FitsPlug V2.0
A Windows Format plug-in for
32-bit and 64-bit Adobe Photoshop CS4 and higher.
1 1.
Installing FITSPLUG.
1 2.
Tips.
2. 3.
Supported FITS images.
2. 4.
Loading FITS
2. 5.
Saving FITS.
2. 6.
About FITS headers.
2. 7.
Fits Conformance.
3. 8.
Note on Starlight Xpress one-shot colour Fits images.
3. 9.
Support.
3. 10. Single user Licensing and
Ownership.
3. 11. Site Licensing and Ownership
4. 12. Pricing
4. 13. Disclaimer
4. 14. Contact Information
1.
Installing FITSPLUG.
-
Ensure Photoshop is not running.
Unzip
the FITSPLUG2.ZIP into a temporary folder. There will be three resulting
folders and plugins, two 32-bit and one 64-bit.
\CS4\64\fitsplug2.8bi
\CS4\32\fitsplug2.8bi
\Other\32\fitsplug.8bi
You
must copy the appropriate FITSPLUG2.8BI file into the plugins folder of the
appropriate (32 or 64-bit) Photoshop plugins folder.
For
64-bit Photoshop CS4 or greater (Fitsplug V2)
Copy \CS4\64\fitsplug2.8bi
into
\PROGRAM FILES\ADOBE\ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS4 (x64)\PLUG-INS\FILE
FORMATS\
For
32-bit Photoshop CS4 or greater (Fitsplug V2)
Copy \CS4\32\fitsplug2.8bi
into
\PROGRAM FILES (x86)\ADOBE\ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
CS4\PLUG-INS\FILE FORMATS\
For
any other version of Photoshop (Fitsplug V1)
Copy \Other\32\fitsplug.8bi
into
\PROGRAM FILES \ADOBE\ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
xxx\PLUG-INS\FILE FORMATS\
When
you start Photoshop, the plug-in will be loaded automatically, and the FIT, FTS
and FITS extensions will appear in the supported file types list when you select
File/ 'Open', 'Save' or ‘Save As' menu
options.
Note for using Multiple
versions of Fits Plug-ins
Fitsplug
V2 will coexist with Fitsplug V1 and FITS Liberator under Photoshop CS4 32-bit.
Using the ‘Open As’ and ‘Save As’ menus will allow selection of the desired
plug-in for either operation.
2.
Tips.
If
there is any sign of instability in Photoshop, remove the plug-in from the
installed directory and restart Photoshop. If this does happen please email me
with the a description of the problem and I will try to solve it as rapidly as
possible.
3.
Supported FITS images.
Reading:
Data Sizes:
8-bit,
16-bit signed and unsigned
integers,
32-bit signed integers,
unsigned integers and floating point
Colour Fits:
3-plane RGB format.
Compression:
No.
Writing:
Data Sizes :
8-bit,
16-bit unsigned integers,
32-bit floating point
Colour Fits:
RGB, 3-plane format with 8,
16 or 32-bit data.
Compression:
No.
4.
Reading FITS.
Most astronomical image processing applications keep the image data separate to the displayed image. This allows the displayed image to be modified for the screen without affecting the data.
Photoshop
does not have this ability and displays the image as per the image data.
Modifying the images appearance on-screen means modifying the actual image
data. For this reason the plug-in does not scale the data on load, but rather
reads in and displays the image as-is.
Photoshop
CS4 supports 32-bit images in only a limited fashion. Although Fitsplug V1
converts 32-bit images to 16-bit on load, Fitsplug V2 loads 32-it images as HDR
(high data range) 32-bit floating point images.
Once
loaded, the image data depth can be changed to any other using the standard
Photoshop procedures for changing bit depth.
5.
Saving FITS.
All
images are saved using the bit depth of the image within Photoshop.
16-bit
images are represented as unsigned integer data and 32-bit images are
represented as floating-point data within Photoshop. Regardless of the input data type, Fitsplug
will save images in the currently loaded data type.
Therefore
simply loading and then saving a 32-bit unsigned integer image will result in a
32-bit floating point Fits file.
If
a non-FITS (Jpg, Gif, Tiff, etc) colour image is saved as FITS the result will
be a colour FITS file with 3 planes in the order RGB, as per Maxim DL.
