Third-party plug-ins, actions and scripts are creating new uses and extending Photoshop into new areas.It's no stretch to say that Adobe Systems Inc.'s Photoshop has made the transition from user application to major developer platform.
Like a platform, Photoshop has a trade show, Photoshop World, featuring vendor booths displaying a diversity of third-party software created to "run on" Photoshop. You won't find a "Word User Magazine" on the newsstand, but you might see one of several publications with Photoshop in the title. Another indicator is Amazon's best-seller list of computer books, which often contains more Photoshop titles than any other subject—including Windows.
(Tune into Publish.com all week for continuing coverage of Photoshop World.)
The 15-year success streak of this digital imaging fixture can be partly attributed to the features of the application itself and to advances in affordable scanner and digital camera hardware. But it has never been truer that it is the third-party plug-ins, actions, and now scripts that are creating new uses for Photoshop—and therefore new Photoshop users.
"There are vertical solutions in terms of magazine, newspapers, ad agencies and other creatives," said Adobe Developer Evangelist Mark Neimann-Ross. "But it goes further. Developers are extending the boundaries of what anybody considers [to be] the uses of Photoshop."
As digital imaging evolves, so does Photoshop. Click here to read more.
Third-party products are pushing Photoshop well past its desktop publishing and Web publishing roots—and well past the current professional photography uses. Photoshop is now picking out fingerprints from complex surfaces and conducting medical imaging.
"There's also a lot of government and research work being done with Photoshop in satellite imagery and 3-D recognition," said Neimann-Ross.
Reindeer Graphics Inc. is one such developer of scientific add-ons to Photoshop. Fovea Pro and Image Processing Toolkit are bundles of Photoshop plug-ins and actions for microscopy, measurement, and analysis. For its customers, Reindeer can offer an attractive solution that costs thousands of dollars less than traditional scientific imaging software.
"We can't control a stage on a microscope or interface with some of the more complicated cameras," said Chris Russ, president of Reindeer Graphics. "But we've got 95 percent of what anyone would want to do."
In addition, Russ said that the lower cost of Photoshop-based imaging solutions slips under the buying restrictions often placed on groups of users by their management. "Most departments are allowed to purchase Photoshop," said Russ, "even scientists."
To support Photoshop as a developer platform, Adobe has built a thriving developer program, offering SDKs (software developer kits), APIs (application-program interfaces) and a variety of training resources.
Russ had good things to say about Adobe's developer program. "It has enabled someone small like me to build a full-fledged product," said Russ. "Adobe gets you into an SDK program for a small amount of money. And there's a mailing list where you can get in touch with engineers."
Neimann-Ross said that Adobe gives developers access to a lot of the technical details of its software. "In some respects, developers are treated no differently than our own engineers," he said.
Adobe also provides Web-based resources for members of its developer program. "You could develop for years with the material that's up there," said Neimann-Ross.
Next Page: Platform Beginnings and Future Directions.
It's hard to pinpoint just when Photoshop made the transition to a software platform, as the application has had a plug-in architecture since it was release in 1990. Some at Adobe say the process was gradual.
"There was no tipping point," said Kevin Connor, Adobe's director of product management for professional digital imaging. "Photoshop has been there from the beginning."
Even in the early 1990s, third-party add-ons were an important ingredient for success. "Kai's Power Tools had a big impact in building the value of the application," said Conner
Russ, however, who has been developing Photoshop plug-ins since Photoshop 1.0, sees Version 5 as a turning point, at least for his market.
"The 16-bits of Photoshop 5 opened up image processing and measurement to scientists," said Russ. "Before that, cameras could produce better images than Photoshop could handle."
However, Russ feels that the most recent version, Photoshop CS, is significantly better for his customers.
"Creative Suite really sealed the deal," said Russ. "You have 16-bit images in layers and 16-bit workflows."
Creative Suite is also the most developer-focused effort Adobe has produced. The suite includes Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and GoLive, all of which have plug-in architectures of their own.
"We definitely see Creative Suite as a platform," Neimann-Ross. "We have APIs and SDKs for every Creative Suite product."
Creative Suite also offers integration among all of the applications that enable a developer to create multi-application workflow solutions.
"There's tons of things [a developer can do] in Photoshop and Illustrator," Neimann-Ross. "But when you glue two of them together, it's more than 2x; there's a lot of fascinating things you can do."
Adobe is also offering developers more than plug-in opportunities. Russ also uses Photoshop actions, a type of macro that was added with Photoshop 4.
"Actions make it very easy for a non-programmer to add automation," said Russ. "It's much easier to use Actions than Javascript or a macro language in more expensive [imaging] packages."
Photoshop actions have also acted as an entry point for Photoshop developers. For instance, nik multimedia Inc.'s first Photoshop product was a collection of actions. From there, nik moved into plug-in products.
More recently, Adobe has been building up scripting abilities—another tool developers can use for automation. "Where plug-ins add new image processing features, a script takes processing that is already there and customizes it into your workflow," said Connor.
However, scripting offers more control than actions. "Scripts are more sophisticated versions of actions," said Connor. "A script can add a dialog, ask the user for input, and make decisions. But creating scripts is not as difficult as writing a plug-in. Scripting at aimed at more of user level than plug-ins, but the advanced user, like someone in an IS department."
As with other creators of platforms, Adobe promotes its third-party products, and is bullish on the future of its developer program.
"We're very enthusiastic about what our developers are doing," said Neimann-Ross. "You never know for sure where it's going to go. The most interesting developments are unexpected."
As for Photoshop World, Neimann-Ross described it as a trade show that developers and users both help define.
"It's like a Star Trek convention with Photoshop users."
