To install ImageVice™, drag the plug-in from its folder to your plug-ins folder. It is normal to place filter plug-ins such as ImageVice™ within the Filters folder inside Photoshop's Plug-ins folder, but this is not necessary for Photoshop to load plug-ins. It is only for organizational purposes.
After you have placed ImageVice™ in your plug-ins folder, ImageVice™ will be available the next time you launch Photoshop. If you aren't using Photoshop, you may need to refer to your image editing application's documentation for instructions on installing plug-in filters.
Once you have properly installed ImageVice™ it will appear under Filters -> BoxTop Web Tools -> ImageVice... menus in Photoshop. Other applications may locate filter plug-ins under an "Effects" menu, but in all applications ImageVice™ will be under the "BoxTop Web Tools" sub-menu.
Installation troubleshooting:
If you have properly installed ImageVice™ and it does not appear in Photoshop's Filters menu after relaunching you should check the following in order:
1: If using Photoshop, delete its preferences file, which is located in the System Folder with versions 3.0 and 4.0. If you have Photoshop 5.0 or newer, the preferences file is located in the application folder within the Adobe Photoshop Settings folder. It is common for Photoshop to slightly corrupt its preferences file, and this will often prevent it from recognizing any new plug-ins.
2: Confirm the location that Photoshop is set to look for plug-ins in its preferences.
3: Confirm that your install of Photoshop is in fact PPC native if using Photoshop 3.0 or 4.0. 68K installs of Photoshop can not use PPC only plug-ins such as ImageVice™. You can check this by looking in Photoshop's About dialog, which will denote PowerPC next to the version number if it is PPC native.
4: If you used Stuffit Expander to decompress the original archive containing ImageVice™, it is possible that it corrupted ImageVice™ during decompression, which will happen if Stuffit Expander's preferences are corrupted. This has recently been reported in increasing frequency, so we are under the impression it is a new problem with the new version of Stuffit Expander. You should delete your Stuffit Expander preferences and download a new copy of the archive and install a new copy of ImageVice™ if a PPC version of Photoshop still will not recognize it.
5: If using another application besides Photoshop as your host application, it may be that it is simply unable to run ImageVice™. Many applications that claim to support Photoshop plug-ins do so only in limited ways. We can only guarantee that ImageVice™ will work with Photoshop.
General usage:
ImageVice™ works much the same as any other filter in Photoshop. It applies changes to your entire document or only the current selection within your document, which can be undone with the undo command in Photoshop.
To get started, turn on Balloon Help for a quick explanation of the ImageVice™ filter controls. After you apply the ImageVice™ filter, you should convert to indexed mode in Photoshop using the "Exact" palette option to avoid further color reduction. This will be the default in the mode change dialog.
If you are using ImageVice™ to prepare GIF files, it is best to use it together with PhotoGIF™, which allows saving GIF files directly from RGB mode, saving time and improving results for your GIFs. You can learn more about PhotoGIF™ at http://www.boxtopsoft.com
Refer to the ImageVice™ manual and FAQ for complete details on using ImageVice™. Although, the basic operation is as simple as clicking the OK button, obtaining the best results possible does require a more in-depth understanding of the ImageVice™ controls and the principals of color reduction as they effect compression and image quality.
About the ImageVice™ demo:
The ImageVice™ demo is fully functional. There are no limitations on features or how it may be used for evaluation purposes. However, if you use ImageVice™ for more than 30 days or on more than 100 images, whichever comes first, an increasing delay time will be added before each time it executes. There are no other functional limitations on the demo, so you have full opportunity to make the best use of everything ImageVice™ can do before you purchase.
Please refer to the ImageVice™ 2.0.5 Read Me file for purchasing information. The cost is only $49.95 and many purchasing options are available for your convenience.
About the ImageVice™ 2.x upgrade:
If you are a registered user of an earlier version of ImageVice prior to 2.0, you qualify for a special, low upgrade price of $19.95 directly from BoxTop Software, Inc.
Please refer to the ImageVice™ 2.x Read Me file for upgrade information.
Getting help with ImageVice™:
You should refer to the ImageVice™ manual and FAQ included with this distribution and then to the Web based version of the FAQ maintained at http://www.boxtopsoft.com first for the answers to most common questions.
Questions not answered in the FAQs should be emailed to info@boxtopsoft.com
BoxTop Software, Inc.
PO Box 2347
Starkville, MS, 39760
voice 662-263-5410
fax 662-263-5412
http://www.boxtopsoft.com
info@boxtopsoft.com
ImageVice™ is Copyright 1997-99 BoxTop Software, Inc. All rights reserved. ImageVice™ is a trademark of BoxTop Software, Inc., which may be registered in certain jutisdictions. All other trademarks are recognized as the properties of their respective holders.
Document published: May 24, 1999
Copyright 1999 BoxTop Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
