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Finding resources that explain how to program a Photoshop plugin is a extremely difficult task. Why? Just because there is little information on the web. You may ask yourself "Is that possible?"
Well, most people agree that creating an Adobe Photoshop plugin is a gold mine business due to the popularity of this software. I don’t know if that is still true, but that was true not so long ago.
Anyway, no matter the reason, information on this subject is scarce and that’s the reason why I wrote this article as a good starting point. Everybody will find something useful in this article. Those with a great idea of a ultra-cool-never-before-created plugin, but with no programming knowledge will be the most benefited of all. You will find useful resources that can save you endless hours of research. And programmers will have the chance to have an overview of different Photoshop plugins programming environments and tools.
It is my intention to keep this article up to date. Feel free to send me any corrections, updates or additions so I can consider them for publishing.
If you are an advanced programmer, you may find this list a bit basic except, perhaps, for the commercialization part. But if you are a novice programmer, a technically advanced or curious mind, or in charge of a Photoshop plugin development project, then the following list will give you an insight of what is needed.
One common mistake is to believe that any experienced programmer can handle the creation of a Photoshop Plugin or any other pixel based graphics application. Sure, you will need some pretty in depth programming knowledge, specially if you go with the Adobe Photoshop SDK solution (more on this later). But without a deep knowledge of computer graphics theory and algorithms, there is no possibility of success.
The amount of information available on this topic is huge and it is beyond the scope of this article to cover it in depth. The best you can do is to decide first the kind of plugin you would like to create. A color correction plugin will use quite different algorithms than a texture generation plugin.
The intention of this list is to mention just a few interesting graphics theory and algorithms resources that can be used in your Photoshop plugin development project.
Perlin Noise Theory and Implementation
Tutorial with pseudo code implementation about Perlin Noise and its use in procedural texture programming.
Renderman Shading Language
This site offers an very well explained introduction to Renderman Shading Language. Very easy to adapt to any other programming language. Learning the insights of this language, will give you the knowledge to create incredible digital textures plugins.
Image Processing Algorithms
An extensive list of image processing and analysis algorithms. If you plan to create a photo manipulation plugin, this list comes in handy.
Computer Graphics Algorithms
This list includes all type of algorithms for computer generated graphics. Suitable for special effects, shading and 3d graphics plugins.
Color Science Theory
Although this list does not include many algorithms, it’s a useful resource to understand in depth how color works. Very technical!
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