How to install plug-ins

[mitchellm]

Can you provide any general directions for how to install plugins? I believe when I installed the Google Nik suite of plugins that the installer auto-recognized whether I had Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. I also use a few Topaz plugins, but if I remember correctly the install process was a bit different for them.

 

Is the best way to simply find the plugins within the Photoshop folder plugin subfolder? Then duplicate and drag somewhere else? That might work with Google suite, but Topaz seems differently organized.

 

I use plugins a LOT, so I can't really test out the beta until I can figure out how to incorporate the plugins to my workflow. (BTW I realize from another thread that some plugins may not work all the time, or work inconsistently: that's fine, it's a beta.)

[ronniemcbride]

Check under your preferences and add your plugin folder to the directory. Restart the application. To use your plugin after reboot go to Filter> Plugins and choose your plugin of choice. 

[Leigh]

You can find Topaz Plugins in Mac HD > Library > Application support > Topaz Labs > {Plugin Name} > Plugins. You can add this folder to Affinity Photo using ronniemcbride's instructions :)

[maloushe]

What about for folks (like me) who do not have Photoshop?  I'm using the Standalone/Aperture versions, so as far as I understand, the Photoshop versions don't get installed?  I'm using Nik Collection.

[ronniemcbride]

What about for folks (like me) who do not have Photoshop?  I'm using the Standalone/Aperture versions, so as far as I understand, the Photoshop versions don't get installed?  I'm using Nik Collection.

 

Does your Nik Collection come with a adobe plugins install? If it doesn't then you would be using the same workflow you been using would be my guess.

[maloushe]

Hi Ronnie,

 

No, it does not.  It comes up with a 'compatible hosts' page during install, but I only have Aperture.  So the PS versions are not installed.

[mitchellm]

Thanks for the suggestions above. Very helpful. 

 

I already see one problem with the Google Nik plugins. The way that all of them work is they first duplicate the layer (in PS) and then do their magic. This layer duplication step is incredibly helpful for many reasons. However, within Affinity Photo there is no duplication of the layers.

 

Is this a feature that might be added to Photo in the future? (BTW I'm not seeing an easy way to duplicate a layer. It probably exists somewhere, but it's not in the immediately obvious places I expect: e.g. by control-clicking a layer and choosing duplicate.)

[mitchellm]

And here's one more related question. Is there a way to import and use Actions? I only have a few, mainly through Litely. I imagine this is easier to import/incorporate than plugins, but I may be wrong. Any practical suggested steps for installing actions?

[Andy Somerfield]

Hi,

 

I'm in the process of writing up a tutorial document for using PS plugins with Photo - the process is a little complicated, because Photo is a sandboxed app.

 

mitchellm: Yes, we will be constantly improving the plugin support during the beta, with next builds weekly - hopefully most thing should be working properly fairly soon :)

 

Thanks,

 

Andy.

[mitchellm]

Andy: Thanks, a tutorial will be great. Understand about sandboxing trickiness. 

[mitchellm]

Andy: can you add any clarification regarding Actions? I'd love to import and use the Litely actions that I've bought. Not sure how to do this right now. Or, if not possible at the moment, will importing 3rd party actions also be part of the final product?

[romeojohn]

Thanks for the suggestions above. Very helpful. 

 

I already see one problem with the Google Nik plugins. The way that all of them work is they first duplicate the layer (in PS) and then do their magic. This layer duplication step is incredibly helpful for many reasons. However, within Affinity Photo there is no duplication of the layers.

 

Is this a feature that might be added to Photo in the future? (BTW I'm not seeing an easy way to duplicate a layer. It probably exists somewhere, but it's not in the immediately obvious places I expect: e.g. by control-clicking a layer and choosing duplicate.)

Only just downloaded and in one image just did cmd +J to duplicate layer, same as PS

[mitchellm]

@romeojohn: Thanks. I never used the keyboard shortcut on PS. Works very nicely!

[fotoguy]

Check under your preferences and add your plugin folder to the directory. Restart the application. To use your plugin after reboot go to Filter> Plugins and choose your plugin of choice. 

