Anastasiy releases MagicSquire 3.2
Originally posted on 13 February 2019. Scroll down for news of the 3.2 update.
Digital painting tools developer Anastasiy Safari has released MagicSquire 3.0, the latest version of his Photoshop brush organisation plugin.
The update adds the option to add user-generated tags to brushes, to combine brush groups into larger ‘collections’, and to set up keyboard shortcuts for commonly used brushes.
Create custom sub-palettes for your Photoshop brushes, with quick visual previews
First released in 2016, MagicSquire enables concept designers, illustrators and anyone else working with large numbers of custom Photoshop brushes to organise them in colour-coded sub-palettes.
The plugin automatically generates thumbnail images for each brush, with a wider choice of stroke types than Photoshop itself, helping to differentiate them visually.
It also works with custom shapes and tool presets, and includes a ‘Magic Eraser’ feature to turn any tool preset into a custom eraser brush.
Its users include some well-known concept artists, like Marc Simonetti and Craig Shoji.
New in MagicSquire 3.0: tags, collections and keyboard shortcuts
New features in MagicSquire 3.0 include the option to add custom keyword tags to brushes, making it possible to use those keywords to filter only those brushes relevant to a project.
Brush groups can also now be combined into larger ‘collections’, accessible via the plugin’s context menu.
In addition, users can now set up their own keyboard shortcuts for individual brushes, making it quicker to switch between commonly used brushes.
Other changes include the option to host the plugin’s data folder to a cloud drive when working across multiple computers, and the option to preserve the current size setting when switching between brushes.
Updated 24 September 2019: MagicSquire 3.2 is out. It’s largely a workflow update, making it possible to move a brush to a group by right-clicking it, then selecting the group by name.
Users of Photoshop CC and above also get the option to load .tpl and .abr files as groups by dragging them onto the MagicSquire panel within the interface.
Pricing and availability
MagicSquire 3.2 is available now for Photoshop CS5 and above on Windows and Mac OS X. It costs $19.
Read a full list of features in MagicSquire 3.x on the product website