Flaming Pear Boss Emboss Guide

What it does

How to install

Controls

Things to try

Versions

Questions

Boss Emboss

What it does

Boss Emboss does heavy-duty embossing.

How to install

Illustrated installation instructions are online.

To use this software, you need a paint program which accepts standard Photoshop 3.02 plugins.

Just put the plug-in filter into the folder where your paint program expects to find it. If you have Photoshop, the folder is Photoshop:Plugins:Filters or Photoshop:Plug-ins. You must restart Photoshop before it will notice the new plug-in. It will appear in the menus as Filters->Flaming Pear->Boss Emboss.

Most other paint programs follow a similar scheme.

If you have Paint Shop Pro: you have to create a new folder, put the plug-in filter into it, and then tell PSP to look there.

PSP 5 and 6:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences->General Program Preferences... and choose the Plug-in Filters tab. Use one of the "Browse" buttons to choose the folder that contains the plug-in.

The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Image->Plug-in Filters-->Flaming Pear->Boss Emboss.

PSP 7:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... and choose the Plug-in Filters tab. Use one of the "Browse" buttons to choose the folder that contains the plug-in.

The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plug-in Filters->Flaming Pear->Boss Emboss

PSP 8:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... In the dialog box that appears, choose Plug-ins from the list. Click "Add", then click "Browse" and choose the folder that contains the plug-in.

The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plugins->Flaming Pear->Boss Emboss.

Controls

When you invoke Boss Emboss, a dialog box will appear:

Quick start |  |  |
If you just want to see some effects quickly, click the dice button until you see something you like; then click OK. Using the dice is the easiest way to use Boss Emboss. If you want to hand-tune your own effects, it helps to learn the controls, which are explained below. |  | dice |

Main controls |  |  |
Boss Emboss deveopes a 3-D surface from the picture, and shines a light on it. The basic result is gray, but you can use glue modes like 'overlay' to merge the embossing effect with your original image. |  | original image embossed embossed + overlay |
Height is the altitude of the light source. Angle is the direction of the light source. (The mathematically-minded may like to call these controls right ascension and azimuth respectively.) Relief is the strength of the embossing. |  | different light, less relief |
Creasing folds the surface it into sharp-edged V-shapes. It adds life to flat areas. |  | creased |
Melt blurs the shapes together while retaining some detail. Good to use if the picture is too busy. |  | melted melted and creased melted and creased + overlay |
Unsparkle removes sparkly highlights from the creases. It makes Boss Emboss run more slowly. Source chooses whether to use use the grey version of the picture; only its red, green, or blue color channels; or all three channels independently. Mostly you will want to use grey. |  | 3-channel source |

Other controls |  |  |

Dice The dice choose a random effect. Click as much as you want to see different effects.

Glue mode popup menu Lets you combine the result with the underlying image in various ways. Modes other than "normal" produce special effects. The next-glue button advances to the next glue mode.

Plus, % and minus buttons: These zoom the preview in and out. Drag the preview to move it.

Load preset Boss Emboss comes with some presets, which are files containing settings. To load one, click this button and browse for a preset file.

Save preset When you make an effect you like, click this button to save the settings in a file.

Undo backs up one step.

OK Applies the effect to your image.

Cancel Dismisses the filter, and leaves the image unchanged.

dice

next glue

load preset (top)
and save preset

undo

Things to try • Use different glue modes like 'luminance' and ' soft light' to add life to the embossing. • Open a picture and run the filter. Change the angle control and the height slider to extreme settings. |  |  |

Version History

Version 1.1 May 2004

More glue modes. Works with 16-bit-per-component color.

Version 1.04 December 2003

Recordable as a Photoshop action.

Version 1.02 September 2003

Adds more glue modes and the next-glue button.

Version 1.0 March 2003

The first release in this form.

The Furbo Filters were originally developed by Craig Hockenberry.

Questions

Answers to common technical questions appear on the support page.

For bug reports and technical questions about the software, please write to support@flamingpear.com .