MagicSquire 5.0: Supercool Mini Brush Controls, Mass-editing presets in Photoshop

MagicSquire 5.0: The Pro Brush Group Manager for Adobe Photoshop is updated! New version brings: Supercool Mini Brush Controls (size, opacity etc), Mass-Tagging, Change Stroke on multiple presets, scrolling drag’n’drop, fixes, much more!

WHAT’S NEW:

Incredible improvement in visual performance when displaying and scaling brushes, opening/closing groups
and dragging/dropping brushes. Speeded up brush selection on large collections.

NEW! Customizeable Brush Controls!

– Add the following Brush Controls on top of MagicSquire:
Size, Flow, Opacity, Roundness, Hardness, Spacing, Size Jitter, Angle Jitter, Roundness Jitter,
Pressure controls Size, Pressure controls Opacity, Flip X, Flip Y, Scatter, Smoothing, Wet Edges,
Scatter Count, Scatter Count Jitter, Texture depth
Need more controls? Please write to https://anastasiy.com/support will be adding more later on!
– Display only the controls you need and hide ones you don’t need using Add/remove brush controls button
– Rearrange and assign accent colors to specific controls
– Several types of the controls: Gauge, Slider, Checkbox
– Change brush values with mouse tip or mouse wheel
– Display only Brush Controls in HUD while having list of presets on the panel
– Pops up under your cursor, if needed. Supports Sticky Mode
* You can always hide this new part of MagicSquire with a Hide button

NEW! Mass-tagging! You can now select unlimited brushes/tools and assign tags to them all at once!
You can also edit tags for multiple brushes
NEW! Edit appearance of multiple selected tools presets/brushes. You can select unlimited brush or tool presets
and change stroke type for all of them at once.
NEW! Revamped Edit Preset dialog when editing strokes/tags for multiple selected brushes
NEW! List now scrolls when you drag brushes, so now you can move brushes between far separated groups
NEW! Supports all new .abr files features introduced in recent Photoshops.
Now supports loading groups from modern .ABR files into groups in MagicSquire
NEW! Right-click menu (expanded) – now allows to edit selected presets
NEW! Clear search field with an “x” button that auto-appears when needed
NEW! Finally! Open/Close ALL GROUPS at once (New – Collapse All Groups/Expand All Groups in the MagicSquire menu)

– Saves and restores Painting Mode (Multiply/Overlay/Screen etc) of the Brush
– Fixed a long standing but rare problem when brushes loaded from files become missing
– Fixed problems when loading brushes from various .ABR and .TPL files, especially when loading
non-brush tool presets
– Improved UI
– Visual improvements and critical fixes:
– List would scroll after editing a brush – no more
– Fixed problems when clicking Cancel in Settings dialogs (some values weren’t cancelled)
– Fixed various dialogs, improved paddings and buttons
– Speeded up display of large amounts of brushes
– Fixed titles for some dialogs
– “Edit Tags” dialog now renamed to “Edit Preset”
– Fixed a problem when button in the empty group became unclickable
– Correctly switches Collections when Edit Collections dialog is open
– Keeps List View Mode synced between HUD and normal panel
– Greatly improved right-click menu behavior – especially when multiple brushes are selected
– Now doesn’t open by itself on Photoshop startup in some scenarios

– Improved compatibility with latest Photoshop CC 2021+
– Speeded up loading of huge .ABR files

Upgrade MagicSquire

Read more about MagicSquire Brush Group Manager with Brush Controls for Adobe Photoshop

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.

Tip#31: HSB/RGB sliders flexibility in new MagicPicker

Sliders variability in MagicPicker color wheel
Sliders variability in MagicPicker color wheel

New MagicPicker 3 increases flexibility of HSB/RGB sliders. Now you can scale them down to thin subtle lines that don’t obscure or block you from picking colors on the color wheel! Or scale them up to the big bold rulers. While having a precise color picking instrument in Photoshop and Illustrator.
Click and drag the divider between sliders and the color wheel/color picker to increase or decrease the size of the sliders.

MagicPicker 3 – Photoshop and Illustrator Color Wheel and color picking panel

Panels Tips & Tricks. Tip#27: Smart numbers on HSB/RGB sliders

You can easily refer to precise values of the colors you pick with RGB/HSB sliders in MagicPicker color wheel panel. Click small triangles to display the smart rulers with numbers. Hide/show them individually. The rulers display more information as you resize the panel! #PS and #AI compatible.

Smart numbers on HSB/RGB sliders
Smart numbers on HSB/RGB sliders

MagicPicker color wheel panel – supports Photoshop CC, CS6, CS5, CS4, CS3 and Illustrator CC, CS6, CS5, CS4, CS3

Panels Tips & Tricks. Tip#24: All tools of MagicPicker

The beauty of MagicPicker is in its freedom. From a simple color wheel to a complicated color picking solution – MagicPicker can be what you want it to be! Easily configure Color Schemes, Traditional (RYB, or Itten’s) color wheel, Color Sliders, Color Boxes, HEX picker, Color Box and many other panel’s tools.

All tools of MagicPicker - color wheel, color schemes, color sliders, HEX, CMYK, RYB, Itten's wheel, color picker and more
All tools of MagicPicker - color wheel, color schemes, color sliders, HEX, CMYK, RYB, Itten's wheel, color picker and more