Kubota launches Dashboard 3 Pro, new borders and textures

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Kubota launches Dashboard 3 Pro, new borders and textures
By Mike Tomkins
(Thursday, May 27, 2010 - 01:52 EDT)

Kubota Image Tools, creator of numerous plugins, presets and actions for both Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, has released several new products in the last week.

Two new Texture Tools paks offer a variety of fifty textures apiece, created by professional photographer Benjamin Edwards. The Texture Tools paks cost $149 apiece, and include Kubota's Bor-Tex dashboard panel, which makes browsing, selecting and applying texture effects a breeze. If installed, the same panel also provides access to Kubota's Sloppy Borders pak, which includes over 125 different border effects that can be applied within or outside the boundary of images. The two Texture Tools paks include Earth and Industrial-themed textures, respectively. The Earth Textures - Smooth Organic Pak, says Kubota, "will bring elements of depth and subtlety ... from warming tones to dimensional detail". The Industrial Textures - High Tech Electric Pak, meanwhile, is described as offering "an element of techno-industrial style for that final touch, grunge-look that seniors are begging for in their portrait shoots".

Simultaneously, Kubota has announced a new version of its Dashboard panel, which provides access to the company's comprehensive library of Photoshop actions. The latest version, Dashboard 3 Pro, operates very similarly to the Bor-Tex dashboard panel, although without a graphical preview of the effects. Instead, each effect is given a short description summarizing its intended effect. One further difference is that Dashboard 3 Pro allows the photographer to add their own actions, where the Bor-Tex panel is restricted solely to listing Kubota's borders and textures. In other respects though, the operation of Dashboard 3 Pro is pretty much identical to the Bor-Tex panel, making it intuitive to switch back and forth between the two. Individual items in the dashboard are grouped by category, and a search box automatically filters through the available items as a search term is typed, often bringing up the relevant item with only a few keystrokes. A nice touch is that both panels allow photographers not only to mark individual items as favorites for easy recall, but also to apply their own keywords to individual items, making it even easier to come back to them as needed for a specific purpose.


Kubota's BorTex dashboard panel (left) and Dashboard 3 Pro panel (right). Screenshots copyright © 2010, Imaging Resource. All rights reserved.

Each Texture Tools pak can be purchased alone with the Bor-Tex dashboard panel for $149, as can the Sloppy Borders pak. Alternatively, all three can be purchased together in the Bor-Tex pak for $349. Dashboard 3 Pro, meanwhile, can be purchased separately for $79 -- and since it allows photographers to add their own actions, it can be useful even when purchased alone. For the best effect though, photographers will want to purchase some of Kubota's extensive selection of Photoshop actions, which are available in five separate paks priced at $179 apiece. Each pak contains at least 40-50 actions, and some offer as many as 60-70 or more, and they're grouped by intended use - Classic Film Effects, Modern / Chic, High Fashion / Edgy, Cutting Edge, and Production Tools. An Essentials pak ($599) contains all the actions -- totalling not far below 300 in all -- without the Dashboard 3 Pro panel, while the Full Creative pak ($899) adds in the borders and textures, plus a book from Kubota's Artistic Series. The Studio pak adds Dashboard 3 Pro into the mix, along with Kubota's Digital Photography Bootcamp book and Lightroom 2 Raw Workflow DVD tutorial. Also included in this $1,199 pak is Kubota AutoAlbum, a tool for creating magazine-style photo albums in Photoshop, which is priced at $399 when purchased separately. Finally, the top of the line Super Studio Pak also includes Kubota's RPG SpeedKeys device. Priced at $349 as a separate purchase, RPG Speedkeys is a dedicated, wireless USB keypad for use with Photoshop Lightroom 2, which provides quick access to numerous Lightroom features without the need to remember keyboard shortcuts.

More details on Kubota Image Tools' product line, including the new Texture Tools paks and Dashboard 3 Pro, can be found on the Kubota website.

Original Source Press Release:

Kubota Image Tools Empowers Photographers With Three New Offerings: DASHBOARD 3 Pro, Kubota Texture Tools And Updated Sloppy Borders

Kubota Image Tools, the leading source for time-saving and award-winning image-enhancing Photoshop® Actions and Lightroom® Presets and presenters of inspiring international workshops designed to empower professional photographers, today announced the general availability of its newly enhanced DASHBOARD™ 3 Pro software, as well as the brand new Kubota Texture Tools and the re-released Kubota Sloppy Borders

Bend, OR (PRWEB) May 20, 2010 -- Kubota Image Tools, the leading source for time-saving and award-winning image-enhancing Photoshop® Actions and Lightroom® Presets and presenters of inspiring international workshops designed to empower professional photographers, today announced the general availability of its newly enhanced DASHBOARD™ 3 Pro software, as well as the brand new Kubota Texture Tools and the re-released Kubota Sloppy Borders (now DASHBOARD 3-compatible). Formally launched in March at WPPI 2010, the updates of these award-winning offerings are now available for immediate purchase and download at:http://kubotaimagetools.com/store/catalog/index.html.

Kubota Image Tools’ exclusive DASHBOARD 3 Pro is a floating palette within Photoshop that acts like a mini search engine for Photoshop actions, enabling photographers to manage and run their entire actions collection, including the award-winning Actions from Kubota Image Tools. With the new DASHBOARD 3 Pro, photographers can find any action quickly and run them instantly. This latest version of the popular workflow optimization tool includes the ability to keyword search for actions, update action descriptions and mark favorites for future use.

“Our new DASHBOARD 3 Pro has been designed to work the way photographers think,” said Kevin Kubota, Idea Guy of Kubota Image Tools. “The efficiencies gained from harnessing actions through this one-stop solution will help photographers create stunning images in just seconds. It’s certainly the fastest path from original image to finished art.”

To ensure the most streamlined workflow possible, the new DASHBOARD 3 Pro refreshes the available list of actions each time Photoshop is opened. Other speed-enhancing upgrades include a quick execute command, a new “Merge Copy” layer to help any action run in tandem and a handy refresh option for adding or removing items from the actions palette.

Kubota Texture Tools & Sloppy Borders
Also available immediately are the new Kubota Borders and Textures on their own DASHBOARD. The “Earth Textures - Smooth Organic Pak” and the “Industrial Textures - High Tech Electric Pak” provide users with a fast and easy method to add unique textures to images. Each Pak includes 50 unique textures individually created in conjunction with professional photographer and philanthropist Benjamin Edwards (http://www.benjaminimages.com/).

In addition, the re-released Kubota Sloppy Borders provide more than 100 classic film-effect borders, which now automatically integrate with the Kubota Borders and Textures DASHBOARD for easy searching, previewing and applying. These borders help photographers apply the classic look of old film to their images with creative borders ranging from elegantly thin, to eye-catching medium to commanding thick borders.

“Textures add an almost intangible depth and richness to an image, and borders have long been a favorite aesthetic used since the days of film photography. They add great visual appeal to a photo, but both have traditionally been time consuming or confusing to apply in this digital era,” said Kubota. “Ben's textures are amazingly artistic and were created with an experienced eye for how textures will be used over images of all sizes.”

Availability
DASHBOARD 3 Pro is available for immediate download through the Kubota Image Tools website. First time users can purchase the software alone for $79.00. Alternatively, if purchased with any set of Kubota Actions, users can take advantage of the same upgrade pricing available to current owners of the DASHBOARD for $49.00.

The Kubota Texture Tools Paks as well as the Kubota Sloppy Borders are now available for $149 each. Customers that own the original Kubota Sloppy Borders should contact Kubota Image Tools at [email protected] for information on upgrade specials.

For more information on any of the new Kubota Image Tools, please visit http://www.kubotaimagetools.com/

System Requirements: DASHBOARD 3 Pro requires Adobe Photoshop® CS2 or newer, and the new Textures and Borders require Adobe Photoshop® CS3 or newer.

CS5 Compatibility: DASHBOARD 3 Pro and the latest Textures and Borders are both compatible with the 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions of Adobe’s recently launched Photoshop CS5. For Mac OS users, the offerings are compatible with CS5 running in 32-bit format. An additional update, available in the coming days, will enable 64-bit use on the Mac OS.


Kubota's new Texture Tools paks - Earth (left) and Industrial (right). Renderings provided by Kubota Photo Design Inc.

About Kubota Image Tools
Bend, OR-based Kubota Image Tools is the source for time-saving and award-winning image-enhancing Photoshop® Actions and Lightroom® Presets and presenters of inspiring international workshops designed to empower professional photographers. The workflow-saving offerings grew from the digital experience of Kevin Kubota who began pioneering the field of completely digital wedding photography in the 1990s.

As the President and Owner of Kubota Photo Design Inc., Kevin has been working with Photoshop and as a digital/computer educator since 1993. Kevin shares his experience with other photographers through the award-winning Digital Photography Bootcamp®, which has trained thousands of photographers to make the digital transition while empowering them with improved creative control and proven management practices to drive success. Kevin also presents seminars on digital imaging, workflow and Photoshop techniques for professional photographers for national associations such as WPPI, PPA and many state associations.

As the author of the book Digital Photography Boot Camp: A Step-by-Step Guide for Professionals (now in its second edition), published by Amherst Media, Kevin continues to make his vast experience available to the photographic community through his ever evolving blog Kubota Action Hero.

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