Spotlight
Adobe Photoshop CS4 and
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.
® ®
Photoshop CS4 Extended
SWF-based interface panels
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
The Kuler panel included with Photoshop CS4 is a good
specific types of SWF files, which
example of the capabilities of SWF-based panels. Fully
can be done in three different integrated with the application, it lets you create new color
ways, depending on the complexity harmonies, save them to the Swatches panel in Photoshop,
of the new panel to be built and the upload them to Adobe.com to share with others, or download
new harmonies directly to Photoshop CS4.
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.
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 creation
Creating 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 panels

Adobe 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.

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.

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.

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.
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 panels
Expert 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 information

For 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.

Adobe, the Adobe logo, Creative Suite, Flash, Flex, Flex Builder, Kuler, and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems
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