Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugins for Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom, PSP & others
Plugin Newsletter - March/April 2020
CONTENTS
EDGE & FRAME GALAXY 2.0 FOR WINDOWS:
New plugin with 5000 effect files
PHOTOWIZ 1.11 / PLUGIN GALAXY 2.11 FOR MAC: Photoshop & Catalina Fixes
ELEMENTSXXL 7.02 FOR WINDOWS: Support for Photoshop Elements 11/12, Renewed Trial Period
ADJUSTSHOP 1.03 FOR WINDOWS: Support for Edge & Frame Galaxy, Bug Fixes
GALAXY BUNDLE FOR WINDOWS: Containing Edge & Frame Galaxy, Plugin Galaxy, HyperTyle and Plugin Commander
POLL RESULTS: Which was the last Photoshop (Elements) version that offered essential new features to you?
NEW POLL: Do you use Photoshop-compatible plugins more or less often than in the past?
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Stocksolo, The Orange Box, EasyMockups, Glimpse
GRAPHICS NEWS: Quad Pencil, Nik Collection 2.5, Topaz Ends Free Upgrades, Photoshop 2020 21.1, Affinity Photo 1.8
Dear Reader,
Edge & Frame Galaxy was our first commercial product released in 1999. I always planned to create a plugin for applying the edge & frames of this image collection. Unfortunately I never found the time to develop one in 20 years as other plugin projects always had precedence. Robin Rowlands and I created many new edges and frames 10 years ago, but they have never been released until now. The Frame feature of the new AdjustShop plugin finally opened up an opportunity. It was only a question of enhancing it further to produce the new Edge & Frame Galaxy 2 plugin. Apart from the 3500 new edge & frame files one of its most exciting feature is Vector-Resize, which scales up low resolution edges while keeping or even making the outlines tuck-sharp.
Other than that, ElementsXXL 7 has been made compatible again with Photoshop Elements 11/12. And some annoying problems with the Mac versions of our plugins caused by newer versions of macOS and Photoshop were fixed. For those who want to revisit some old (mostly 32-bit) Photoshop plugins, many broken download links on the Free Photoshop Plugins page have been fixed. The new download links are marked with a NEW logo.
I hope you are safe and able to keep your sanity in these crazy times! Doing creative things with digital images might be a nice distraction during quarantine.
Kind regards,
Harald Heim
EDGE & FRAME GALAXY 2.0 FOR WINDOWS
New plugin with 5000 effect files
Photo Credits: Prometeus & inarik/Pond5
Our latest product upgrade is called Edge & Frame Galaxy 2. Edge & Frame Galaxy offers 5000 edge & frame files that can be applied to images in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements with the help of a plugin. The plugin offers edge & frame adjustment features as well as drop shadow, bevel, stroke and glow effects. A Vector-Resize option applies low-resolution edges to high-resolution images without pixelation.
Edge & Frame Galaxy 2 for Windows can be used in Photoshop CS2, CC and higher as well as Photoshop Elements 11 and higher. The full download is approx. 2 GB big, most of which is occupied by high resolution image files.
For more information visit the
Edge & Frame Galaxy Page
PHOTOWIZ 1.11 / PLUGIN GALAXY 2.11 FOR MAC
Photoshop & Catalina Fixes
The PhotoWiz and Plugin Galaxy plugins for macOS were updated to version .11 in order to fix various problems. The updates make the preview work again in Photoshop 2020 21.1, suppresses security warning under macOS 10.15 Catalina and add installation support for Photoshop Elements 2020. In order to avoid the macOS Catalina problems support for macOS 10.6 to 10.8 had to be dropped.
The PhotoWiz Collection offers tools for correcting, enhancing and restoring digital images. Plugin Galaxy is a plugin for creating special effects and enhancing images with the help of more than 160 basic filters, a Layers feature and 400 presets.
For more information visit the
PhotoWiz Page
Plugin Galaxy Page
ELEMENTSXXL 7.02 FOR WINDOWS
Support for Photoshop Elements 11/12, Renewed Trial Period
Photo Credits: Opolja & Chunhahca/Dreamstime
ElementsXXL 7.02 has been made compatible again with Photoshop Elements 11 & 12 after we received numerous user requests. Apart from the Range Adjust adjustment layer and the Content-Aware Fill dialog all other new features work in PSE 11/12. The Pen Pro tool was further improved, some UI problems and other bugs were fixed. The ElementsXXL trial version can be used for another 14 days.
ElementsXXL adds up to 1300 powerful features to Photoshop Elements for Windows that were previously only available in Photoshop. These features are included as 320 new menu items, 80 dialogs, 40 icons, 30 key shortcuts, 8 panels and 3 drop-down buttons. ElementsXXL greatly enhances the image editing experience in Photoshop Elements.
For more information and a trial version visit the
ElementsXXL Page
ADJUSTSHOP 1.03 FOR WINDOWS
Improved Frame feature, Bug Fixes
Photo Credits: studio10artur/Pond5
AdjustShop needed to be updated to version 1.03 to support the Edge & Frame Galaxy 2 plugin. Its Frame dialog, which was the base for Edge & Frame Galaxy 2, was further improved. Three smaller problems were fixed too.