Hi.....I tried your method regarding NK Google Suite plugin folder but it wants me to "re-buy" the suite........any thoughts?

[MikeFromMesa]

Check under your preferences and add your plugin folder to the directory. Restart the application. To use your plugin after reboot go to Filter> Plugins and choose your plugin of choice. 

I have tried this with my Topaz plugins and they don't work, at least for me.

 

I posted a question about the difference between the plugin search and the plugin support folders, but never got an answer. In any case none of the Topaz plugins I have added to the plugin search folder entry worked and I always got an error message: \

 

Cannot proceed - IPC Memory in use or Image size is too big for the system. 

 

My Athentech PerfectlyClear plugin does not work either. I am on a MacBook Pro Retina with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD running Yosemite.

[Andy Somerfield]

Hello guys,

 

Sorry for the delays, but I managed to write that guide about plugins in AP:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/5008-how-to-configure-photo-to-use-plugins/

 

Hope it helps..

 

Andy.

[mitchellm]

Andy: Will try to follow your provided directions this weekend and see if that makes a difference. At any rate, glad Photo will incorporate third-party plugins!

[DeepShader]

Today I tried to install the new Apple Parallax Exporter Plug-In for Photoshop, but Affinity Photo doesn't recognized it :( Even if I copy it directly to the plugin-folder.

 

Any workaround to get it work? Itself says it needs PS CC 15 or higher.

[MEB]

Hi DevBoyLars,

Apple Parallax Exporter Plug-In is a Photoshop extension, not a filter plug-in (.8bf), so it's not supported by Affinity apps.

[DeepShader]

Oh.. ok - thank you :)

 

Will this be possible in future updates?

[billtils]

Andy

 

 

Re your post #16, when I clicked the link it returned a "You do not have permission" ...

 

Regards

 

 

Bill

[MikeFromMesa]

Andy,

 

Same thing for me as Billtils posted. That link does not seem to work.

[MEB]

@billtils, MikeFromMesa

It points to an archived post. Here's the content Andy was linking to in post #16:

 

Hi,

 

I'd just like to take a few minutes to explain how PS 64bit "8BFM" plugins work in Affinity Photo, and maybe answer a few commonly asked questions in the process. Here goes..

 

1.) Set up the "Plugin Search Folders" list in Preferences - this just means "tell Photo where the .plugin files are". You can add as many folders as you like, but usually, if you currently own Photoshop, you should be pointing it to "/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS6/Plug-ins" (or similar, depending on your PS version and install location).

 

2.) The next part is more complicated. Photo is a Sandboxed application. This is the necessary for us to be able to ship on the App Store. A Sandboxed app is restricted - it can only look at files which the user tells it it is allowed to look at. Many plugins require more files than the .plugin itself to operate - but because of the Sandbox restriction, most plugins panic when they load because they cannot access files which they need to operate.. so..

 

You have two options here - you could figure out which folders are required for your plugin to work - they usually install their things in /Applications, or /Library/Application Support - but if they are trial versions, then they could need to access other folders, and all bets are off.. so..

 

There is an easier way to set up plugin support folders. You can make Photo behave like a non-Sandboxed app by telling it that it is able to access any file it wants - just like Photoshop etc.

 

If you want to do this, the recipe is:

 

a.) Affinity Photo -> Preferences -> Photoshop Plugins.

b.) Plugin Support Folders -> Add Folder.

c.) Shift+Cmd+G to bring up "Go to the folder" text input.

d.) Type "/" (in other words, root, everything). Press "Ok" a few times.

e.) Photo should show just "/" in the plugin support list.

f.) Restart Photo.

 

Eventually, we will establish exactly which folders each plugin needs, and put that information into the topics in the "Plugin Support" forum here - but until that point, adding the "/" support folder will allow you to "see what we see" when testing plugins.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Andy.

 

[billtils]

Thanks MEB - will give this a try later today!

[MikeFromMesa]

Thank you. But for our benefit can you tell us how to go about trying to find out what folders are actually needed for our plugins? Is there some procedure we can use to find out what is being accessed by the plugin so we can enter the correct folder instead of using "/"?