If you want to edit the image inside a selection, a Filter plugin can do that. See the SDK docs. As for cropping and scaling, a Filter can't. Look into scripting or Automation? (I don't know anything about Automation plugins.) ... View more

This is known as "a world of hurt"... just based on your description (I've never tried it, but would expect pretty much the amount of pain you found). Adobe really needs to document this stuff better. ... View more

All of these questions are host-specific. You either need to communicate with the developers of the host application you're testing against, or do your own reverse engineering of their API behaviour. :) All I know is that in my own plugins, I've never done anything host-specific but always coded to the PS API as documented, and let the cards fall as they may. Ultimately it's the host's responsibility to emulate Photoshop and they will do that with varying degrees of fidelity. Anything you do beyond that, is your own cost/benefit tradeoff. ... View more

On a side, yes. ... View more

Andrey, you can still use older SDKs to do it, in order to target CS3. As for examples, see link above. ... View more

1. Photoshop images and the plugin API has historically been limited to 30,000 pixels. There is now an extended API (and PSB file format) that raises this. 2. Photoshop really stores only 15 bits (plus one value) for 16 bit data. Plugins will see values from 0 to 0x8000 inclusive, which correspond to the 0-0xffff range you were probably expecting. I hope that clarifies ... something. ... View more

As an alternative to the plugin approach (which might work), I've already written a standalone program (GPL) that does what you need: http://telegraphics.com.au/svn/psdparse/trunk (Extracts every layer of a PSD/PSB as a PNG file. Metadata such as layer sizes and positions is optionally extracted to XML.) Since the PSD documentation is so incomplete, incorrect, and confusing (assuming you can obtain it at all), you would need several hundred hours to duplicate this effort. A number of things are not documented and therefore not supported by this program, but it is substantially compatible with PSDs at least through CS2. ... View more

It depends a bit on the complexity of the UI, I think. For simple interfaces Rez can be just fine. There is ResEdit as a free resource layout editor, but the claim that it's aging has some merit: I first used that program about 22 years ago. :) ... View more

I don't see the problem with using Rez resources. Current versions of OS X include the resource compiler and decompiler. See http://telegraphics.com.au/sw/ for dozens of plugin source code examples which build and run on OS X through Photoshop CS4. ... View more

Matthew's answer applies to Windows plugins. On OS X, the short answer is if you build a Mach-O universal (PPC+Intel) plugin for CS3, CS2 and earlier versions won't load it. Unlike the single flavour of Win32 plugin, there are at least 5 plugin executable formats supported on the Mac, spanning 3 processor architectures and 15 years of operating systems from System 6 through OS X. I'm not sure if Adobe publishes a clear compatibility matrix, but you can ask here for more specifics. ... View more

Caption digest is not the thumbnail! Most likely you are looking at only the first resource, not all resources. I have code for parsing resource blocks at http://telegraphics.com.au/svn/psdparse/trunk ... View more

Try restarting Vista before reinstalling the plugin. I don't know first hand if this helps, as I don't and never will run Vista. ... View more

MFC isn't a very good choice, as it's not portable. For portable source code, there are a zillion examples linked from my software page, http://telegraphics.com.au/sw/ ... View more

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms532311.aspx ... View more

Use a cast, or assign to a pointer with your desired type. For a large number of examples, see my source code at http://telegraphics.com.au/sw/ E.g., usage of inData in simple filters such as https://www.telegraphics.com.au/fisheye/browse/12bits/trunk/main.c?r=12#l248 You will also want to do this if you're accessing 16 bit data (unsigned short). ... View more

Apart from the obvious, no. Vista brings a bunch of new headaches for people using plugins, including "entry point not found" and memory bugs which XP/OS X users don't encounter. An upgrade to a different operating system is recommended. ... View more

Christof: I have code for previewing. See http://www.telegraphics.com.au/svn/filterfoundry/trunk/preview.c (GPL). ... View more

> i need the logic to solve this problem. The logic is in the source code I linked you to. Good luck, you're beginning to see the value of the documentation. ... View more

> I am using PSD file documentation to make the psd parser.. If you want an already written parser, try my http://telegraphics.com.au/sw/#psdparse - Trying to puzzle out all the ambiguities and omissions of the PSD documentation is an unrewarding few hundred hours, good luck. ... View more

...or do you want to passively parse PSD? You'll need the "Advanced" SDK to find out anything about PSD/PSB, but the documentation is rather incomplete. http://telegraphics.com.au/svn/psdparse/trunk is source code for a program to parse it - at least, that part that was documented sufficiently or I could figure out. ... View more

You can also run Parallels which would give you access to Windows applications from within OS X. ... View more

The background checks, security clearances and so on may take a few weeks. In my case, it took something like six months, not counting the begging and pleading... Can you imagine if Iran gained the capability to write File Format plugins... can't be too careful to whom you grant access! They wouldn't want to make it too easy for you to extend their platform - where would the challenge be then! ... View more

I have written a program which exports layers as PNGs, and can also generate text/XML summaries of PSD contents. It should be easily adaptable to this task: psdparse ( source in Subversion). It's portable to any UNIX or even Windows. ... View more

Searching for Photoshop File Format Plugin source code puts my page first and second results. Drop me a line if you need any help. Most of the plugins there build on all six Photoshop platforms. ... View more

Google should have helped. There are literally dozens of complete cross-platform source code (GPL) examples on my site. As for the SDK problem... Adobe was fond of distributing a cut-down SDK. You need to apply for the "Advanced" SDK. ... View more

Well now I have had many many reports. It's Vista. However this workaround works for most people. ... View more

No, the same executable will be fine, as long as no code generation option is set unportably. Study all your Xcode build options in detail. ... View more

You can use either CodeWarrior or MPW. Xcode can't build the PEF executable needed for pre-CS2 Photoshop plugins. ... View more

Find a copy of ResEdit or Resorcerer and make your icon suites there. ... View more