So they removed Pattern maker, and the Extract filters from Photoshop CS4

MR
Posted By
Mark_Reynolds
Oct 13, 2008
Views
491
Replies
9
Status
Closed
Personally I hardly ever used these, but did occasionally. I was wondering how this is going to affect others?

I don’t see how removing two items from the filters menu makes much difference to anything. Maybe its more of a launch time issue, although I’m not sure that taking functionality away just to have fraction of a second faster launch, is a little daft.

They are still included on the CD, but this is going to inconvenience me if I ever need them in a freelance role. When I first saw extract I did think "what on earth are these people thinking?", it was almost as if the engineeers themselves hadn’t woken up to non destructive editing. And pattern maker lacks the most obvious features. They are also both slow and cumbersome to use, but they do have other occasional uses beyond what they were (admittedly quite badly) designed for, especially pattern maker for reintroducing sampled texture into heavily retouched areas.

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Oct 13, 2008
Regarding "Extract":

If you really need it right now, just add the CS3 plug-in into CS4 — it will work as it always has.

Actually, John Nack has stated that those old plug-ins will be downloadable from the Adobe site if you need them.

We’ve bitten the bullet with this release and have sent a number of features into retirement. Extract, Pattern Maker, Web Photo Gallery, Contact Sheet, Picture Package, and PDF Presentation have been removed from the default installation.

The latter four have been replaced by the Output module in Bridge CS4, and our intention is to replace Extract with features inside Photoshop (building on Refine Edge & more). All of these except PDF Presentation will remain available as optional installs (to be posted on Adobe.com), but over time they’ll be phased out.

[Emphasis — mine.]
RV
Richard_Vidutis
Nov 18, 2008
Eliminating Extract is just one of the dumbest decisions ever. What does that save, a nanosecond in terms of the function of the whole package? I tried finding it as an optional install but I could find the Mac version only. Funny how one little vital feature makes the whole program suspect.
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Nov 18, 2008
To update my comments from Oct 13:

Both Extract and PatternMaker are included in the CS4 Optional plug-ins on your CS4 Goodies Folder and are also downloadable from Adobe’s Site.

< http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=3 9&platform=Macintosh>

Extract and PatternMaker are for Mac only.

"Extract" is being superseded by the Quick Select tool and the improved Layer Masking.
SW
Scott_Weichert
Nov 19, 2008
Extract was superseded as soon as Layer Masks were implemented. It’s never been a solid method for created good extractions.
B
Buko
Nov 19, 2008
Eliminating Extract is just one of the dumbest decisions ever.

unless of coarse there is a better tool. Like the quick selection tool.

You must not have used CS3.
MR
Mark_Reynolds
Nov 19, 2008
"Quick" select does a completely different thing. These tools are similar in one respect only – they are both very often too slow to use efficiently.

From what I can see there is likely to be new functionality coming into the app in the next version, this is indicated by the Masks Panel. This new panel at the moment doesn’t really have enough functionality to justify its inclusion, having only one genuine new feature – non destructive ‘feathering’. But it does indicate that they are working on new masking capabilities hopefully these will embrace the use of calculations, and channel mixing now THAT might be worth the upgrade – provided they don’t remove anything in the process of course.
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Nov 19, 2008
The new Masks panel also includes Color-selective masking; in addition to the Refine Edge controls.
MR
Mark_Reynolds
Nov 19, 2008
In practice thats all there in CS3 Ann, certainly for anyone with the insight to assign F keys, actions and shortcuts to work efficiently.

Color range in function has been improved in a major way I think, but ACCESSING it is best done with a shortcut, same as it ever was.
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Nov 19, 2008
Either way — both ways work.

But using the tools in the Masks Panel lets you adjust the created mask very easily after the fact.

Must-have mockup pack for every graphic designer 🔥🔥🔥

Easy-to-use drag-n-drop Photoshop scene creator with more than 2800 items.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections