Geeky Bob

One of the four computer monitors on my desk has died and I'm left thinking, "Well, darn. How am I going to get any work done?"

(Note: They're actually flat-screen monitors; the CRTs are from Visio.)

Following Google's acquisition of Nik Software, Google has decided to make it's suite of plugins available for free. With that in mind, I thought that I  would post a simple "How-To" guide for using the Nik plugins for anyone who is using Corel's PaintShop Pro instead of Adobe's hideously-priced Photoshop software. (Note that Photoshop is really cool, of course - it's just priced and/or licensed badly.)

In any event, here are the steps to use the Nik Collection plugins with Corel's PaintShop Pro on a Windows computer:

1. Download the Nik Collection from https://www.google.com/nikcollection/
2. Install the collection into the default folder; this should be something like the following path:

   
   "%ProgramFiles%\Google\Nik Collection"
   
   

3. Open a Windows command prompt
4. Change directory to the plugins folder for the version of PaintShop which you have installed; for example:

   
   cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Corel\Corel PaintShop Pro X8 (64-bit)\PlugIns\EN"
   
   

5. Create a directory junction to the Nik Collection:

   
   mklink /j "Nik Collection" "%ProgramFiles%\Google\Nik Collection"
   
   

6. When you next open PaintShop, the Nik Collection will show up under Effects->Plugins:

   

That's all it takes. Have fun!

Sitting by a pool today, I have decided that there are several seasons in each man's life which can best be summed up in the following manner:

• Mini-Muffin
• Stud-Muffin
• Muffin-Top
• Stale-Muffin

(PS - You'll thank me for not including photos to illustrate my point.)