Without leaving Photoshop or Illustrator — introducing REFLO plugins

Over six posts so far I’ve introduced REFLO’s core features. Today I want to talk about the feature that brings all of that naturally into the actual workstream: Photoshop and Illustrator plugins.

A moment almost everyone has had

You’re deep in Illustrator. You suddenly think, “The version I was working on yesterday afternoon might have been better than this.” How do you check? You leave the document you have open, find and launch the REFLO app separately, find the file, dig through the timeline, and hunt for that moment. When you’re done checking, you have to come back to Illustrator.

It’s only a few clicks and window switches, but that short departure costs more than you’d think. Focus slips, and the flow you had in your head a moment ago breaks. That blank beat when you return to Illustrator and think, “What was I about to do?” — most people have had it at least once.

No matter how powerful the recording and restore features are, if you have to leave the tool you’re using every time you want to check them, the tool stays a little disappointing.

That break is why we built plugins

After we’d built the timeline, comparison modes, cross-format support, branches, and Cloud History, REFLO was already a powerful enough tool. But actually using it, one thing kept bothering us. All of those features lived “outside” Photoshop or Illustrator, as a separate app.

Most of a designer’s real work happens inside Photoshop and Illustrator. No matter how good REFLO’s features are, if you have to leave the program you’re working in every time you want to use them, it ends up as a cumbersome tool.

> Why should the user come find REFLO? Couldn’t REFLO go where the user already is?

That’s the question where plugins started.

What plugins are after

The goal is clear. You shouldn’t have to leave the program you’re using in order to check REFLO. Whether it’s Photoshop or Illustrator, you should be able to check versions and go back right inside the window you were already working in. Version management shouldn’t be a separate chore; it should feel like a natural part of the tool you already use.

What plugins look like

1. Automatic install — no hunting it down yourself

When you install and run the REFLO Mac app, it tries to register the Photoshop and Illustrator plugins automatically. You don’t need to search a plugin marketplace or look up install instructions. To use recording and restore from the panel, the REFLO app needs to be running; if automatic install doesn’t work, you can try again from app settings or open the bundled installer.

2. Saved versions visible right on the screen you’re working in

Without leaving the program, you can check the save history of the file that’s open now (autosaves, milestones, and so on) in the plugin panel. It isn’t a full copy of every Mac-app screen like comparison or playback, but you can look straight at the versions stacked on the timeline from the last post, inside Photoshop and Illustrator.

3. Restore that continues right from the panel

When you find a version you like, you can restore to it right from the plugin panel. You don’t have to go find the file again in the REFLO app; you can continue from the screen you were already using.

4. A creative flow that doesn’t break

The heart of all of this is protecting the flow. Checking a version and going back shouldn’t be “pause the work and go to another app”; it should be a natural action inside the tool you were already using. So immersion doesn’t break. That’s the biggest difference plugins make.

What’s next

Right now plugin support is centered on Photoshop and Illustrator, but we keep looking at whether we can widen this experience to other tools designers and creative workers actually use often.

And while we’re focused now on checking versions and restoring, being able to visually compare two versions right inside the plugin — like the comparison modes I introduced earlier — also feels like a natural next step. During beta testing we’ll keep checking which flow actually feels most comfortable, and we’ll keep refining it.

Closing

If the timeline, comparison modes, cross-format support, branches, and Cloud History I’ve introduced so far are the features that show what’s inside REFLO, plugins are the feature that shows how all of that actually reaches your fingertips. Even a great feature is useless if it’s somewhere your hands can’t reach.

Thank you for reading.