Simon Schoeters
<h3>Download</h3>
<p><img src="/images/lightroom.gif" alt="" /> <a href="http://svn.suffix.be/public/lightroom/iPhotoExport.dmg" title="Download the iPhotoExport plugin from the public SVN repository">Download iPhotoExport v0.1</a></p>
<h3>What?</h3>
<p>The Lightroom to iPhoto plugin exports the selected photos from Adobe Lightroom to iPhoto and creates an album with the exported photos if needed.</p>
<p>Why would one like to duplicate photos from Lightroom in iPhoto? Well, Lightroom is my main photo repository but I miss the tight integration with Mac OS X like iPhoto has. iPhoto makes it easy to browse your photo library from different applications (like Finder and Mail) or export the photos to external devices (like the iPhone or iPod), Ligthroom doesn't.</p>
<p>The plugin was tested with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.3.1 and iPhoto '08 7.1.1, other versions may work but I didn't check.</p>
<h3>Installation</h3>
<p>Installing is pretty easy: </p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://svn.suffix.be/public/lightroom/iPhotoExport.dmg" title="Download the iPhotoExport plugin from the public SVN repository">Download</a> the plugin,</li>
<li>open the downloaded disk image and</li>
<li>double click on it. Lightroom will install the plugin for you.</li>
</ul>
<p>To install manually, move the plugin folder to /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Modules/ to install for all users or move it to ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Modules/ if you only want to install the plugin for yourself. In either case you'll have to create the Modules folder within the Lightroom folder if it's not already there.</p>
<p>Restart Adobe Lightroom if it was running.</p>
<h3>Export a few photos</h3>
<p>Just export your photos like you would normally do but select iPhoto from the top area of the export dialog. Set the options (resolution, export format, create an iPhoto album or not, etc.) and export your photos.</p>
<img src="/images/export_plugin.gif" alt="Export window screenshot" />
<h3>Uninstalling</h3>
<p>To uninstall the plugin you just need to delete it from the ‘Modules’ folder or move it to where Lightroom won't find it.</p>
<h3>For developers</h3>
<p>All Adobe Lightroom plugins are written in <a href="http://www.lua.org/" class="ext" title="A light-weight, embeddable scripting language">Lua</a>. It's not possible to address the iPhoto API directly from Lua as the API is only available for AppleScript. The plugin exports the photos to a temporary location with Lua and triggers an AppleScript that imports the photos in iPhoto. The workaround is ugly for various reasons (an intermediate file is used for the Lua - AppleScript communication, the user sees the AppleScript popping up when exporting, etc.) so if anyone knows a decent Lua to AppleScript bridge it would be nice to know.</p>
<p>It's also the very first time I used Lua so feel free to optimize the code where needed. I'm planning to add the following when I can:</p>
<ul>
<li>Get rid of the Lua to AppleScript overhead.</li>
<li>Error handling when something goes wrong.</li>
</ul>
<p>Features I would like to add but the iPhoto API doesn't support (yet). Let's hope one of the following iPhoto releases updates the API.</p>
<ul>
<li>Creation of iPhoto folders form within the export dialog.</li>
<li>Name the new iPhoto event.</li>
</ul>
<p>You can get the source code from my <a href="http://svn.suffix.be/public/lightroom/" title="Plublic SVN repository for Lightroom plugins">SVN repository</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> I haven't tested it myself but it should work in Lightroom 2 as Ingemar points out, will test it myself as soon as possible.</p>
2007-12-19T15:32:49+01:00
13
1
lightroom-iphoto-export
Lightroom to iPhoto export
2008-09-01T13:00:45+02:00
Simon Schoeters
<p>Today another colleague of mine got himeself an iMac. After a sleepless night he is looking for some extra software so I took a look in my Applications folder and here is my list of most useful Mac OS X apps. The ones with a ♥ are the ones I need, the others are great applications I don't need evey day or the ones I download again next time I need them for a specific task.</p>
<ul>
<!-- image editors -->
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/" title="Photoshop, still the major image editor" class="ext">Adobe Photoshop</a> ♥ is the image editor, no questions asked. Tried numerous alternatives from Pixelmator to GIMP but I keep going back to Photoshop.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/" title="Photo editing with Lightroom" class="ext">Adobe Photoshop Lightroom</a> ♥ a must have if you regularly edit photos or shoot in RAW.</li>
<!-- editors -->
<li><a href="http://www.macromates.com/" title="The missing editor for Mac OS X" class="ext">TextMate</a> ♥ is an editor that combines the power of command line editing with a nice <abbr title="Graphical User Interface">GUI</abbr> wrapped around it.</li>
<!-- internet applications -->
<li><a href="http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/" title="Firefox, a great development browser" class="ext">Firefox</a> ♥ as development browser. I use Safari for my daily browsing stuff but the Firefox extensions make it indispensable for web development.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.acquisitionx.com/" title="Aquisition X, a peer-to-peer file sharing program" class="ext">Aquisition X</a> a peer-to-peer file sharing program which connects to Gnutella and BitTorrent networks.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.adiumx.com/" title="Adium X, the chat client for Mac" class="ext">Adium X</a> ♥ is a free and open source instant messaging application that can connect to <abbr title="AOL Instant Messenger">AIM</abbr>, <abbr title="The Microsoft Network">MSN</abbr>, Jabber, Facebook, GTalk and more.