*** From the Archives ***

This article is from February 25, 2013, and is no longer current.

Free For All: CS Freebies

8

Russell Brown’s Adobe Paper Textures for Photoshop

From the wacky brilliance of Doctor Russell Brown and the folks at FlyPaper Textures comes the Adobe Paper Textures panel for Photoshop. The panel lets you choose from an excellent selection of textures by FlyPaper to apply to your artwork in a variety of blend modes. You can load in your own texture images. Looking for a happy accident? Try the panel’s Chaos Randomizer.

The extension is available in two versions: free, as in free for everyone, and Pro, which is free to current Adobe Creative Cloud subscribers.

To get either version of the Adobe Paper Textures panel follow these simple steps:

  1. In Photoshop CS6 choose Window > Extensions > Adobe Exchange and log into the panel with your Adobe ID.
  2. In the Adobe Exchange panel use the search field to find “Russell Brown”.
  3. If you are a Creative Cloud subscriber you can install Adobe Paper Textures Pro, which will be listed as free. If you are not a subscriber, you can still install Adobe Paper Textures (no “Pro”), which includes fewer textures but is still very cool. Double-click the correct item in the list.
  4. In the item Info view, click the “Free” button to download the extension.
  5. Adobe Extension Manager will appear to handle the installation. Afterward you may need to restart Photoshop.
  6. Open the Adobe Paper Textures panel from the Window > Extensions menu inside Photoshop.

Complete information about the extension as well as the two versions can be found in a post on the Adobe Creative Suite blog.

Fun Photoshop Effects

If you remember the halcyon heyday of Kai’s PowerTools and other first-generation Photoshop plug-ins you’ll love this assortment of effects actions from PanosFX. First up is the Old Goodies Collection, a set of eight actions to wrap images into various types of photo frames and pages, a plasma TV (there’s the “old” part of the name), a video wall, ye olde timey wimey scroll, and a woven texture.

Next, PanosFX’s Paper Cube actions turn a set of images into the faces of a 3D cube ready for printing.

Out of Bounds actions lets you create images whose subjects escape the bounds of the imagery, and to do so with a great deal of control.

Finally, and if you’re feeling particularly nostalgic for mid-’90s design cliches, grab a copy of the Page Curls action and turn down the corners of your images.

Drop Rules Between Columns in InDesign

InDesign can divide text frames into multiple columns; with CS6, it can even create adaptive text frames whose column widths fall within a tolerance before automatically increasing or decreasing in number. Column spanning and splitting features enable individual paragraphs to be arranged in a number of columns different from the number of columns comprising the text frame containing those paragraphs. Yes, InDesign can do some phenomenal things with columns. One thing it still can’t do, even after all this time, is automatically add vertical lines—drop rules—between columns. Lucky for us Marc Autret is around to fill in that gap with his free InGutter script. Built for InDesign CS4, CS5, CS5.5, and CS6, InGutter offers a rich selection of options for automatically adding drop rules between and around columns in the full range of InDesign stroke styles.

Borders and Edges for Illustrator

Looking for a nice certificate border? How about just a regular edge you don’t have to draw by hand? Among this selection of freebie Illustrator brushes could be just the thing you need.

Zippers and Stitching

Croatian National Border

Sick Brushes

Pattern Brushes

What can I find free for you? Want more free fonts? More Photoshop brushes? How about more online applications that do this or that for free? Tell me in the comments what you’d like to see in future installments of Free for All, and I’ll do my best bloodhound impression to track it down for you.

Please note: Free for All will often link to resources hosted on external Web sites outside of the control of CreativePro.com. At any time those Web sites may close down, change their site or permalink structures, remove content, or take other actions that may render one or more of the above links invalid. As such neither Pariah S. Burke nor CreativePro.com can guarantee the availability of the third-party resources linked to in Free for All.

Pariah S. Burke is the author of many books and articles that empower, inform, and connect creative professionals.
  • Anonymous says:

    Please purchase any Creative Cloud subscription to access this product. https://creative.adobe.com/plans

  • Anonymous says:

    Following the instructions above windows > extensions > Adobe Exchange: “Adobe Exchange” is not there. Only two choices, “Kuler” and “Mini Bridge.” Have I missed something or have the instructions?

  • Anonymous says:

    Will this work for CS5 or only for CS6

  • Anonymous says:

    Well, they are after spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to obtain the CS programs. How about devoting a “Free for All” column to free alternatives to the CS programs?

  • Anonymous says:

    $%@#%@%@ the cloud

  • Anonymous says:

    This column is a re-run from less than 2 months ago? Weak sauce.

  • Anonymous says:

    Do you test these free items before you mention them in this publication?

  • Mike Rankin says:

    We have always re-run recent feature stories in the email newsletters on Tuesdays and Thursdays. New features debut on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Mon-Fri there are fresh tips or stories in the newsletters.

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