Timeline: Version Control Plugin for Photoshop

Oct 28

Product Review

gomedia-timeline-header

Timeline by PixelNovel is an interesting version control system built for designers who use Adobe Photoshop. As far as I am aware, there’s really nothing else like this out there for Photoshop users.

Timeline allows you to save and review a file’s history and save file versions and get file versions without switching from the main Photoshop window.

timeline-screenshot

Forget having to save multiple versions of the same Adobe Photoshop file with arcane file names like File1.psd, File_final.psd, File_ForJohn.psd and so on. Timeline allows you to use one .psd file, and all versions of your file will be safely kept on the pixelnovel.com server and you will be able to access them at any time from Photoshop or from your web browser.

Version control system is a software system that allows you to easily store and manage multiple versions of the same file. When you’re at a stage where you want to save a version, you just click a button in the Timeline palette in Photoshop and your file is saved as a version on the PixelNovel server. Timeline also allows you to add comments to each saved version.

The Timeline plugin adds a new panel into Adobe Photoshop that has thumbnail previews of all your saved versions. Hovering your mouse over any of the preview thumbnails will reveal any comments for this version. Click on any of the version thumbnails, press the “Get version” button in Timeline and voila — the selected version will be delivered.

The online viewer is also great for showing a client multiple versions of a file.

Pricing for the Standard account is $1 per GB/per month with a 5GB minimum. Pro accounts get $0.80 per GB/per month with a 20 GB minimum ($20/month). Head on over to the Timeline page and check it put for yourself.

Also available for all you Subversion geeks out there is a standalone version of Timeline. Pricing is $60 per license, with bulk license discounts. Works with both PC (XP and above) and Mac (10.4and above). Requires Photoshop  Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3 or CS4.

(via TUAW)

Go Media is a creative agency based in Cleveland, Ohio. Besides the GoMediaZine, we also work for clients and sell stock artwork and design files on the Arsenal.

backup, graphic design, Photoshop, plugin, productivity, software, Subversion, version control

This post was written by:

George Coghill - who has written 46 posts on GoMediaZine.

George Coghill is the editor of Go Media 'Zine and a freelance humorous illustrator/cartoonist specializing in mascot cartoon character design. His cartooning & illustration work can be seen at CoghillCartooning.com and at his cartooning and illustration blog. Be sure to follow me on Twitter here!

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  • @Jed, i read about this yesterday, and thought the exact same thing.
  • great idea. I wonder why they chose subversion over git for this? I'm not sure which one is more robust tracking binary files, but I'd guess git.
  • In CS3 VersionCue was providing versioning capabilities to Photoshop but Adobe totally messed that up in CS4 where they've completely modified the VersionCue Server making it completely unusable.
  • VersionCue is something I am not familiar with, I tried to dig into it a while ago but never really wrapped my head around it.
  • After reading this, I'm wondering why you wouldn't just use Photoshop's built-in Snapshot feature, which appears to do much the same thing if I read this correctly.
  • Great suggestion James. The only limitation to Photoshop's built-in Snapshot feature (in the History palette) is that is doesn't save with the document -- it's only for the current session. Still, a great option. I've never used the History palette much so it wasn't on my mind.
  • thanks for this Plugin.
  • Adam_Wagner
    Yea this looks cool! It seems that multiple user collaboration would be just around the corner, eh?
  • amatatomba
    This looks extremely useful. I'll have to look into it.
  • They also do FlickrShop, to send stuff directly from Ps to Flickr. And THAT'S awesome.
  • OverIthisWire
    Flickrshop, never heard of this, sounds very awesome... i'll have to check it out! Time line looks sweet to george!
  • I'm going to pitch an article idea to George :-)
  • I mentioned FlickrShop a while back on the 'Zine: http://www.gomediazine.com/design-articles/10-g...
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