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.skype.com/" title="VoIP with Skype" class="ext">Skype</a> ♥ makes calls from your computer - free to other people on Skype and cheap to phones and mobiles around the world.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.transmissionbt.com/" title="Transmission, a simple, lightweight BitTorrent client" class="ext">Transmission</a> is a fast, easy, and free BitTorrent client with a focus on being lightweight yet feature-filled.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.panic.com/transmit/" title="Transmit, a great FTP client" class="ext">Transmit</a> ♥ is still the best FTP program for Mac OS X in my opinion. It supports Amazon S3, iDisk, WebDAV, <abbr title="File Transfer Protocol">FTP</abbr>, <abbr title="Secure File Transfer Protocol">SFTP</abbr>, <abbr title="Transport Layer Security/Secure Sockets Layer">TLS/SSL</abbr>.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.spanningsync.com/" title="Sync iCal and Google Calendar" class="ext">Spanning Sync</a> ♥ syncs your iCal with Google Calendar on a scheduled basis.</li>
<!-- video converters -->
<li><a href="http://www.handbrake.fr/" title="DVD to MPEG-4 converter" class="ext">Handbrake</a> is a free and open source multithreaded <abbr title="Digital Versatile Disc">DVD</abbr> to <abbr title="Moving Picture Experts Group">MPEG</abbr>-4 converter.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.isquint.org/" title=" iPod or iPhone video conversion" class="ext">iSquint</a> is free movie converter from numerous movie formats to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV compatible formats.</li>
<!-- video players -->
<li><a href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/" title="VLC, the ‘play all’ media player" class="ext">VLC Media Player</a> ♥ plays all the more obscure movie formats QuickTime doesn't know about.</li>
<li>With <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx" title="Play Windows Media files in your QuickTime player" class="ext">Flip4Mac</a> ♥ you can play Windows Media files (.wma and .wmv) directly in QuickTime player and view these files in your browser.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.araelium.com/screenflick/" title="Screen capturing with Screenflick" class="ext">Screenflick</a> ♥ is a screen capturing app that can record portions of the screen and record audio simultaneous from microphones and the system audio.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.zattoo.com/ " title="Zattoo is real TV on your PC" class="ext">Zattoo</a> free real streaming TV. For Belgium it shows VT4, VIJFtv and La Une.</li>
<!-- development -->
<li><a href="http://www.versionsapp.com/" title="Versions, a Subversion client" class="ext">Versions</a> ♥ is still in beta and it already replaced my command line <abbr title="Subversion">SVN</abbr> skills or how a GUI can make your life easier.</li>
<!-- others -->
<li><a href="http://www.blacktree.com/quicksilver" title="Quicksilver application and task launcher" class="ext">Quicksilver</a> is a fantastic launcher I used to start applications with a simple shortcut but Spotlight kind of replaced it. Still, it's much more powerfull and has loads of plug-ins.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.houdah.com/houdahGeo/" title="Geocoding for the Mac" class="ext">HoudaGeo</a> ♥ is a one-stop photo geo coding application which can read <abbr title="Global Positioning System">GPS</abbr> log files or use Google Maps to add geographic coordinates to your photos.</li>
<li><a href="http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html" title="The Unarchiver, a BOMArchiveHelper replacement" class="ext">The Unarchiver</a> ♥ is designed to handle many more formats than BOMArchiveHelper, the built-in archive unpacker program in Mac OS X. It supports Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, Rar, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt and many other more or less obscure formats.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.barebones.com/products/Yojimbo/" title="Yojimbo, an unstructured information organizer" class="ext">Yojimbo</a> ♥ is an information organizer to store unstructured information like password, notes, etc. Use it to keep website payment confirmations, flight numbers, passwords, code snippets and others but looking for a free alternative here.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/" title="Parallels, run Windows, Linux and Mac OS X side by side">Parallels</a> is a OS virtualization tool that let's you run Windows or Linux on your Mac side by side.</li>
<li><a href="http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/" title="Caffeine, keep your Mac awake" class="ext">Caffeine</a> ♥ is a tiny program that puts an icon your your menu bar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. Click it again to go back. Greet free app to keep around.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.macports.org/" title="Software package manager MacPorts" class="ext">MacPorts</a> is a software package manager for Mac OS X, not the tool for everyone but a great help if you need to install UNIX software from time to time and don't like the ‘configure, make, make’ install way. Free, of course.</li>
</ul>
<p>A few duplicates or applications that do more or less the same things as the ones above but for free.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://cabos.sourceforge.jp/" title="Cabos, a peer-to-peer file sharing program" class="ext">Cabos</a> ♥ is a free open source alternative for Aquisition X. The <abbr title="User Interface">UI</abbr> doesn't look as good but hey, it's free.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.cyberduck.ch/" title="Cyberduck, a free FTP app" class="ext">Cyberduck</a> is a free and open source alternative for Transmit. It supports FTP, SFTP, WebDAV & Amazon S3. Again, the UI is the trade of but offers great value for, well, no money.</li>
</ul>
2008-07-18T14:31:08+02:00
31
3
mac-apps-for-switchers
Mac apps for switchers
2008-10-10T21:22:10+02:00