AdjustShop adds up to 400 new features to Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. It includes 700 presets, 24 new filters, 10 new fill layers and 11 new adjustment layers. The features are included as new menu items and dialogs, so they seamlessly integrate into the user interface. AdjustShop can be used in Photoshop CS2-CS6, CC and higher as well as Photoshop Elements 11 and higher.
For more information and a trial version visit the
AdjustShop Page
GALAXY BUNDLE FOR WINDOWS
Containing Edge & Frame Galaxy, Plugin Galaxy, HyperTyle and Plugin Commander
With the new Edge & Frame Galaxy 2 release we decided to create a new offer called the Galaxy Bundle. The Galaxy Bundle contains Edge & Frame Galaxy 2, Plugin Galaxy, HyperTyle and Plugin Commander. So it combines three special effect plugins and a plugin management tool. It offers a 37% discount compared with buying the products individually. With this new offer all of our products are available as three different bundles.
For more information visit the
Galaxy Bunde Page
POLL RESULTS
Which versions of these image editing applications do you use?
Here are the results of the previous poll cast by 78 people about the latest Photoshop (Elements) version that offered essential new features:
Photoshop results:
1. Photoshop CS6 26%
2. Photoshop 2020 25%
3. Photoshop CC 2019 15%
4. Photoshop CS5 8%
5. Photoshop CS2 6%
6. Photoshop CC 2017 4%
6. Photoshop CS or older 4%
7. Photoshop CC 2015.5 2%
Photoshop CC 2015 2%
Photoshop CC 2014 2%
Photoshop CC (2013) 2%
Photoshop CS5.5 2%
Photoshop CS4 2%
Photoshop CS3 2%
8. Photoshop CC 2018 0%
Photoshop Elements results:
1. Photoshop Elements 2020 32%
2. Photoshop Elements 15 24%
Photoshop Elements 10 or older 24%
3. Photoshop Elements 14 8%
4. Photoshop Elements 2019 4%
Photoshop Elements 2018 4%
Photoshop Elements 13 4%
5. Photoshop Elements 12 0%
Photoshop Elements 11 0%
Interestingly, the latest Photoshop 2020 and Photoshop Elements 2020 versions made it to the top of the list. The latest two Photoshop versions as well as the latest three Photoshop Elements releases were essential for 40% of the voters. Still, 36% see Photoshop CS5-CS6 as the last useful version. And Photoshop Elements 10 and 15 are considered to be the last essential versions by 48% of the voters. So approximately half of the voters are satisfied with older versions while the other half prefers newer releases.
For more poll results visit the
Resources section
NEW POLL
Do you use Photoshop-compatible plugins more or less often than in the past?
The latest poll lets you vote if you use Photoshop-compatible plugins more or less often than in the past or if your utilization of plugins remained the same.
You are welcome to participate in this poll by voting at
Main page...
FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS
Stocksolo, The Orange Box, EasyMockups, Glimpse
StockSolo is a free extension for Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and XD (for Win/Mac), which gives you access to millions of free stock photos from within these Adobe applications. After a search it displays images in a panel and lets you place them into your document.
Visit
website...
The Orange Box offers various effects (for Win/Mac) that can be applied with their FX Box extension for Photoshop CC 2014 and higher. The installation is a bit inconvenient, but there is a video on the web site demonstrating it. The effects include e.g. sharpening, oil paint and photo effects.
Visit website...
EasyMockups is an extension for Photoshop CC 2015 and higher(for Win/Mac) for creating iOS app presentations.
Visit website...
Glimpse is a full-featured image editor (for Win/Linux) based on GIMP. It still looks very much like GIMP itself, but it is planned to enhance it and make it easier to use especially for photographers. It also comes with useful GIMP plugins preinstalled. A Mac version is planned.
Visit website...
For more free plugins and tools, please visit the
Resources section
GRAPHICS NEWS
Quad Pencil, Nik Collection 2.5, Topaz Ends Free Upgrades, Photoshop 2020 21.1, Affinity Photo 1.8
Redfield Quad Pencil (for Windows) is a commercial Photoshop-compatible plugin that transforms photos into pencil sketches. It is recommended for architecture, landscape, still life and certain portrait shots.
Visit
website...
DxO Nik Collection 2.5 (for Win/Mac) offers five new film emulations and support for Affinity Photo 1.8. Otherwise it officially only supports Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and DxO PhotoLab.
Visit website...
Topaz Labs announced that it will not provide free upgrades to its products anymore as it did in the past. The change will be introduced in August 2020. They said that they produced too many products with similar features in the past instead of concentrating on upgrades. This was caused by having to make money without charging for upgrades. In future they will require a fee for new updates/upgrades one year after a purchase.
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Version 21.1 of Photoshop 2020 (for Win/Mac) improves the workflow of the Content-Aware Fill workspace by allowing multiple edits without leaving it. The Lens Blur effect renders faster by using GPU power as well as improves the effect quality. Additionally there is support for the new dark mode in macOS Catalina, better scrolling & zooming responsiveness as well as many bug fixes. Unfortunately many users also complained about a lot of new bugs. For example, the previews of our Mac plugins stopped working, which we have fixed now.
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Affinity Photo 1.8 (for Win/Mac) offers Canon CR3 raw file support, a new template feature, a unified toolbar for macOS and improved metadata handling.
Visit website...
