The Plugin Site - Plugin Newsletter

Plugin Newsletter - July 2008

Contents
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EDITORIAL

PLUGIN GALAXY 2 FOR WINDOWS: Special offer with a 30% discount

THE PLUGIN SITE UPDATES: Free Plugins Page Updated, New Polls 2008 Page

POLL RESULTS: Do you use commercial plugins as a professional or as an amateur?

NEW POLL: For what purpose do you use plugins?

THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Headless Animation, Dust Protection, Plugin DLL Files, OnOneSoftware Problems

FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Epson Print Plug-in, Technicolor, Digital Image Tool, Photoscape, Rotoscope

GRAPHICS NEWS: Fantastic Frames, CorelDRAW X4 Service Pack, Nikon Photo Contest, Akvis SmartMask, ACDSee Photo Editor 2008

PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE

ABOUT THE PLUGIN SITE

Dear Reader,

A few of my photos, together with the photos of other photographers, are currently shown in an exhibition. These photos represent alternative postcards of our home town Nuremberg (Germany). It is actually the first exhibition that I participated in, so it was quite exciting. As a spin-off project we plan to collect postcards from all over the word, which will be exhibited in the Museum of Communication in Nuremberg next year. Part of this project is a contest about postcards that will be conducted on The Plugin Site. It will probably start in October and there will be a lot of prizes to win. So be prepared!

Kindest regards,
Harald Heim

www.thepluginsite.com

PLUGIN GALAXY 2 FOR WINDOWS: Special offer with a 30% discount
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We are now offering Plugin Galaxy 2 for Windows at the special price of $49.95 (instead of $70) until July 15, 2008. This is a discount of almost 30%.

Plugin Galaxy 2 is a plugin for creating special effects and enhancing images with the help of more than 160 basic effects, which are accessible from a single dialog. Thousands of potential effects can be created with the help of various controls and blend modes. The new Play button generates random animations and the new Layers feature lets you apply multiple effects without leaving the plugin dialog.

For more information and a free demo version please visit:
http://www.thepluginsite.com/products/plugingalaxy/win/

THE PLUGIN SITE UPDATES: Free Plugins Page Updated, New Polls 2008 Page
-------------------------------------

The Free Plugins page of the Resource section has been updated with the plugins mentioned in the previous newsletters. The number of free plugin collections has increased to 132.

http://www.thepluginsite.com/resources/freeps.htm

A new Polls 2008 page was created and all poll results of 2008 were added.

http://www.thepluginsite.com/knowhow/polls2008.htm

POLL RESULTS: Do you use commercial plugins as a professional or as an amateur?
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Here are the vote results of 262 people from the latest poll:

1. I use them for spare time activities only. 66%
2. I use them both for my job and in my spare time. 29%
3. I use them professionally for my job only. 5%

Surprisingly 2/3 of all voters use commercial plugins only for personal projects whereas the remaining 1/3 additionally uses them for professional projects. Among these 34% professionals only 5% do not use commercial plugins in their spare time. So it seems that commercial Photoshop plugins are generally used by non-professionals. As most plugins are affordable by non-professionals, the result appears logical. However, the ratio will probably be shifted more towards professionals for more expensive plugins.

For more poll results, please visit the Know-How section at
http://thepluginsite.com/knowhow/

NEW POLL: For which purpose do you use Photoshop-compatible plugins?
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This time you are asked if you use plugins for photo enhancement, graphic design, web design, artwork, special effects, scrapbooking or editing video frames or 3D images. You only have one vote.

Please vote at the bottom of the page at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/

THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Headless Animation, Dust Protection, Plugin DLL Files, OnOneSoftware Problems
-------------------------------------
Here are a few posts from The Plugin Site Discussion forums:

Headless Animation
Lesam wrote: "... One of our members has the problem that her animations, other than very small size animations, split up. An example of the behaviour is , a figure " running" across the screen has the head moving faster or slower than the body ... The aberration appears on her computer ... The aberration is not apparent ... to ... viewers of the GIF on a website. ... Any thoughts or comments appreciated"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8834

Dust Protection
GoodArtist wrote: "A month ago I got a pet portrait ... My doubt is --- that how to protect the portraits from the dust and all? If i can get a few ideas would be helpful for me!"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2729

