64-bit. NVIDIA
Texture Tools consists of two filters and two scripts for normal map generation.
Visit
website...
ACDSee Free is the free edition (for Windows)
of the commercial ACDSee software. ACDSee Free is a very fast image viewer
for scrolling through your images, zooming in and out and printing them.
It supports over 11 file types, e.g. BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TGA, TIFF, BMP,
PCX, PIC, MY and EMF. You can also rotate your photos and copy or save
them to another folder.
Visit
website...
For more free plugins and tool, please visit the
Resources section
GRAPHICS NEWS
Nik Acquired by Google, Photoshop Elements 11, DxO ViewPoint
Nik Software has recently
been acquired by Google after 17 years in the business. It seems
that Google was mainly interested in the Snap seed software and wanted
to respond to Facebook's acquisition of Integral. As can be read from
the comments on the announcement page, most Nik users fear that Google
will discontinue or at least lower the quality of Nik's professional products.
On the other hand the Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google posted
that they are "going to continue offering and improving Nik's high-end
tools and plug-ins". It will also be interesting to see if the is
version of Snap seed will remain or will be replaced by an Android version.
Only time will tell.
Visit
website...
Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 (for Win/Mac) offers
a brighter UI with larger icons and font. It contains new Quick, Guided
and Expert modes, a new Actions Panel, new Lens Blur, Comic, Graphic Novel
and Pen & Ink filters as well as the Refine Edge dialog known from
Photoshop. Photoshop Elements 11 now also supports geotagging.
Visit website...
DxO ViewPoint is a Photoshop Plugin, Lightroom
editor and standalone program (for Win/Mac) for correcting wide-angle
distortions in photos and for fixing problems with keystoning and tilted
horizons. It can use the EXIF information for automatic correction but
also offers manual adjustments.
Visit website...
