On Plug-ins

I spent some time the last few days playing around with an Aperture Plug-in. My idea was to create a plug-in that could address a big problem for those of us still using Aperture — lack of camera support. The macOS blocks new camera support from Aperture, so the two new cameras I bought recently get the dreaded black “unsupported image” square when I import their images.

I figured that if I could write a plug-in that could decode images (using the RAW Power engine), I could output TIFFs back to Aperture, and all would be well. Once that worked, I could make something more sophisticated that could allow editing of images by invoking the RAW Power app. Sounds good.

After some rummaging, I was able to find a download link to the Aperture SDK, and was actually able to build and install a sample plug-in. Kind of amazing, really. I started getting excited about the prospects and then a bucket of cold water got dumped on my head: if an image is unsupported, Aperture refuses to send it to a plugin. A bunch of work down the drain.

Then I tried the other kind of Aperture plug-in: the export plugin. A bucket of iced tea this time. Aperture sends the unsupported file (yay!), but shortly after that, Aperture throws an exception and crashes (no!). The crash only happens with unsupported images and I can’t catch or block the exception. Close, but another dead end.

This brings up a question: is there any reason to write a RAW Power plug-in for Aperture that works for supported images? I can’t think of one, though I have gotten requests for it many times. Maybe those requests are for camera support, which won’t work.

If not Aperture, would plug-ins be truly useful for Lightroom, or maybe Luminar / Photoshop / Affinity? If you have an opinion, please comment below.

Happy New Year!


RAW Power for iOS 1.0.1 Release Notes

 

  • Information about dragging the Inspector to the other side of the screen

  • Larger tap targets for Adjustment titles (to collapse them)

  • Handle some cases of images that cannot be decoded

  • Fix bug with audio playback when the application is first launched

  • Default for sorting images in albums is “newest first”

  • Showing a downloading indicator when downloading the full-size image in 1-up.

  • Fix bug with display of Aperture value

  • Bigger adjustment slider controls

  • Histogram in portrait is now translucent.

  • Cleaned up artwork in various parts of the app

  • Swapped order of Sort arrow and Undo in the Grid


RAW Power for Mac – Trial Version Now Available

I have just posted a trial version of RAW Power for Mac. There is no time limit.

Like the App Store version, it requires macOS Sierra or later.

 

It is fully-featured version, with a few exceptions:

  • No Photos Extension (having multiple extensions for the same app can confuse macOS)

  • Cannot save changes

  • Exports are watermarked

 

The trial version is here