Flaming Pear Silver Guide

What it does

How to Install

Controls

Effects

Versions

How to Purchase

Questions

Silver

What it does

Silver is a plug-in filter for Photoshop and other paint programs. It makes image selections glitter with polished brightwork. Stylish stripes, checkers, and dots describe the shape of the surface.

How to install

To use this software, you need a paint program which accepts standard Photoshop 3.0 plugins.

Just put the plug-in filter into the folder where your paint program expects to find it. If you have Photoshop, the folder is Photoshop:Plugins:Filters or Photoshop:Plug-ins. You must restart Photoshop before it will notice the new plug-in. It will appear in the menus as Filters->Flaming Pear->Silver.

Most other paint programs follow a similar scheme.

If you have Paint Shop Pro: you have to create a new folder, put the plug-in filter into it, and then tell PSP to look there. In PSP's menus, choose File-> Preferences->General Program Preferences (PSP versions 5 and 6) or File->Preferences->File Locations (PSP version 7). Next, click the Plug-in Filters tab. Use a "Browse" button to choose the folder. The plugin will appear in the menus as Image->Plug-in Filters->Flaming Pear->Silver.

Controls

Silver's controls let you change the form and color of the patterns that get drawn into your image selection.

Blur controls the width of the zone around the edge of your selection where Silver draws its effects. Most of the time, you'll want a blur large enough to cover the whole selection.

Edges darkens down the edge to provide a more 3D look.

Bands sets the number of color stripes drawn. The bands follow the curvature of the edge.

Dots introduces small bright dots into the pattern of bands.

Checkers draws more stripes at right angles to the other stripes.

Angle spins the whole arrangement of bands, dots, and checkers.

Two color buttons set the color range for the pattern.

Glue defines how the image produced by Silver will combine with the original image. Normal mode replaces the original image entirely; the other modes produce a variety of colorful effects. Some of the modes are the same as those offered by Photoshop's layers.

Load (the red button) lets you open a settings file.

Save (the blue button) lets you save your settings in a file.

Randomize (the button with dice) chooses random values for all the controls. This is ideal for searching for new effects.

Undo (the button with the curly blue arrow) un-does the last change you made.

Effects

Try loading the settings files that come with Silver to see what it can do, or click the dice until you see something you like.

Here are some example effects that you can do. Open a favorite picture for these examples -- you won't see anything if you start with a blank canvas. Select part of the picture, and invoke Silver.

1. Metallic glitter.

Use these settings:

Blur 15
Edges 40
Bands 15
Dots 0
Checkers 100

Use navy and pastel blue for the two colors.

Changing the Bands control will vary the amount of detail in the glitter.

The Dots and Checkers controls will change the exact look of the glitter.

|  | 2. Stripes. Use the same settings as for the first example, but increase Blur to about 30 and set checkers to zero. Change the colors too if you want. With no Dots or Checkers, the bands are clearly visible.

|  | 3. Zoomy patterns. To get this effect, you need three main ingredients: -A large Blur. -A small Edges setting. -A thick, husky selection shape.

|  | 4. Details. To produce a result with tiny details like this, set Bands very high and experiment with the Dots and Checkers to priduce an effect you like. The dark rim comes from using a high Edges setting.

|  | 5. 3-D plaid. This effect is like Details, but with a medium Bands setting and less Edges. Trying very low or very high Bands settings can produce some of the best results. This effect is in a file called "greenplaid" that comes with Silver.

Click the dice button to see more effects.

Versions

Version 1.22 February 2003

Adds more glue modes and fixes a crash that could happen when using the menus under Windows XP.

Version 1.21 December 2002

Adds new glue modes: Color, Luminance, Linear Light, and Pin Light. Fixes the appearance of text in the interface when running under Mac OS X 10.2.3 .

Version 1.2 February 2002

Adds previews in the preset browser.

Version 1.1 September 2001

Adds an Undo button.

Version 1.0 September 1999

First release.

How to Purchase

You can place an order online here. A secure server for transactions is available.

If you prefer, you can place an order offline by using the "Register" program that comes with the software.

Purchasing the software removes the time limit. You will get an unlocking code by email in a message titled "Thanks for your payment."

Questions

Answers to common technical questions appear on the support page, and free upgrades appear periodically on the download page.

Trouble with your order? Orders are handled by Kagi, which can be reached at admin@kagi.com .

For bug reports and technical questions about the software, please write to support@flamingpear.com .