Most professional digital images in the wild today have been touched by Adobe Photoshop software, whether they are on a billboard, in a magazine, or on the movie screen. Equally prominent are the number of Photoshop users who seek the ability to change the interface to accommodate their unique work styles. Customization of the Photoshop interface generally entails rearranging and hiding or showing different panels and saving custom workspaces.

This spotlight details the ways that Photoshop users can create entirely new panels and fully incorporate them into Photoshop CS4. These new capabilities will appeal to users who simply want to assemble common commands into a custom Photoshop panel, as well as to experts and developers who want to create panels with new features that extend their use of Photoshop CS4.

This new, higher level of customization is made possible by a behind-the-scenes shift in the way panels are built and displayed. In Photoshop CS4, interface panels can now be built as SWF files. That means extending Photoshop CS4 with new custom panels involves the ability to build specific types of SWF files, which can be done in three different ways, depending on the complexity of the new panel to be built and the user’s programming expertise.

At the more expert end of the scale, Adobe Flex® Builder™ 3 or Flash® CS4 Professional software can be utilized to create complex panels with new capabilities. A good example would be additions formerly accomplished with third-party plug-ins, except that this “plug-in” is fully integrated instead of appearing in a separate modal dialog box that interrupts workflow. At the less expert end of the scale, the new Adobe Configurator application can be used to create a new panel by dragging elements from a list into a new template. It’s simple, visual, and intuitive, but obviously more limited than starting from scratch in Flex Builder 3.

About Adobe Flex

Flex is a highly productive, free, open source framework for building and maintaining expressive web applications that deploy consistently on all major browsers, desktops, and operating systems. While Flex applications can be built using only the free Flex SDK, developers can use Adobe Flex Builder 3 software to dramatically accelerate development. For more information or to try out Adobe Flex Builder 3, visit www.adobe.com/go/flex.

The Kuler panel included with Photoshop CS4 is a good example of the capabilities of SWF-based panels. Fully integrated with the application, it lets you create new color harmonies, save them to the Swatches panel in Photoshop, upload them to Adobe.com to share with others, or download new harmonies directly to Photoshop CS4.

Adobe® Photoshop® CS4 andPhotoshop CS4 ExtendedSWF-based interface panels

Spotlight

New custom panels are installed in Photoshop CS4 as easily as traditional plug-ins by dropping them into a specific folder in the Photoshop application folder (Plug-ins/Panels) or using the Adobe Extension Manager CS4 component that is installed with Photoshop CS4. Once installed, they can be shown or hidden as easily as any other panel and are grouped in the Window > Extensions submenu. A good example of the expanded functions available with SWF-based panels is the included Kuler panel (Window > Extensions > Kuler), which enables the creation, download, and upload of color harmonies between Photoshop and Adobe Kuler™ (kuler.adobe.com). This panel has three tabs and allows you to browse content being accessed through the Internet, or to use its capabilities while offline. It was designed and implemented by Adobe but could as easily have been created and made available by any professional Photoshop user with programming expertise.

Some of the ways that users can leverage SWF-based panels in Photoshop CS4 include:

•Workflow panels—Create custom panels designed for specific workflows.

•Training—Create video feeds and step-by-step tutorials that can be viewed within Photoshop, such as feature tutorials or custom workflow instructions.

•Browsing exchange—Create a custom browser to exchange files and data from websites, photo galleries, and databases and to load them directly into Photoshop.

•Peer-to-peer exchange—Communicate and exchange ideas and data with colleagues without leaving the Photoshop environment.

•Metadata tracking and processing—Add custom information to the File Info window tabs, such as network-stored keywords, spell checking, and more, which can then be processed by external databases for verification, asset tracking, and so on.

Also based on Flash technology, the File Info window enables customers to add, track, and process custom metadata for any file opened in Photoshop CS4.

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Panel creationCreating panels for Photoshop in the past was a frustrating and difficult task. Now developers can create cross-platform, cross-application, nonmodal, vector-based, network-aware extensions using Flash or Flex. In fact, virtually any Photoshop user, with no programming knowledge whatsoever can create such panels using Configurator.

Basic Photoshop panelsAdobe Configurator supplies a comprehensive set of tools and features already in Photoshop CS4 and enables you to combine them in ways that suit your workflow. At the simplest level, you may want to gather a small set of Photoshop tools and commands central to a specific workflow in one place for easier access. At a higher level, you may want to include JavaScripts or Photoshop Actions. Elements you can add to a custom panel using Configurator include tools, menu items, scripts, actions, audio, video, images, and even other SWF files. With Configurator, you can quickly drag the elements you need into a new panel template, adjust the parameters for each element—such as label, size, and position—and even add text, such as instructions or labels.

Once you are done, all that is necessary is to save the results to the Plug-ins/Panels folder to make them available when you restart Photoshop CS4. A good example of what can be done in Configurator is the Dr. Brown Basic 3D Lenticular panel, created by Russell Brown to quickly walk through the creation of 3D lenticular images with Photoshop CS4 Extended. These images turn normal 2D Photoshop layers into 3D objects and then split the objects into pairs, giving the final image 3D depth when viewed with the same glasses used to view traditional 3D movies.

Using Adobe Configurator 1.0, you can quickly mix and match Photoshop tools and functions into a suitable custom configuration that can be fully integrated with the Photoshop CS4 interface.

Included with the Photoshop CS4 installation, Adobe Extension Manager CS4 can be used to install, remove, and manage extensions for Photoshop CS4 and many other Adobe Creative Suite® 4 components.

Russell Brown’s 3D Lenticular panel exemplifies how integrated, interactive tutorials can be built into Photoshop CS4, without the need for extensive programming knowledge.

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Advanced Photoshop panelsExpert Photoshop users and application developers can create Photoshop panels that contain new and more detailed capabilities, building the SWF file using applications like Flex Builder 3 or Flash CS4 Professional. In many cases, they also need to create a custom JavaScript file, using such applications as Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit CS4, which is included in the Photoshop CS4 installation. A CSXS (Creative Suite eXtensible Services) Library, included with the Photoshop Panel Developers Guide, is added to this package to communicate between the SWF file, the JavaScript file, and Photoshop CS4.

For more informationFor more details on Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended, choose Help > Photoshop Help and select one of the How To topics from the Help menu, or visit www.adobe.com/support/photoshop.

To obtain a free copy of the Photoshop Panel Developer’s Guide, visit the Photoshop Developer Center at www.adobe.com/devnet/photoshop.

Adobe Configurator 1.0 is a free application available by download from Adobe Labs at labs.adobe.com/technologies/configurator.

For more details on Adobe Flex Builder 3, visit www.adobe.com/go/flex.

For more details on Adobe Flash CS4, visit www.adobe.com/go/flash.

For more details on Photoshop CS4, visit www.adobe.com/go/photoshop.

For more details on lenticular imaging, or to obtain a copy of the Russell Brown panel, visit www.russellbrown.com.

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Adobe, the Adobe logo, Creative Suite, Flash, Flex, Flex Builder, Kuler, and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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