Tip#82: Use Compact Mode to speed up your creative work

Increase your creative performance with smart Compact Mode. Shrink our panels in Photoshop into informative small tiles that auto-magically expand with simple mouse movement. Zero clicks allow you to focus on your work. No right-clicks or crazy keyboard shortcuts anymore!

Smart Compact Mode in MixColors, MagicSquire, MagicPicker, MagicRefs in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
Smart Compact Mode in MixColors, MagicSquire, MagicPicker, MagicRefs in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

MagicPicker color wheel, MagicSquire brush tag/group assistant, MagicRefs reference image manager and MixColors color mixer all support it in Photoshop (and Illustrator for MagicPicker). Activate Compact Mode from panel’s menu.

Massive update: MagicSquire 3.0, MagicRefs 1.2, MagicPicker 6.4, MixColors 3.1, DiskFonts 1.2.22 are out!

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

New MagicSquire 3.0 is here:
– New UI Framework! Great performance improvement
– Also tags, Keyboard Shortcuts, Brush Group collections and much more in version 3.0!
– Invalid signature (a.k.a. “The extension could not be loaded because it
was not signed correctly”) problem fixed
New MagicSquire, brush organizing panel for Photoshop

New MagicRefs 1.2 is here:
– New UI Framework! Great performance improvement
– Invalid signature (a.k.a. “The extension could not be loaded because it
was not signed correctly”) problem fixed
New MagicRefs, life is easy with reference images in Photoshop

New MagicPicker 6.4 is here:
– New UI Framework!Great performance improvement
– Invalid signature (a.k.a. “The extension could not be loaded because it
was not signed correctly”) problem fixed
New MagicPicker, advanced Photoshop color wheel panel

MixColors 3.1:
– New UI Framework! Great performance improvement
– Invalid signature (a.k.a. “The extension could not be loaded because it
was not signed correctly”) problem fixed
New MixColors, Photoshop color mixer

DiskFonts 1.2.22:
– New UI Framework! Great performance improvement
– Invalid signature (a.k.a. “The extension could not be loaded because it
was not signed correctly”) problem fixed
New DiskFonts, Photoshop font viewer and manager

MagicSquire 3: work with brushes like never before in Photoshop! Tags, Keyboard Shortcuts, more

The BIGGEST update ever to MagicSquire panel! Tags! Keyboard Shortcuts to individual brushes. Group Collections. Store and sync brushes to Cloud(s), Rotate brush/tool tip with keyboard, more Keyboard Shortcuts, Capture color, even more

WHAT’S NEW:

  • NEW! Assign Tags to brushes and then filter them using Search – with Instant Suggestions. Filter out brushes that you don’t need in current project, instantly.
  • NEW! Collections allow you to combine several groups to a collection, and then switch between group combinations with one click or keyboard shortcut. Use Collection Editor from the menu.
  • NEW! Keyboard Shortcuts for individual brushes. Also keyboard shortcuts to following new and old features of MagicSquire:
    • Rotate Brush/Tool tip (works with Clone Tool too)
    • Turn current Brush into Eraser (and back)
    • Increase/Decrease Load for Mixer brushes
    • Switch brushes and collections
    • more! New shortcuts dialog is accessible from the menu.
  • NEW! Relocate data folder and put it on Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive or any other 3rd party Cloud service. Back up and safely auto-sync your brushes between computers!
  • NEW! Disable size capture for tools, switch between brushes and tools while keeping size
  • All features available now for Photoshop CS5, CS6, CC, CC2015, CC2017, CC2018, CC2019+
  • more

Upgrade MagicSquire here

Read more about MagicSquire brush manager for Photoshop

Tip#81: Color wheel modes in MagicPicker 6

In addition to Triangle, Box, Diamond and Color Temperature modes of the MagicPicker color wheel panel recent version 6.3 adds LDT Color Cube mode.

Color Wheel Modes in MagicPicker 6 for Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator
Color Wheel Modes in MagicPicker 6 for Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator

LDT Color Cube mode lets you adjust shaded/saturated color preserving its perceived brightness and on the same color space adjust color temperature. To switch modes click on the button on the top right to get the tool best matching your painting style and a better color coverage in shades and saturation!

Works in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6, CC, CC2014, CC2015, CC2017, CC2018, CC2019.

MagicPicker, the color wheel and advanced color picker for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator

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.

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

Tip#66: Simplify MagicSquire’s interface with PRO Mode

Activate MagicSquire’s new PRO Mode to hide buttons, menus etc – and work with brushes and tools directly! This mode also hides all closed groups on the panel.

  1. Go to MagicSquire fly-out menu
  2. Click “PRO Mode”

Works in Photoshop CS5, CS6, CC, CC2015, CC2015.5, CC2017, CC2018.

MagicSquire 2 brush/tool organizer - PRO Mode
MagicSquire 2 brush/tool organizer – PRO Mode

MagicSquire 2.0 is superfast! Brings new features!

New MagicSquire 2.0 is out! Speeded up, extended, visually enhanced! Change Thumbnail Size, New Horizontal Mode, PRO Mode to hide UI out of the way, add Shapes and all Tool Presets to groups, more!

WHAT’S NEW:
– New horizontal layout! First of a kind in Adobe Photoshop
– Scale Thumbnails with Scaling Slider. Make them tiny or make them huge!
– Support for Shapes and all Photoshop Tool Presets! Organize any Tool Presets in groups: Rectangle, Crop, Eyedropper, Custom Shape, Round Rectangle, Ellipse, etc. Any of them all of them!
– Recent Tool History list! Kept between Photoshop sessions
– Unique PRO Mode – hide all buttons and UI elements out of the way
– Superfast new engine rewritten from scratch – much faster UI and brush handling: create brushes faster, load .abr files faster, faster drag’n’drop and faster handling of very large collections (1000+ brushes)
– Large .abr files (4GB+) and file collections support
– Compact Mode improved on CC2017
– Various bug fixes
– Improved display of the circle on size-only brushes for newly created brushes
– Significantly improved drag’n’drop on CS6
– Proudly supports Photoshop CS5, CS5.5 CS6, CC, CC2014, CC2015, CC2017+

You can upgrade MagicSquire to v2.0 here

Read more about MagicSquire, tool and brush group organizer in Adobe Photoshop

Tip#64: Load multiple brush & tool preset files at once into groups

With MagicSquire 1.7 you can automatically convert a group of your brush files (.tpl/.abr) into groups of brushes in Photoshop with a single click!

MagicSquire: load brush files into groups
MagicSquire: load brush files into groups

Select MagicSquire menu -> Add brushes from .ABR or .TPL and select multiple brush files with Shift, Ctrl (Windows) or ⌘ (Mac). MagicSquire will automatically create new separate groups containing new brushes or tool presets!

MagicSquire, brush group organizing agent inside Photoshop

MagicSquire 1.7: Performance boost up to 5x, more default group colors

MagicSquire is 2x-5x faster with the new update!

MagicSquire 1.7, faster, new group colors, load multiple brush files
MagicSquire 1.7, faster, new group colors, load multiple brush files

What’s new:
– Various optimizations and speed improvements to UI & loading brushes, in many scenarios speed improved by 5x, especially on Photoshop CC 2014/2015/2017
– Loading of multiple brush (and tool presets) .ABR/.TPL files at once is now supported
– New default colors for groups!
– Fixed Compact Mode on Photoshop CC 2017.1.1 and above
– Fixed messaging
– Small bug fixes

Upgrade MagicSquire here

Product link: MagicSquire, brush group organizing panel in Adobe Photoshop