Image Composer - A tip on using plugins

Author

A tip on using plugins

walter666

2006-09-24, 6:22 pm

If you Google for "free Photoshop plugins" (without the quotes), you will
find about 16,000,000 entries. After choosing and trying the ones you want,
you may settle on those you want to be available to all your gfx pgms. I
accomplish that in this manner.

1. I pick one gfx pgm to be my central plugin repository. In my case that is
Photoshop 7.0.

2. I install all plug-ins to that pgm's plugin location. In my case that is
Adobe\Photoshop 7.0\Plug-Ins\[new folder with name of plugin, e.g. Xenofex].
This way I only have to install plugins once.

3. I then tell all the other gfx pgms to look for their plugins in the
Photoshop plugins folder. This way, IC1.5, PD2, Photoshop, etc., etc., can
all find every plugin.

4. The IC Impressionist plugin is Photoshop compatible, so many of my other
gfx pgms can use it. I therefore move it from IC to PS and tell IC to look
in the PS plugin folder. It consists of one folder and three files:
Impressionist Accessories [folder]
Impressionist.8bf
IMPRSNST.CNT
IMPRSNST.HLP.

I hope this helps you have more fun with plugins.

Ilya Razmanov

2006-09-24, 6:22 pm

On Sun, 24 Sep 2006 12:22:03 +0400, walter666 <invalid@nowhere.not> wrote:

> 1. I pick one gfx pgm to be my central plugin repository. In my case
> that is
> Photoshop 7.0.
>
> 2. I install all plug-ins to that pgm's plugin location. In my case that
> is
> Adobe\Photoshop 7.0\Plug-Ins\[new folder with name of plugin, e.g.
> Xenofex].
> This way I only have to install plugins once.

You can make your life much easier. Just install your plugins into some
directory (and subdirs below) way outside of Photoshop. I personally
install most of them into C:\Program Files\Plugins on this very machine.
Then in Photoshop's plugin directory, just create the shortcut to the
directory where plugins are located. You may also add the shortcut to the
directory where Impressonist is installed as well. And, apparently,
configure other hosts to search for plugins there.

After doing so, you can update or remove Photoshop or any other host
without touching the plugins, since the latters are installed in a
separate directory. Also you avoid possible problems with hosts trying to
cope with PS7 (well, let's say PS6 and never) plugins that the hosts can't
actually run.

--
Ilya Razmanov
http://photoshop.msk.ru/ - Photoshop plug-in filters

walter666

2006-09-24, 6:22 pm

Well, I like my way, and you like yours. So there we are.

Ilya Razmanov

2006-09-24, 6:22 pm

On Sun, 24 Sep 2006 21:18:58 +0400, walter666 <invalid@nowhere.not> wrote:

> Well, I like my way, and you like yours. So there we are.

Well, I'm not trying to say that you do things wrong. You do things right
but there's some chance for improvement. Obviously, if you are not going
to uninstall Photoshop or take some other "dramatic" steps like that, then
installing plugins under Photoshop is quite ok. However, under some
circumstances it it more safe to install plugins in some "separate"
location and get more control on the way how different hosts find this or
that plugin.

--
Ilya Razmanov
http://photoshop.msk.ru/ - Photoshop plug-in filters

walter666

2006-11-05, 10:29 pm

Like I said,

Well, I like my way, and you like yours. So there we are.

mamselle

2006-11-05, 10:29 pm

thanks for the tips, walter & ilya
i do keep mine all in a single folder as well
it doesn't help much when you get a new computer, tho.....
i don't use any other graphics programs...my head can't handle it anymore ;)
m

"walter666" <invalid@nowhere.not> wrote in message news:eyLpoJ73GHA.5024@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> If you Google for "free Photoshop plugins" (without the quotes), you will
> find about 16,000,000 entries. After choosing and trying the ones you want,
> you may settle on those you want to be available to all your gfx pgms. I
> accomplish that in this manner.
>
> 1. I pick one gfx pgm to be my central plugin repository. In my case that is
> Photoshop 7.0.
>
> 2. I install all plug-ins to that pgm's plugin location. In my case that is
> Adobe\Photoshop 7.0\Plug-Ins\[new folder with name of plugin, e.g. Xenofex].
> This way I only have to install plugins once.
>
> 3. I then tell all the other gfx pgms to look for their plugins in the
> Photoshop plugins folder. This way, IC1.5, PD2, Photoshop, etc., etc., can
> all find every plugin.
>
> 4. The IC Impressionist plugin is Photoshop compatible, so many of my other
> gfx pgms can use it. I therefore move it from IC to PS and tell IC to look
> in the PS plugin folder. It consists of one folder and three files:
> Impressionist Accessories [folder]
> Impressionist.8bf
> IMPRSNST.CNT
> IMPRSNST.HLP.
>
> I hope this helps you have more fun with plugins.
>
>

Ilya Razmanov

2006-11-05, 10:29 pm

On Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:37:15 +0400, mamselle <mamselle_nospam@mamselle.ca>
wrote:

> thanks for the tips, walter & ilya
> i do keep mine all in a single folder as well
> it doesn't help much when you get a new computer, tho.....
> i don't use any other graphics programs...my head can't handle it
> anymore ;)

I only use a couple of programs for my own image editing needs, but I have
to do a lot of compatibility testing for my own plugins with others.
Besides, I'm always having a lot of more or less buggy internal releases
to test, and I shoud avoid getting them in conflict with each other.
That's why I sort of have to handle plugin management for different
programs somehow, otherwise I will stop understanding what I'm doing
pretty soon :-)

--
Ilya Razmanov
http://photoshop.msk.ru/ - Photoshop plug-in filters