Plugin DLL Files
capricorncaz wrote: "I have Vista and PSP X2 I have been told that you need 5 dll files in a system folder ... I have Windows System folder AND a Windows System 32 folder. Don't know the difference ! ... I have had conflicting advice from well meaning friends .... I do not want to do anything wrong"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2969

OnOneSoftware Problems
duallydave wrote:"... i have ps cs3 and im curently using onone phototools version1,i recently got version 2 and went to install it,it gives me an error saying that "cant locate ps cs3 try installing cs3 again then install the onone again' when i installed version 1 everything went fine and it works well.i have cs3 installed on my c drive so it should work,any tips or thoughts?thanx in advance"
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2980

For more interesting discussion please visit our forums at
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/

FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Epson Print Plug-in, Technicolor, Digital Image Tool, Photoscape, Rotoscope
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The Epson Print Plug-in (for Win/Mac) offers options for making color-managed and multiple-image printing easier. It works in three steps: image selection, layout selection/definition and printer settings plus previewing. It offers flexible multi-page layouts with three layout types. Over 170 templates are available as standard and users can even create custom templates. It supports Photoshop CS2 (9.02), CS3, Adobe Elements 4.01, 5.02 and 6 as well as the Epson Stylus Photo 1400, R1800, R1900, R2400, R2880 and Stylus Pro 3800 printers. It is available in 7 languages. You can download it from:

http://esupport.epson-europe.com/SupportHome.aspx?lng=en-GB

The free Technicolor plugin (for Windows) from Red Paw Media simulates the 2-color Technicolor process. It makes the colors look old-style and a bit faded.

http://www.redpawmedia.com/technicolor.html

Digital Image Tool (for Windows) lets you batch process images. The processing includes resizing, rotation, cropping, watermarking, renaming and more. It does not require installation and can be run from a USB device. It also offers JPG compression preview. It reads GIF, TIF, JPG, BMP, PSD, PNG and TGA files and outputs JPG, TIF and BMP. It supports images up to 8000 pixel in width or height and only allows output sizes of up to 4000 pixel.

http://www.digitalimagetool.com/

Photoscape (for Windows) is a free photo viewing and editing software (for Windows). In addition to the usual features it also offers batch processing, lets you merge multiple photos according to templates, create GIF animation out of multiple photos, capture screen shots, batch rename photos and convert RAW files to JPG.

http://www.photoscape.org/

Rotoscope is a free tool (for Windows/Linux) that gives photos a cartoon-like appearance. This technique is known from movies like "Waking Life" and "A Scanner Darkly". It requires that you outline the main regions of the image before it renders the cartoon look.

http://www.toonyphotos.com/

For more free plugins please visit:
http://www.thepluginsite.com/resources/freeps.htm

GRAPHICS NEWS: Fantastic Frames, CorelDRAW X4 Service Pack, Nikon Photo Contest, Akvis SmartMask, ACDSee Photo Editor 2008
-------------------------------------

Fantastic Frames consists of 33 sets of 10 frame designs, which make a total of 330 frames in Photoshop .psd format. The sets let you produce frames for any size image using the high resolution pre-made pieces. The sets can be purchased individually or as a whole.

http://www.photoshopgraphics.co.uk/fantasticframes.shtml

The service pack for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 includes support for more than 25 new camera RAW formats and addresses major issues reported by the CorelDRAW user community. The service pack is available in various languages. CorelDRAW X4 users will receive this service pack via an in-product auto-update or can download it at

http://www.corel.com/coreldraw/

The 32nd Nikon Photo Contest International runs from September to November 2008. Last year's contest received more than 47,000 submissions from 135 countries. This year's theme is "At the heart of the image", which is the brand statement of the Nikon Imaging Company. 54 prizes will be awarded by a panel of international photographers in July 2009. For more details see

http://www.nikon-npci.com/

AKVIS SmartMask is an image selection and masking plugin (for Win/Mac). The three selection modes offer different levels of automation for both amateur and professional users. It lets you draw a line with a blue pencil inside the object and then outline the same object with the red pencil. The selection algorithm then analyzes the image and your drawing and creates a selection or mask. SmartMask also features three selection modes for different types of selection: Sharp, Soft and Complex.

http://akvis.com/en/smartmask/

ACDSee Photo Editor 2008 is a design and layout software created for photographers and scrapbookers. The latest version offers faster processing, more creative tools and options, quick optimization for the web, advanced printing functions, artistic effects that can be modified at any time, design templates as well as advanced journaling and text curving capabilities.

http://www.acdsee.com/

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