maandag 9 mei 2011

Installing Plugins

I claim the copyright to this tutorial.  You are free to do whatever you please with what you make, but please do not take my tutorial.  Do not send the tutorial through email.  Only share my link.
This tutorial is intended for a beginner to learn about installing plugins.  If you have any questions, please feel free to Email me.
To do this tutorial you will also need Photoshop CS.  You may download a free trial at Adobe.
Remember to save as a .psd file often!
While the methods here are for Photoshop, the tips discussed here can also be applied to Paint Shop Pro.
Filters provide special effects to the graphics that you are working on in Photoshop.  Photoshop comes with some filters already installed.  But there are other filters created by third parties that can be downloaded and installed for Photoshop to you.  These third-party filters are called plugin filters, or simply plugins. 
Before we begin, you will need a program that will unzip files.  A very common one is Winzip.  This tutorial assumes that you have already used Winzip.
Organization of your plugins is very important.  When you open up Photoshop,  it will load the plugins, so the more plugins you have, the longer it takes to load.  You can help Photoshop out, by separating your plugins into folders.  Then telling Photoshop to load only one of those folders,  Of course, if the filter is not in the folder that Photoshop loads, then you will have to tell it to load the other folder.  You may even have to restart Photoshop to do so.
Before you install any filter, it is a good idea to have your graphics program CLOSED, so close Photoshop if you have it open.
1.  Create a folder to keep your plugins in.  I called mine PSplugins.  I created it on my desktop.
right-click on desktop and choose New > Folder
2.  Open up the plugin folder, and then create a folder for the plugin that you will be downloading or installing.  We are going to install the Simple Filters  first.  So inside my PSplugin folder I create another folder and called it:  Simple Filters.
Double-click on PSplugin folder to open it.  Then right-click inside folder and choose New >Folder
3.  Go to the site to download the Simple Filters.
Near the top, click on the link that says Download and Bonus Pack.
Then click on the link that says SET of 10 FILTERS, and that will download the zip file.  Either download it to a download folder or to your desktop.  (You will be able to delete this zip file after installation).
You might as well get the bonus filters, too.  *S*  So also click on the link that says FEW EXTRA.
The rest of that web page tells you about the filters and even tells Paint Shop Pro owners what other files they need for the filters to work.  But those two links are all you need for the filters to work in Photoshop.
4.  Use your unzipping program (like Winzip) to unzip the SET of 10 FILTERS into the Simple Filters folder that you made. 
5.  Use your unzipping program (like Winzip) to unzip the FEW EXTRA into the Simple Filters folder that you made. 
Now the filters are installed!  But you have to tell your graphics program where they are.
6.  So Open up Photoshop.
7.  Now we have to tell Photoshop where our plugin folder is.  In the top menu, click on
Edit > Preferences > Plugins & Scratch Disks.
8.  At the top of that box, place a check next to Additional Plugins Folder, then click on Choose and browse your computer to find the plugins folder you made.
Now here's a hint:  Right now we only have one plugin installed, so we can set our Additional Folder to the folder named PSPlugins.   It will read every filter inside that folder, including inside any subfolders (like Simple Filters) that is located in there.  However, if we had a lot of filters installed, it would load EVERY filter inside that folder and its subfolders.  This could make loading time for Photoshop very long.  Instead, you can make some subgroup folders inside the PSPlugins--such as PSPlugin1, PSPlugin2, PSPlugin3.  Then move the Simple Filters Folder into one of those subgroups.  And tell Photoshop to read from PSPlugin1, rather than PSplugins main folder.  In this way it only reads the filters from the PSPlugin1 folder, and nothing from the PSPlugin2 or PSPlugin3 folders.  So Photoshop will not load every filter.  But if you need another filter later, and this second filter is not in PSPlugin1, then you will have to repeat Step 8, and direct it to one of the other subgroup folders.
I made a PSPlugin1 folder inside my PSPlugin main folder.  In that first folder, I placed the filters that I use most often (see list below).  I placed all other filters into PSPlugin2 (and 3 and 4 if I have a lot).  Then I direct my Photoshop to read only from PSPlugin1.  This saves loading time.  A few times I may use a filter that is not in my favorites folder, and then I have to tell Photoshop to read from one of the other folders, but since my favorites are all together in the first folder, I do not have to redirect Photoshop very often.
9.  You may need to restart Photoshop now.  Close Photoshop and then open it again, and your filter folders should be available under the Filter dropdown menu.
Not all filters will install this easily.  Some have a setup feature.  After you unzip them into your plugins folder, you have to open up the folder and double-click on the setup icon and follow the setup's directions.  Just remember to always direct the setup program to save it back into the special folder that you had made for that plugin.
Here are some filters that I find myself using frequently and highly recommend:
1.  Ulead Art Texture  (requires you to double-click setup) FREE
2.  Simple Filters FREE
3.  Super Blade Pro by Flaming Pear  (requires you to double-click setup) Free 30-day trial/ must register
4.  Toadies  FREE
5.  VM Natural  FREE
Of course, there are a whole lot more!  And be aware that some filters are free and some are not.
Here is a page that lists the links to many filters on the Internet that you may use:

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