Tip #80: Compact mode of MagicSquire

Shrink entire MagicSquire panel into a small icon of your current Photoshop brush. When your cursor hovers this icon the panel automagically expands back to full brush groups. Click MagicSquire menu -> Compact Mode to activate this mode and save screen real estate for your art.

 

MagicSquire Compact Mode
MagicSquire Compact Mode

MagicSquire is a professional brush group manager for Adobe Photoshop.

Tip#78: Advanced Brush Stroke display in MagicSquire

Brush Stroke in MagicSquire (Photoshop)
Brush Stroke in MagicSquire (Photoshop)

Display Photoshop brushes in 5 different advanced styles to distinguish them better, with MagicSquire. Double-click the brush in the group to choose the stroke style from the dialog. The strokes are auto-generated in high resolution and show precisely how the brush would look like on the canvas. Renders precise opacity, texture, mixer brush tips, tilt etc – all advanced properties of any Photoshop brush. Supports 4K and 5K monitors.

In addition to standard Photoshop functionality the dialog also allows you to update current Brush properties.

MagicSquire is a professional brush managing panel for Adobe Photoshop

 

Tip#76: MagicSquire – detailed Photoshop Tool/Brush History

Enjoy detailed and long Photoshop Tool/Brush history with new MagicSquire panel. Shows tool types, sizes along with group colors. Click bottom button to display it. Works the same in Photoshop CS5, CS6, CC, CC2014, CC2015, CC2017, CC2018

MagicSquire brush manager - detailed Tool History in Photoshop
MagicSquire brush manager – detailed Tool History in Photoshop

MagicSquire is a professional Brush/Tool Group Manager for Adobe Photoshop

MagicSquire 2.6/2.7 update: 4-8x speed boost, Magic Eraser improvement

As your brush collections grow so grows MagicSquire! Mind-blowing 4-8x speed improvement on Photoshop CC, fast display of 500+ brushes in a single group, Magic Eraser now reverts with second click, more!

MagicSquire 2.6 with speed boost
MagicSquire 2.6 with speed boost
WHAT’S NEW:
 – Improved loading of multiple .tpl files
– Significantly improved UI performance on Photoshop CC (all versions): when dealing with large number (500-1000+) of brushes, opening panel, scrolling, switching list types, opening/closing groups, loading .abr and .tpl files
NEW FEATURE: Magic Eraser now preserves brush size and also supports second click! When you click Magic Eraser button again it switches back to the previously selected tool
 – NEW FEATURE: You can now tune double-click behavior in MagicSquire settings
 – Nailed “Cannot get id” problem on large brush collections
– Fixed visual issues
– Improved performace of Horizontal layout
 – Photoshop CS6 users stay tuned! Speedup is on the way

Read more about other panels for Photoshop, including Color Wheel and Color Mixer

Tip#73: Turn any Tool into Eraser with MagicSquire in one click in Photoshop

With new MagicSquire you can quickly use any Adobe Photoshop tool as an Eraser with one click using new Magic Eraser button!

MagicSquire: Turn any Tool into Eraser in Photoshop with one click!
MagicSquire: Turn any Tool into Eraser in Photoshop with one click!
  1. Select any Tool that is brush-based, like Brush, Pencil, Blur, Sharpen, Art History Brush, Dodge, Burn or any other
  2. Then click the button on the top right of the MagicSquire panel inside Photoshop UI

Alt-click Magic Eraser to turn this feature on permanently and turn any tool you select automatically into the Eraser.

MagicSquire is the advanced brush group manager for Adobe Photoshop

Massive update: MagicSquire 2.5, MagicPicker 6.2, MixColors 2.4, DiskFonts 1.2.21 are out!

MagicSquire, MixColors, MagicPicker, DiskFonts updates
MagicSquire, MixColors, MagicPicker, DiskFonts updates

New MagicPicker 6.2 is here:
– Color Temperature mode improved
– Improvements to Keyboard Shortcuts, speedups!
– Blank panel/invalid signature fix on CS6 platform
New MagicPicker, advanced Photoshop color wheel panel

New MagicSquire 2.5 is here:
– Improved compatibility with recent Adobe updates
– Fixed issues with varios brush formats and .abr/.tpl files
– Blank panel/invalid signature fix on CS6 platform
New MagicSquire, brush organizing panel for Photoshop

MixColors 2.2:
– Improved compatibility with recent updates to Adobe Creative Cloud
– Blank panel/invalid signature fix on CS6 platform
New MixColors, Photoshop color mixer

DiskFonts 1.2.21:
– Speed optimizations
– Blank panel/invalid signature fix on CS6 platform
New DiskFonts, Photoshop font viewer and manager

Tip#71: Advanced export of Brush/Tool Preset Groups with MagicSquire in Photoshop

Recent MagicSquire 2.3 introduced Advanced Export of Brushes and Tool Presets Groups to .ABR/.TPL files in Photoshop.