6.
About FITS headers.
Fits
headers are stored within Photoshop as an image resource, retrieved on save and
updated.
A
FITSPLUG identity line will be added if there is room in the header. A new
header block will not be created to add the FitsPlug identity line, there has
to be room in an existing block.
If
the file being saved as FITS was not a FITS file originally (i.e. TIFF, JPG,
etc) then a new FITS header is created with only image geometry information in
it.
7.
Fits Conformance.
Some
applications do not create properly conforming Fits Files in that the image
data is not padded to a multiple of 2880 bytes.
The
Fits plug-in conforms to the Fits specification when it comes to reading and
writing FITS files, though the plug-in shows some leniency when reading FITS
files in that the image data need not be a multiple of 2880 bytes as per the
specification.
In
this case, the plug-in will still read the file as long as all of the header
and image data is present in order to fully represent the image.
Resaving
these files from Photoshop will repair them by padding them to a multiple of
2880 bytes.
8.
Note on Bayer Matrix one-shot colour Fits images.
I
received several requests regarding one-shot colour FITS support.
Bayer
matrix colour images require special decoding to interpret the colour
information. These images do not conform to the Fits standard because
information about the organisation of the colour data does not exist in the
header. For this reason they cannot be
told apart from a standard monochrome Fits image.
When
interpreted in conformance with the Fits specification, these images appear as
standard monochrome FITS images and so will load into Photoshop as a greyscale
image only with the colour information lost.
9.
Support.
Support
will be provided for issues relating to the Fits plug-in as provided.
Requests
for new features though not a support issue, are welcomed and features may be
added to future versions of the plug-in.
Registered
owners will receive free updates of minor version releases and a discount on
major version releases.
The
final beta V0.12 is no longer supported.
Please
send support requests to fitsplug@astroshed.com
10.
Single user Licensing and Ownership.
By
purchasing the plug-in, a single user may install and use it as often as needed
as long as the computers that the plug-in is installed on, all belong to the
purchaser and they are not installed for use by others.
11.
Site Licensing and Ownership
All
purchases of the plug-in are considered Single-user licenses unless
specifically agreed otherwise prior to purchase.
If the plug-in is to be used on a publically
accessible computer, or on more than one computer for use by more than one
person, a site license must be agreed upon with Astroshed prior to purchase.
At
present, only Fits plug-ins received directly from Astroshed are considered to
be legally registered versions.
12.
Pricing
A note on pricing: Fitsplug V1 remained at the
constant price of USD$30 for the entire 7 year life of the product and is still
a very stable FITS plugin for 32-bit versions of Photoshop up to and including
CS4. For something so long lasting, $30 is a small price to pay. It is
anticipated that Fitsplug V2 will have an equally long life if not even longer.
As it is virtually Fitsplug V1, redeveloped using the latest Adobe CS4
developer tools, you can be sure it is as current as can be and will not be
made redundant any time soon.
As with Fitsplug V1, the Fitsplug V2 purchase price includes free upgrades for
the life of the major version. i.e. as long as Fitsplug remains at version 2,
all upgrades will be provided free.
New Fitsplug Users:
Single-user license: USD$50
Site Licenses
2-5 users or installations: USD$45 each
6-10 users or installations: USD$40 each
11-20 users or installations: USD$35 each
20+ users or installations: USD$30 each
For
example, an order for 11 licenses would cost 11 @ US$35 each = $385.
Site
licences may be renegotiated if deemed necessary after initial purchase of a
single-user license.
For registered Fitsplug V1.x users, a special discount is available for upgrade to Fitsplug V2. Note that only single-user licences are eligible for this discount.
Single User Upgrade from V1.x USD$30 each
13.
Disclaimer
Although
all care has been taken to ensure that the plug-in will behave itself,
Astroshed and I accept no liability for any adverse consequences that may arise
from the use or attempted use of the plug-in.
14.
Contact Information
Please
feel free to contact me at any time with regards to any aspect of your
purchase, the plug-in or it’s use.
Eddie
Trimarchi.
eddiet@astroshed.com
astroshed.com
fitsplug.com
12th-May-2009.