Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - September/October 2014
CONTENTS
PHOTOWIZ WINDOWS UPDATES:
Support for 30K+ Images, 64-bit Standalone/Lightroom versions, Combined
Installer
ELEMENTSXXL 2.50 FOR WINDOWS: Support for Photoshop Elements 13, Tolerance setting, Bug Fixes
METARAW 1.08 FOR WINDOWS: Improved Raw File Support, DNG Converter 8.6 Support, Photoshop Elements 13 Support
FILTERHUB WINDOWS UPDATE: Support for Photoshop Elements 13
POLL RESULTS: Which was the last Photoshop
version that offered essential new features for you? Which of the new
Photoshop CC 2014 features do you consider most useful?
NEW POLL: How much would you maximally pay for a useful plugin?
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Using Plugins in PSP X7, Harry's Plugins Warning
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Berg Design Plugins,
Tych/Save Panel, NKS5, Composer, LiveShare PS
GRAPHICS NEWS: Photoshop Elements 13, Paint Shop Pro X7, Photoshop CC 2014.2, Aperture Development Ceased
Dear Reader,
After a longer summer break the Plugin Newsletter is back. After concentrating on our workflow products (FilterHub, ElementsXXL, MetaRaw) recently, we have now released updates of all PhotoWiz plugins for Windows. This includes a combined installer for all seven commercial PhotoWiz products. You receive it when downloading the demo version or ordering the PhotoWiz Bundle for Windows. Nevertheless, with the 64-bit release of Photoshop Elements 13 for Windows, it was also necessary to update all of our workflow plugins.
When it comes down to Photoshop Elements 13, please note the following: because of the new 64-bit version, 16-bit mode transparency and content-aware fill features I advice Windows users to upgrade to this version. The same recommendation is aimed at Mac users of Photoshop Elements 11. Mac users who own Photoshop Elements 12 may have less incentive to upgrade, because Photoshop Elements 12 is already 64-bit. Our product ElementsXXL 2.50 supports the puppet warp tool again in Photoshop Elements 13 (plus allows applying it to 16-bit images), so this is probably a further reason to upgrade. However, if you are using 32-only plugins, you have too keep an older version of Photoshop Elements in order to run them - unless you use AlphaPlugins LaunchBox.
Kind regards,
Harald Heim
PHOTOWIZ WINDOWS UPDATES
Support for 30K+ Images, 64-bit Standalone/Lightroom versions, Combined Installer
Updates of all eight PhotoWiz products for photo enhancement are available. With the exception of PhotoFreebies 2.03 all of them use the new version number 1.08 or 2.08. The demo versions are now provided as a combined installer that you also get if you purchase the PhotoWiz Bundle. This means that only one installation is necessary instead of seven separate ones. Only the PhotoFreebies installation is still on its own.
One big new feature is the ability to process images larger than 30,000 pixels in width or height. Processing such big images usually only works with the 64-bit versions and very much RAM - except for the ColorWasher, FocalBlade and NoiseControl plugins, which do it even in the 32-bit version of Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro with little RAM. The Fit zoom option now fits very big images into the preview by abolishing the previous minimum zoom level of 6%.
64-bit Standalone/Lightroom versions, which render up to 30% faster, are now provided for ColorWasher, FocalBlade and LightMachine. ColorStyler, BWStyler and ContrastMaster got them already. ColorWasher, FocalBlade, LightMachine and ContrastMaster exhibit no window flashing at startup anymore. ColorStyler and BWStyler work again in the very old versions 4, 5 and 6 of Paint Shop Pro.
Additionally many bug fixes and improvements of the plugin and standalone versions were incorporated. For example, the Enter key now works in all plugins for applying the effect. So you do not need to rely on the OK button anymore. The standalones also share the same raw, color management and batch settings. Plugin Installer was updated for the latest host applications and all executables are now signed to avoid potential problems with security software.
For more information, demo versions and the free
PhotoFreebies visit the
PhotoWiz Product
Page
ELEMENTSXXL 2.50 FOR WINDOWS
Support for Photoshop Elements 13, Tolerance setting, Bug Fixes
ElementsXXL supplies 230 professional features for Photoshop Elements and greatly enhances the image editing experience in Photoshop Elements.
The latest version 2.50 of ElementsXLL works with Photoshop Elements 13 by providing a 64-bit plugin. The Puppet Warp tool works again in Photoshop Elements 13 (after being broken in PSE 12) and can even be applied to 16-bit images. When converting a selection to a path or vector mask you can now change a tolerance setting for more flexibility. Several bugs have been removed concerning e.g. the Apply Image command, the group icon and the Add Smart Filters dialog. Finally, the installation file and Plugin Installer are now digitally signed to avoid potential problems with security software.