MagicSquire 2.3: Advanced export of groups to .abr & .tpl
MagicSquire 2.3: Advanced export of groups to .abr & .tpl
  • You can click MagicSquire menu -> Export group to .ABR or .TPL… to export presets from currently selected group into .ABR or .TPL file on your hard drive
  • MagicSquire will automatically cross-convert your existing Tools or Brushes into desired .TPL or .ABR file type if needed. You can export the same presets to .ABR or .TPL
  • If you you use Search then MagicSquire will export only currently filtered results
  • This is supported on Photoshop CS5, CS5.5, CS6, CC, CC2014, CC2015, CC2017, CC2018+

MagicSquire is the advanced Brush/Tool Preset Group Manager in Adobe Photoshop

MagicSquire 2.3 is out now!

Magic Eraser – turn any Tool into an Eraser, Advanced Group Export to .tpl/.abr with cross-convertion, new Color Picker for Groups, more!

MagicSquire 2.3 adds Magic Eraser, Advanced Group Export, more!
MagicSquire 2.3 adds Magic Eraser, Advanced Group Export, more!
WHAT’S NEW:
 – Alt-click now works with tools! Use saved Pencil as Mixer Brush and vice versa!
– Magic Eraser: click on the new “Turn current Tool into Eraser” button to use any Brush or Tool Preset you select as an Eraser. Instantly switches to Eraser mode keeping brush shape and other parameters intact. Alt-click on Magic Eraser to switch it permanently.
– With Advanced Export groups can be exported and converted to brushes and back (depending on a target format). Easily convert betweet .tpl and .abr Tool Presets! Exports filtered results when using search.
 – Performance boost on Photoshop CS5/CS6!
– Improved list mode
– Fixed a bug with loading specific .ABR files on Photoshop CC2018+
– Fixed a bug when size of the brush wasn’t properly saved on Photoshop CC2018+
– Fixed loading of Photoshop CC2018+ brushes when sometimes they weren’t loaded as tool presets
– Fixed “consistency” error that some users faced on CC2018+
– Small bug fixes
– Speedups and optimizations
– Optimizations to UI and drag’n’drop on Photoshop CS6
– Added panel loading progress on Photoshop CS6

How to fix freeze, stutter, lags, slowdown and stylus pressure problems in Photoshop (MagicPicker and other panels can be affected)

This only affects Windows/Adobe Photoshop CC Users that have installed Windows Creators Fall Update. The symptoms in Photoshop CC may include (but not limited to):

  • The stylus is lagging when you click and press on the panel
  • You can click and select a color with it, but you can’t drag the sliders
  • The plugin won’t recognize the stylus when pressing and moving across the color picking areas
  • If you click on the panel with Wacom pen then the color updates. But if I press and drag the panel does nothing. You can only tap
  • When you want to pick a color and move it with Pro Pen on Cintiq then you can’t move it. Only double click works. Also it still works with mouse
  • You lost pen pressure sensitivity on Photoshop

All those problems are connected to Photoshop CC’s bug with stylus and tablet, in most cases it’s a Wacom tablet-only problem but it affects other tablets as well.

The good news it’s very easy to fix! Please do the following (the fix bellow applies to all versions of Photoshop you just need to replace Photoshop’s version in the path):

PSUserConfig

1) Go to your Wacom preferences and disable “Windows Ink” or “Windows Freehand” (the name depends on your Wacom drivers version)
This is not all! After this step you will probably lose pen pressure sensitivity, so follow next steps to avoid it:

2) Go to C:\Users\“YOURNAME”\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC2018\Adobe Photoshop CC2018 Settings\ and modify a file called PSUserConfig.txt (create a new file if it doesn’t exist). You need to add the following lines:
# Use WinTab
UseSystemStylus 0

3) Restart

That’s it! Those simple steps will make sure you will keep pressure sensitivity on your tablet while fixing the problem with Adobe Photoshop.

Exporting brushes as tool presets in MagicSquire 2.3 on Photoshop CC2018+

While exporting your brush presets as tool presets in Photoshop CC2018 and above you may face the message from MagicSquire asking you to answer “No” in the “Would you like to create a brush preset instead?” dialog:

'Would you like to create a brush preset' dialog
‘Would you like to create a brush preset’ dialog

Please do the following:
1) Click on the “Don’t show again” checkmark to make sure it’s checked
2) Click “No” in the dialog

This will help MagicSquire to export your presets without any hassle. The reason to this message is that new Photoshop (starting from version CC2018) can keep your Tool Presets in Brushes panel. If you answer “Yes” you won’t be able to export Tool Presets anymore but you’ll be able to export Brush Presets from MagicSquire.