
                         s  o  f  t  e  n  e  r

                     a professional softening plugin
           by namesuppressed - http://www.namesuppressed.com/



a b o u t   t h e   p l u g i n

Softener is a Photoshop plugin that adds a soft glowing effect to your
images.  You can control the degree of softness, the intensity of the
glow effect, and choose from a variety of blend modes.  Sure, you could
create the same effect by hand in Photoshop, but could you do it this
easily and quickly?

Softener features a clear and professional user interface that is far
more advanced than any Filter Factory plugin.  It even comes with
built-in presets to get you started.  Best of all, as with all
namesuppressed plugins, it's fully-functional shareware at an
affordable price!


i n s t a l l i n g   t h e   p l u g i n

To use this plugin, copy the softener.8bf file to the plugins folder of
your paint program.  This directory varies depending on the software
you use.  If you are using Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, the directory
may be one of the following:

           C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Plugins\Filters
           C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Plug-ins
           C:\Program Files\Paint Shop Pro 5\Plugins

If you use a different program, please consult the manuals that came
with it to find the plugin directory appropriate for your plugin.  Once
you have copied the file, restart your paint program.  The plugin
should be listed in your Plug-in Filters menu under the category
"namesuppressed".

Note: If you have difficulties running the plugin you may need to
ensure you have the latest versions of MSVCRT.DLL and COMCTL32.DLL
installed on your computer (they are found in the Windows\System
directory).  These files are freely available on the Internet.


s y s t e m   r e q u i r e m e n t s

In order to use the plugin, you will need a PC with an Adobe plug-in
compatible paint program such as Adobe Photoshop or Jasc Paint Shop Pro.
This plugin will not run on Macintosh or Unix based systems.


u s i n g   t h e   p l u g i n

You alter the effect the plugin creates by altering the value of the
controls (sliders, checkboxes etc) on the plugin.  When you have
achieved the effect you desire, click the OK button to make the change
to your image.  Clicking Cancel will prevent any changes being made.

The plugin controls perform the following effects:

* Radius
  Sets the radius of the Gaussian Blur.  The greater the radius, the
  greater the blur (and hence, the softer your image will look).  Good
  values are usually between 30 and 60.  (For Photoshop and Paint Shop
  users, a radius of 60 corresponds to a blur radius of 6.0 in your
  respective image editing program).

* Opacity
  Controls the mix of the softened image with the original.  A value of
  100% means only the softened image is visible, 80% means the image
  will be 80% softened and 20% original. Think of it as controlling the
  degree of the visible effect. Setting the opacity to 0% has no
  effect, and will therefore disable previewing.

* Overlay
  Controls the way the softened image is blended (or overlaid) with the
  original. The labels correspond to Photoshop blend modes, eg Normal,
  Darken, Lighten etc.  Great effects can be achieved by choosing the
  Overlay or Addition blend modes.  For most general softening, Normal
  mode is fine.

* Enable Luminosity
  When checked, the blur is blended with the original image in such a
  way that brighter pixels will blur more than darker ones.  This gives
  a softer effect, and looks much less blurry... and much nicer.
  
* Preview
  If unchecked, previewing will be disabled.  This is useful for doing
  a comparison with the original image, or stopping the computer from
  making lengthy calculations while you modify several control values.


s h a r e w a r e

This plugin is "shareware".  You are free to share it with your
friends, as long as you copy the original zip file it came in and don't
modify it. For more details read the Contact/Copyright section below.

You may use this plugin for a trial period until you determine whether
you wish to keep the plugin or not.  If you decide to keep it, you must
"register" your copy - this involves paying a registration fee to the
program's author.  When you register, you will receive a special code
that will disable the plugin's annoying reminder messages.  You can
register online at http://www.namesuppressed.com/design/

Why did I decide to release this plugin as shareware?  It takes a lot
of time to make these plugins and it costs a lot of money to keep my
website online.  Without the website, I can't offer my freeware and
shareware plugins to the public.  It's only fair that I receive some
compensation for my efforts, and the registration fees will help me to
continue making these plugins available to everyone.


p l u g i n   h i s t o r y

DD/MM/YY  Vers.  Notes
23/03/01  1.0.1  Eliminated a bizarre "divide-by-zero" error that
                 occured if you agreed to visit the website in the
                 shareware version (registered version isn't affected).
                 Fixed some errors in the readme file.
12/02/01  1.0.0  Public release, implemented the funky interface
                 designed by Alvin Sebastian Hoo.  New features include
                 built-in presets and a "please wait" message appearing
                 on the preview window during long calculations.  Fixed
                 a bug causing plugin to fail if preview was disabled.
                 Blur correction algorithm now built-in as default.
                 Shareware registration code added and improved.
07/02/01  0.3.0  Private release, introduced a blur correction control
                 to make blurring intensity similar to that of
                 Photoshop.  Corrected a bug that caused the progress
                 bar to cycle through 4 times.  Interface now informs
                 user what the plugin is doing while calculating the
                 preview.  Added the new Zero-Opacity mode to disable
                 auto-previewing. Altered minimum radius, as values
                 below 5 cause problems.
02/02/01  0.2.0  Private release, introduced luminosity control.
30/01/01  0.1.0  Initial private release.


k n o w n   i s s u e s

* Softener doesn't remember the settings you used the last time you
  ran the plugin.  I hope to have a fix for this very soon.
* The preview window is not entirely accurate.  For now, I recommend
  previewing at 100% when you need to be sure of the effect accuracy.
* Changing the slider controls doesn't reset the Presets control. I
  hope this can be fixed in the coming months (fingers crossed).
* The radius control is out by a factor of 10, due to some problems
  with decimal numbers.  I hope to fix this in the next few months.
* The Gaussian Blur used is not identical to the one in Photoshop.
  This is unlikely to be "fixed" for quite some time.
* Blurring takes a long time due to a slow algorithm being used. I hope
  to improve it as my programming proficiency improves and time allows.


c o n t a c t / c o p y r i g h t

Softener is copyright 2001 Kohan Ikin.  It may be distributed freely,
so long as it is distributed in its entirety in the original unmodified
.zip file and all the following conditions are adhered to:

You must not distribute private and/or preview release versions of the
plugin.  Typically these have a version number of 0.x.x, ie the first
number is a zero.  You can find the version number by clicking on the
about button (usually the title of the plugin or a picture of a gnome).

If you are distributing Softener over the internet, you *must* provide
a clear link to http://www.namesuppressed.com/ on your web page.  If
you like, email namesuppressed with your URL and I might link back to
you after visiting and reviewing your page.

You may include the zip file in a commercial product, as long as it is
clear to the users of your product that registration of Softener is not
included in the purchase price.  I also ask that you email me with
details of your product/publication/etc so this information can be used
for publicity purposes.

I can be contacted at syneryder@namesuppressed.com, or through my world
wide web page at http://www.namesuppressed.com/syneryder/


                  e n j o y   t h e   p l u g i n !


                                                             Kohan Ikin
                                                      - 23rd March 2001