Plugin Commander News

New Plugin Commander Installation

As more and more people reported problems with installing Plugin Commander, we decided to repackage it with a new installation program. The software itself hasn't been changed, so only if you had problems installing Plugin Commander Light, please re-download it from http://thepluginsite.com/products/picopro/

Users of the commercial Pro Version can contact us for a download with their order details at http://thepluginsite.com/about/contact.htm

NEW POLL: Which application do you mostly use for correcting and enhancing your photos?

In previous years we asked you about which image applications you use for doing all kind of things. The latest poll will ask you which image application you use for a specific task: the correction and enhancement of digital photos. You can choose between 17 commercial and freeware tools and an "Other" item.

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

THE DISCUSSION FORUMS: Water Spray Plugin, Copying a Palette, Index print, KPT 6 Goo Problems

Here some of the latest messages from The Plugin Site Discussion Forums:

Kali Autumn Lynn asked: "Does anyone know of a plug-in that will simulate an image of water being sprayed on something or someone? Is there a plug-in that can do this?"
http://www.graphicsgalaxy.com/forums/thepluginsite/viewtopic.php?t=2229

Alell asked: "How can I copy a palette from a photo in Photoshop? If Photoshop doesn't allow this, is there any application that does?"
http://www.graphicsgalaxy.com/forums/thepluginsite/viewtopic.php?t=2206

Acampos wrote: "I want to find a plugin for Photoshop (or software) to create thumbnails and arrange them on a CD label (25 - 36 Thumbnails/ CD label). I know I can do it manually but I have tons of CDs and a I want to save time."
http://www.graphicsgalaxy.com/forums/thepluginsite/viewtopic.php?t=2205

LordLogic wrote: "I had kpt6 goo in psp 8 and everything was working fine but I decided to uninstall psp 8 and kpt 6 goo to upgrade to psp 10! Well, it didn't work ... so I uninstalled 10 AND reinstalled 8 and also kpt6 goo, now psp 8 works but kpt 6 goo doesn't! ... Any and all help or suggestions would be appreciated, LL"
http://www.graphicsgalaxy.com/forums/thepluginsite/viewtopic.php?t=2223

FREE PLUGINS AND TOOLS: Pog's Lab Blender, Dynasty Plugins, Bryce 5, Photoshop SpeedUp, JPEGCrops

Pog is working on a new plugin called Lab Blender. It basically does an overlay blend of the image with itself in Lab mode. The interface looks quite complex with its dozens of sliders, but you can use it as a toy and play a bit with it. For the latest Version 0.48 please click the "[FYI] Lab Blender minor update" link at http://gopog.net/

Dynasty Software expanded their collection with 30 new Photoshop-compatible plugins (for Windows). They mostly produce psychedelic patterns, colorful gradients and noise effects. The plugins are quite simple, because they were created with the old Filter Factory tool. The plugins are free, but the author asks for a small donation if you like them. http://www.dynastysoftwareusa.com/pages/plugin.htm

DAZ Productions Offers Bryce 5.0 (for Win/Mac), a 3D content creation application, as a free download until September 6. Bryce 5 creates realistic 3D landscapes and animations. It also supports network rendering for saving time by letting you render images on multiple computers. http://www.daz3d.com/program/bryce/bryce5free.php

Photoshop SpeedUp (for Windows ) is a tool that decreases the time it takes to load Adobe Photoshop by disabling unused plugins, fonts and presets You can also set the memory usage and restore the original settings. Photoshop SpeedUp works with Photoshop versions 3 to 8 (CS). http://www.acropdf.com/

JPEGCrops (for Windows) provides lossless cropping with fixed aspects. You can process single images or batch process whole folders. Apart from cropping the JPEG files you can also losslessly rotate them. JPEGCrops is freeware for private use only and is localized to various languages. http://ekot.dk/programmer/JPEGCrops/

GRAPHICS NEWS: OptiPaint, Blow Up, imageSynth, PD Particles, Filter Forge Update, SizeFixer XL

The Light Strokes OptiPaint system is the first input device that lets you use real paint brushes and other actual artist tools directly with your favorite paint software. The package consists of a hi-speed USB input device and Photoshop-compatible plugin. The product costs $2495 plus shipping.

http://www.optipaint.com/

Alienskin Blow Up is a Photoshop plugin for high quality image resizing. It claims to be better than bicubic interpolation and any other third party solution. Blow Up preserves smooth, crisp edges and lines, and creates four times enlargements from any image without jagged artifacts or halos. It includes features such as photo grain controls, enlargement-specific sharpening, and supports even 32-bit images.

http://www.alienskin.com/blowup/

Luxology has now made a Photoshop plugin version of their imageSynth product available. It generates high-resolution, tiling images from low-resolution sources using advanced image synthesis algorithms. Manually or automatic options can be used to generate the final image.

http://www.luxology.com/store/imageSynth.aspx

PD Particles (for Windows) is a software program for sketching, doodling, painting and drawing with particles. It is based on the award-winning particle painting system called OptiPustics, found also in Project Dogwaffle. PD Particles contains a number of natural fx brushes and can be used as a complete, self-contained painting program, although it is intended as a companion to your existing graphics tools.

http://www.thebest3d.com/pdp/

The updated public beta of the Filter Forge plugin now provides increased speed and functionality. Filter Forge lets you combine filters for the creation of seamless textures, visual effects, distortions, patterns and backgrounds. New features include a zoomable workspace, four new blending modes, new components, the ability to load and save PNG files and many more. The final version is planned for autumn.

http://www.filterforge.com/

A Windows version of SizeFixer XL, which had only been available for the Mac up to now, was made available by FixerLabs. It claims to enlarge images up to 400% with no loss of sharpness. SizeFixer XL uses FixerLabs' patented Super-Resolution technology and is designed for extreme enlargement of 8-and 16-bit images.

http://www.fixerlabs.com/New_Website/pages/sizefixerxl.htm

ABOUT THE PLUGIN SITE

Looking for freeware or commercial graphics software, free plugins, effects or tools? Want to read various graphics software reviews? Are you looking for graphical inspirations? Do you need tutorials, poll results or programming stuff? Do you want to discuss topics related to plugins and computer graphics?

Then "The Plugin Site" is the right place for you. Please visit us at

http://thepluginsite.com/

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Plugin Commander News 2 September 2006