Plugin Newsletter - May / June 2008

 

Contents
========

EDITORIAL

B/W STYLER 1.02 WINDOWS UPDATE: Improved compatibility and bug fixes

COLORWASHER 2.01b MAC UPDATE: Improved compatibility with MacOS Leopard

THE PLUGIN SITE UPDATES: Filter Phrenzy Contest, Mosaic & Illumination Toolkit Updated

POLL RESULTS: Which version of Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop Elements do you use?

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

THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: New Mura Plugins URL, Photoshop Text Tool Problem, PSP 9 Installation Problems

FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Filter Forge Freepack 3, Mezzoforce Ice & Snow, Warping Plugin, Stereogram Lab, FreePhotoshop Ebook

GRAPHICS NEWS: Photoshop CS4 64-bit Plans, Camera Raw & LightRoom Updates, FocalPoint, FaceFilter 2, MS Photosynth, Three Contests

PRODUCTS FROM THE PLUGIN SITE

ABOUT THE PLUGIN SITE

 

 

Dear Reader,

There was no newsletter sent out at the end of last month or the beginning of this month, because I was on a longer holiday, which did not leave enough time. So it was not your spam filter or any other problem why you did not receive a May issue of the Plugin Newsletter in case you wonder.

We are continuing providing updates of our PhotoWiz plugins. This time it is B/W Styler for Windows and ColorWasher for Mac. The updates are mainly improving stability and fix bugs. We are also working on a new PhotoWiz plugin, so stay tuned.

I hope you are enjoying this issue of the Plugin Newsletter as ever.

Kindest regards,
Harald Heim

www.thepluginsite.com

 

 

B/W STYLER 1.02 WINDOWS UPDATE: Improved compatibility and bug fixes
-------------------------------------
Version 1.02 of B/W Styler for Windows now features DEP compatibility, improved compatibility with some applications, supports the Photoshop memory management and avoids problems with restricted user permissions. Several bugs have been fixed, e.g. opening a preset does not change the dialog language anymore and window maximizing works correctly now. Registered users will get the update within the next 24 hours.

For more information and downloading the demo version see
http://www.thepluginsite.com/products/photowiz/

 

 

COLORWASHER 2.01b MAC UPDATE: Improved compatibility with MacOS Leopard
-------------------------------------
The CS3 Intel Version (for Photoshop CS3 and Elements 6) was updated to Version 2.01b. It fixes a crash problem under MacOS X 10.5. The problem is not present in the PowerPC versions, so they were not updated. Registered users will get the update within the next 24 hours.

For more information and downloading the demo version see
http://www.thepluginsite.com/products/photowiz/

 

 

THE PLUGIN SITE UPDATES: Filter Phrenzy Contest, Mosaic & Illumination Toolkit Updated for Vista
-------------------------------------

20 entries have been submitted to the first Filter Phrenzy Contest about Harrys Filters. Congrats to Sylvia, Elisabeth and Joe who won a copy of Plugin Galaxy 2! For viewing the images visit:

http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album285&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

The second Philter Phrenzy asks you to create images with the help of DAZ Studio and the 3D Bridge plugin. Three winners will receive a subscription to Photos.com, DAZ Bryce 6 and the commercial version of the 3D Bridge plugin. Please submit your artwork until June 26 at

http://www.graphics.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album504&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

The two Photoshop plugins of the Mosaic & Illumination Fix Toolkit, which is hosted on The Plugin Site, were made compatible with Vista. For downloading the plugins please go to:

http://thepluginsite.com/resources/lotis/

 

 

POLL RESULTS: Which version of Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop Elements do you use?
-------------------------------------

1579 votes were collected in the previous poll. Here are the results:

1. Photoshop 46.3% (731 votes)
2. Paint Shop Pro 35.7% (564 votes)
3. Photoshop Elements 17.9% (284 votes)

1. Photoshop CS3 52.9% (387 votes)
2. Photoshop CS2 21.2% (155 votes)
3. Photoshop 7 11.9% (87 votes)
4. Photoshop CS 7.8% (57 votes)
5. Photoshop 6 4.4% (32 votes)
6. Photoshop 5.5 or older 1.7% (13 votes)

1. Paint Shop Pro 9 24.6% (139 votes)
2. Paint Shop Pro X2 20.7% (117 votes)
3. Paint Shop Pro X 15.9% (90 votes)
4. Paint Shop Pro XI 15.4% (87 votes)
5. Paint Shop Pro 7 10.8% (61 votes)
6. Paint Shop Pro 8 10.3% (58 votes)
7. Paint Shop Pro 6 or older 2.3% (13 votes)

1. Photoshop Elements 6 39.8% (113 votes)
2. Photoshop Elements 5 21.5% (61 votes)
3. Photoshop Elements 4 14.1% (43 votes)
4. Photoshop Elements 3 11.6% (33 votes)
5. Photoshop Elements 2 9.1% (26 votes)
6. Photoshop Elements 1 2.8% (8 votes)

The poll shows clearly that many people upgraded to the latest version of Photoshop and Elements whereas this is not the case for Paint Shop Pro (PSP). In fact most PSP users are still using the old Version 9, which was the last version from Jasc before Corel took over. Only a bit more than 50% of all PSP users use a version that was released by Corel. Concerning Photoshop there are only 17% of all users who are still using Photoshop 7 or earlier.

Please notice that there was a problem with the PSP X2 voting option. It did not work initially. I calculated that approx. 22 votes (which is approx. one fifth of its votes) were lost because of the problem. So the PSP X2 figure is not absolutely precise, but neither totally wrong.

