The Plugin Site Forum

Guntis · Plugin Power User Joined: 26 Aug 2005 Posts: 5

Hi,
Do you plan to make FocalBlade plugin for Apple Aperture 2? I'd be interested in it.
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"In a world without fences and walls, who needs Gates and Windows?"

HaraldHeim · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:40 pm Post subject:

Actually we would be more interesting to release Lightroom versions of our Photoshop plugins, but Adobe does not allow that yet and we have no idea when Adobe will finally supply a Plugin SDK.

So I am rethinking at the moment if it may be worth a try to create an Aperture version of one of our plugins and see how it sells. I cannot give you a definitive answer yet.

Guntis · Plugin Power User Joined: 26 Aug 2005 Posts: 5

It would be good to have Focal Blade plugin as export plugin. Too often I need to send some images to someone by email for blog entries and then Focal Blade would be fantastic tool.
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"In a world without fences and walls, who needs Gates and Windows?"

HaraldHeim · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:08 pm Post subject:

You mean as an export plugin in Lightroom? Unfortunately Lightroom export plugins are more or less scripts. Offering FocalBlade as such a "Lightroom script" is not a real option for us.

Guntis · Plugin Power User Joined: 26 Aug 2005 Posts: 5

No, I mean for Aperture

I've tried both applications, but Aperture has much better photo library management and keyword tagging features, while Lightroom maybe has 5% edge in RAW development. In all these years I haven't found any good photo library application, and when Aperture was released I was in the 7th heaven. If I had to buy Lightroom or some other application for RAW development and then buy another application for archiving and photo management, it simply didn't make sense to me. So I am very satisfied with Aperture which is way better in library management and almost as good in RAW development. If I could sharpen images with Focal Blade for viewing them on the screen, it would be close to perfect.
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"In a world without fences and walls, who needs Gates and Windows?"

HaraldHeim · Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 10:24 pm Post subject:

The main problem I have with Aperture is that it is only for the Mac. 75% of our products are sold for Windows. So producing plugins for a Mac-only application means targeting a smaller market.

Guntis · Plugin Power User Joined: 26 Aug 2005 Posts: 5

I don't know how it's abroad, but in Latvia software piracy among Windows users is about 56%. Among Mac users in Latvia about 15-20% (looking at what people openly say in the Mac user forums). So even if you target smaller group, it may be more willing to buy software than steal it...
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"In a world without fences and walls, who needs Gates and Windows?"

Guntis · Plugin Power User Joined: 26 Aug 2005 Posts: 5

I compared both sharpening tools and … FocalBlade is hands down clear winner for sharpening for the screen. Maybe for printing purposes NIK Sharpener is better, but for onscreen viewing sharpening FocalBlade delivers much better results, more tiny details, less sharpening where there's no need for sharpening. So - I still wish you'd make it for Aperture.
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"In a world without fences and walls, who needs Gates and Windows?"