July 2009 Software Closet
Helpful Utilities
ABR Viewer: Preview Photoshop Brush Sets
ABR Viewer (free) is a handy application that displays the items in a Photoshop brush, or .abr, file. It shows you what the brushes look like as thumbnails or as an image group. You can export brush images as PNG graphics, too. This is a useful utility for checking out brush sets without having to install them first.
SMARTReporter 2.3.9
SMARTReporter (free) is an application from Julian Meyer that monitors the status of your Mac's internal hard drive, warning you if the drive is going to fail. The application adds an icon to your Mac's menu bar that shows green for healthy and red for failing. SMARTReporter works by keeping track of the early-warning-before-failure system built into most modern hard drives. If your hard drive is going to fail, it can display an alert dialog, send an email, or launch an application (such as your backup software). Note: it only works with internal hard drives.
ThumbsUp 4.4
Devon Technologies' ThumbsUp (free) is a drag-and-drop utility that creates separate thumbnail files for any image document you drag onto it. You can control size, quality, sharpening and anti-aliasing.
XMenu 1.9
Devon Technologies' XMenu (free) adds one or more global menus to the right side of the menu bar, giving you access to preferred applications, folders, documents, files, and snippets. Launch any application or insert text snippets or URLs into your email messages or Pages documents with a single menu choice.
Adobe Photoshop Plug-Ins
Underwater Correction Action
If you work with photographs that were shot under water, James Connell's Underwater Correction action for Photoshop (free) makes quick work of shifting the colors so they look more natural. The result may not be perfect, but it gets you most of the way there.
Adobe InDesign Plug-Ins
Convert RGB Swatches to CMYK
Dave Saunders' Convert RGB to CMYK is a free script for InDesign that converts all RGB color swatches to the CMYK color space. It's useful when you've imported artwork or swatches that contain RGB colors. But be careful: the colors will be converted using your current CMYK color management settings and because of the much smaller color gamut of CMYK, some RGB colors may shift significantly. If your display is properly profiled and calibrated, you'll see the shift. It's always better to define CMYK colors by referencing a swatch book such as Trumatch, the CMYK Tint Book, or even Pantone's CMYK books.
Adobe Illustrator Plug-In
Cutting Tools
Cutting Tools ($5) adds new ways to cut paths: Hatchet cuts through all paths, not just the top path; Saber Saw cuts through all paths as you drag over them; Table Saw cuts a straight line through all paths; Vector Vac deletes all paths you drag it across.
QuarkXPress XTension
Today
Vision's Edge's Today is a free XTension for QuarkXPress 4, 5, 6 or 7 that inserts the current date where your text cursor is. The date automatically updates whenever the document is saved, and you can choose from several date formats. (It's not yet available for version 8.)
Free Fonts
Aerosol
Keep on Truckin'
Street Soul
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