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

 

 

NEW POLL: Do you use commercial plugins as a professional or as an amateur?
-------------------------------------
Our latest poll wants to know if you use commercial plugins for your daily job, as a hobby in your spare time or both. If you are not do not use commercial plugins, there is also a fourth item to vote for.

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

 

 

THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: New Mura Plugins URL, Photoshop Text Tool Problem, PSP 9 Installation Problems
-------------------------------------
Here are a few posts from The Plugin Site Discussion forums:

New Mura Plugins URL
victoriak68 wrote: "The MuRa Meister website is unavailable for viewing and my guess is that the site no longer exists..."
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2945

Photoshop Text Tool Problem
Giti wrote: "Hi all, wonder if anyone can help with this. I am a fairly experienced Photoshop user, have PS6. I am having a strange problem when I use the rotation tool on any text, as it doesn't just rotate, but also seems to slightly deform and curve the text, which it is not supposed to do..."
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2954

PSP 9 Installation Problems
Diana wrote: "I am trying to install Paint Shop Pro 9 on my desktop PC running Windows XP. The installation goes smoothly, however, when I try to open the program I get a pop up that says, "Unable to Open File" ... when that is clicked the program closes. ... I have tried uninstalling and re-installing, I installed the updates from Corel and I still get the same thing ... "
http://www.thepluginsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2953

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

 

 

FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Filter Forge Freepack 3, Mezzoforce Ice & Snow, Warping Plugin, Stereogram Lab, FreePhotoshop Ebook
-------------------------------------

The Freepack 3 plugin (for Windows) from Filter Forge offers seven frame effects, e.g. a painted wooden frame or a vignette.

http://www.filterforge.com/download/

Mezzoforce is again offering Version 1.03 of their Ice plugin (for Windows), which creates icy and glassy surface effects, as freeware for download. Additionally they now offer a Snow plugin (for Windows) for producing snow effects, which is also freeware. To make the download links work, you need to register to their forum at the bottom of the page.

http://www.mezzoforce.com/Mezzoforce-plugins/

The Warping plugin (for Windows) from 4N6site lets you change the perspective of photos. It maps the image area that is enclosed by 4 definable control points to the whole image. It was created for forensic problems, e.g. getting top views from crime scene photos or getting a straight view of oblique angled objects in photos.

http://4N6site.com

The free Stereogram Lab Filter plugin (for Windows) allows you to generate hidden image stereograms. These autostereograms consist of a repeating pattern and only show their hidden content if you focus your eyes behind the image plane.

http://hidden-3d.com/stereogram_photoshop_filter.php

You can get a free copy of the ebook "The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques" from SitePoint if you provide your email address. The offer expires on June 11, 2008.

http://photoshop.aws.sitepoint.com/

 

 

GRAPHICS NEWS: Photoshop CS4 64-bit Plans, Camera Raw & LightRoom Updates, FocalPoint, FaceFilter 2, MS Photosynth, Three Contests
-------------------------------------

Photoshop CS4 64-bit Plans
According to John Nack of Adobe the coming Photoshop CS4 will be available as a 64-bit application only for Windows and not for Mac. The 64-bit version will only have 8 to 12% performance increase compared to the 32bit version, but will be able to use more than 4 GB RAM. As a result photos with e.g. 3.2 Gigapixel (=3200 Megapixel) can be opened ten times faster.

http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/04/photoshop_lr_64.html
http://wwwimages.adobe.com/www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/pdfs/ps_cs3_64-bitsupport_FAQ.pdf

Camera Raw & LightRoom Updates
Adobe released Camera Raw 4.4.1 and Lightroom 1.4.1 after correcting the problems with the previously withdrawn updates. The updates also support the latest DSLRs from Canon, Sony, Pentax and Nikon along with the FujiFilm S100fs and Olympus SP-570 UZ.

Lightroom Win: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3892
Lightroom Mac: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3891
Camera RAW Win: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3894
Camera RAW Mac: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3893

FocalPoint
OnOneSoftware released FocalPoint (for Win/Mac), a plugin for reproducing the vignetted and defocused look which was traditionally created with special glass filters, gels or tilt-shift lenses. FocalPoint allows users to set the location of the sweet spot of focus directly on an image and then control the amount and kind of blur used.

http://www.ononesoftware.com/

FaceFilter 2
FaceFilter 2 (for Windows) is an application that lets you change facial expressions in photos and retouch portrait photos. The new version offers muscle based morphing, editable facial mask, skin filtration, smart color correction, 1-click red eye removal and instant photo-sticker printing.

http://www.reallusion.com/facefilter/

MS Photosynth
Microsoft provides a tech preview of Photosynth, which takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays the photos in 3D space. Photosynth runs directly in your web browser and makes heavy use of graphics hardware.

http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

Three Contests
Ready for a graphics challenge? Then here are three contests you can participate in: Pentawards is looking for package designs until June 13, but you need to pay $150 to participate and winners only get a certificate and trophy. Dynamics Graphics magazine asks you to submit before/after versions of redesigns to their annual competition and offers a $2500 Jupiterimages subscription to the winner. Finally, the HOW Magazine awards various types of interactive media and invites the winner to a conference as well as features the winning works in the magazine.

http://www.pentawards.org/
https://ssl.internet.com/stepcontest/redesign/index.cgi
http://www.howdesign.com/interactivedesignawards/

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