The update is free for users of ElementsXXL 2. We recommend users of ElementsXXL 1 to upgrade to version 2.
For more information and a 14-day trial version visit
the
ElementsXXL
Product Page
METARAW 1.08 FOR WINDOWS
Improved Raw File Support, DNG Converter 8.6 Support, Photoshop Elements 13 Support
MetaRaw extends the functionality of the Adobe Camera Raw plugin in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements by opening unsupported raw files and providing several other features.
The latest MetaRaw 1.08 supports Adobe DNG Converter 8.6 and the 64-bit version of Photoshop Elements 13. MetaRaw Converter offers improved colors for Nikon D810 and Panasonic DMC-FZ1000 raw files, crops Samsung NX3000 and various Sony raw files correctly and processes Fuji X-Trans DNG files. The installation file and Plugin Installer are now signed to avoid potential problems with security software.
For more information and a 14-day trial version
visit the
MetaRaw
Product Page
FILTERHUB WINDOWS UPDATE
Support for Photoshop Elements 13
FilterHub is a replacement for the Filter menu of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements supporting built-in filters (from the Filter, Adjustments and Enhance menus), filter plugins and third-party automation plugins.
The latest update of FilterHub for Windows adds support for the 64-bit version of Photoshop Elements 13. The Mac version of FilterHub only runs in Photoshop so far and did not require an update.
For more information and
a 14-day trial version visit the
FilterHub Product
Page
POLL RESULTS
With only around 50 people voting in latest polls I am asking myself whether there was a technical problem with the poll server or wheather the interest in the latest Photoshop release is so low. Anyway, here are the results:
Poll 1: Which was the last Photoshop version that offered essential new features for you?
1. Photoshop CS6 38%
2. Photoshop CS5 19%
3. Photoshop 6 11%
4. Photoshop CC 8%
5. Photoshop CC 2014 6%
Photoshop 7 6%
Photoshop CS2 6%
6. Photoshop CS3 4%
Photoshop CS 4%
7. Photoshop CS4 0%
Poll 2: Which of the new Photoshop CC 2014 features do you consider most useful?
1. Adobe Camera Raw 8 enhancements 43%, 21 votes
2. Content-Aware Improvements 39%, 19 votes
3. Smart object improvements 37%, 18 votes
4. Focus Mask 31%, 15 votes
5. Other 25%, 12 votes
6. Improved Layer Comps 22%, 11 votes
Blur Gallery motion effects 22%, 11 votes
Graphics engine performance boost 22%, 11 votes
7. Workflow Enhancements 18%, 9 votes
Improved Windows 8.1 stylus support 18%, 9 votes
8. Faster intelligent upsampling 12%, 6 votes
Smarter Smart Guides 12%, 6 votes
Font Search 12%, 6 votes
9. Support for very large PNG files 10%, 5 votes
Support for new video formats 10%, 5 votes
10. Typekit desktop fonts 8%, 4 votes
Expanded 3D printing 8%, 4 votes
Experimental features 8%, 4 votes
11. Adobe Generator enhancements 6%, 3 votes
Exporting 3D LUTs 6%, 3 votes
57% of the voters consider that Photoshop CS5 and CS6 have been the most essential releases so far. 11% say the same for the very old Photoshop 6 release, that is 14 years old. In total that is more than 2/3 of all voters. The latest CC and CC 2014 versions gather only 8% and 6%.
Photoshop CC 2014 offers more improvements of old features than spectacular new ones. Around 40% of all voters consider the improvements of Camera Raw, Content-Awareness and smart objects most noteworthy. One of the really new features, focus masking, is only appreciated by 31%. The remaining new features are considered useful by 6 to 22 percent of the voters.
Both polls obviously do not speak for real innovation in the latest two CC releases of Photoshop. The question is: Did Adobe have the foresight that it would be difficult to produce compelling new Photoshop features in future and decided to switch to the new CC subscription model or is it the subscription model that actually suppresses innovation? Maybe a bit of both...
For more poll results please visit the
Resources section
NEW POLL
How much would you maximally pay for a useful plugin?
This time we will repeat a poll which was conducted in a similar manner in 2009 and 2011. You can vote for the maximum price that you would pay for a useful plugin. The Price items range from $300 to $1.
Please participate in this poll by visiting
the
Main page...
THE DISCUSSION FORUMS
Using Plugins in PSP X7, Harry's Plugins Warning
Here are the latest interesting posts from The Plugin Site Forums:
Using Plugins in PSP X7
charmainejensen wrote: "I just purchased Corel Paint Shop Pro X7
Ultimate - my operating system is Windows 7 64 Bit. ... it would not recognize
that I had plugins... Can anybody tell me if they have been able to get
plugins to work with this program, I do know people using X6 and able
to get plugins to work."
