Freeware Friday: Adobe Studio

At the recent InDesign Conference, Terry White lectured on all the free stuff available at Adobe Studio. It’s not only for InDesign, either: Photoshop users can find many freebies here.

Adobe Studio (at http://studio.adobe.com/) is a cool place to get a lot of great tips from design pros, but the freebies will be found in the Exchange (look for the Exchange link). Photoshop freeware of every kind can be found here, below I’ve selected one from five different areas.

Walrus Instant Horizons brushes
by Jaime L
This is a brush set that makes horizon shot elements such as sky or background. It’s says it’s Windows-only but Macs can use it too to create photorealistic sky effects and complete landscapes. It makes you realize the power of creating brushes from photographic elements!

PHT Burn Blur filter
by Phan huy Thuy
It’s disappointing that most of the filters in Adobe Studio are rated poorly and not up to standards. However, one that seems to do well is the PHT Burn Blur, which adds something like a color dodge and blur to your images.

InkCoverage plug-in
by Dwight Kelly
Some users don’t know about the concept of ink coverage that limits how much ink we can put on the press (hint: don’t use 100% of all CMYK inks!). Photoshop’s Info palette already can give you adequate ink information, but if you need more you can use the InkCoverage plug-in, which lists the coverage on all channels as well as total ink coverage and maximum ink coverage. Very helpful for prepress environments.

Conditional Action script
by Sivaratnam Gunaratnam
Look at this! Awhile back I had written about using ImageReady to create conditional actions for Photoshop (because Photoshop doesn’t have them). Siva has created a conditional action script that uses a neat graphical interface to set up the conditionals. First select your source image, select up to three conditionals and subsequent responses, then run the script and Photoshop will take care of the rest. The source for this script can also be found at actionlogic.blogspot.com.

Photorealistic Microphone tutorial
by Colin Smith
For those who don’t know, Colin Smith is one of the great Photoshop illustrators, with a photorealistic style that earned him a lot of fans and at least two Guru Awards. His website is at www.photoshopcafe.com.

Anyway, Colin published a tutorial for creating a photorealistic microphone image. It uses several Photoshop techniques and is a great tutorial for beginners and experts alike. Try it out and advance your Photoshop skills!