Read
More...
Harry's Plugins Warning
Anastasia wrote: "I have tried to download Harry's Plugin package
but have re4cieved a warning from Microsoft saying " Publisher could
not be verified....this file could corrupt your computer." Is this
still safe to download? Or is there another version I could download where
the publisher is verified? Please let me know as soon as possible..."
Read
More...
Feel free to post comments or start a discussion topic
at
The Plugin Site Forum
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
Berg Design Plugins, Tych/Save Panel, NKS5, Composer,
LiveShare PS
Berg Design
offers three plugins (up to Photoshop CS5 on Mac only) for masking and
coloring 8-bit RGB images. The Peel Off White plugin makes white areas
in an image transparent, Gray To White increases the saturation without
producing artifacts and Gray To Black lightens the shadows in an image.
The three plugins were created with Filter Foundry, so they only run in
32-bit Photoshop versions up to CS5.
Visit website...
Lumens offer two panel extensions for Photoshop. Tych
Panel is an extension for Adobe Photoshop (for Photoshop CS5
and higher on Win/Mac) that automates the process laying out pictures
side by side. It helps creating diptychs, triptychs and an almost unlimited
set of custom layouts. Save Panel (for Photoshop CS5
to CC on Win/Mac) lets you resize and save files by simply clicking a
button.
Visit website...
NKS5 Essential Media Kit (for Photoshop
CS5 to CC on Win/Mac) provides a collection of drawing, painting, texturing
and production tools via an extension panel.
Visit
website...
Composer (for Photoshop CS5 to CC on
Win/Mac) updates multiple layer comps in Photoshop with one click. You
can choose to update all properties or only the layer style, position
and visibility of the selected layer compositions.
Visit
website...
LiveShare PS is a Photoshop extension
(for Photoshop CC 2014 on MacOS X only) that enables real-time design
meetings from within Photoshop, which means that one person works on a
Photoshop document and the other participants can instantly see the changes
in a web browser. Mobile mirroring is also supported. Furthermore there
are options for 72 dpi viewing and sharing snapshots of the document.
Visit
website...
For more free plugins and tool, please visit the
Resources section
GRAPHICS NEWS
Photoshop Elements 13, Paint Shop Pro X7, Photoshop CC 2014.2, Aperture Development Ceased
Version 13 of Photoshop Elements finally
offers a 64-bit version for Windows after version 12 was already 64-bit
on the Mac. It now only runs under Windows 7 & 8 and Mac 10.8 &
10.9. Among the most useful new features are layer mask respectively transparency
for 16-bit images (although still only one layer is supported in 16-bit
mode), a content-aware fill feature and a new refine selection tool. The
crop tool was improved with a 3 x 3 grid and crop suggestions. Most other
features are aimed at novices, e.g. the Facebook designer, Photomerge
Compose for mixing multiple images and new guided edits.
Visit
website...
Paint Shop Pro X7 (for Windows) was
launched with the following new features: Magic Fill, which is the answer
to Photoshop's content-aware functionality, Text and Shape Cutting that
allows creating photo objects, 30% faster brushes, a new Color Materials
palette, a new Image dialog for creating new projects, a new preview window
for previewing Instant Effects, a Smart Edge brush option for keeping
brush strokes inside the lines of an object in the image, XMP file support
as well as an enhanced layer workflow. Additionally eight effect dialogs
were redesigned, e.g. Selective Focus, Vignette, Retro Lab, Graduated
Filter, Depth of Field, Red Eye Removal.
Visit
website...
In the meantime Adobe released two new updates
for Photoshop CC 2014. Photoshop CC 2014.1 expanded support for
new 3D printers, 3D print services and 3D file formats and offers 3D workflow
efficiency updates. The Photoshop CC 2014.2 Update features Creative Cloud
libraries, a new Welcome screen, an Extract Assets feature, improved guides,
touch support for Windows, a 3D PDF export option, faster Focus Area and
several other smaller improvements. The Adobe Color panel (formerly known
as Kuler) was reintroduced and there is a new render filter for producing
flames, trees and picture frames.
Visit
2014.1 website...
Visit 2014.2 website...
Apple announced that it is ceasing development of its
Aperture raw processing application. The Photos for OS
X tool in the next version of Mac OS X (Yosemite) is meant as a replacement.
It will be possible to migrate existing Aperture libraries to it. Aperture
under OS X Yosemite will support new raw files via the OS. It is unlikely
that the free Photos tool will meet all demands of Aperture users, so
Adobe Lightroom will certainly grow its user base.
Visit
website...
