Responses from Aperture
InsideAperture will continue to look into further questions for the duration of PMA. The following questions have been edited down from the original question sheet to reflect only questions where meaningful responses exist.
The full question list has been passed on to Apple so we may receive more answers at some point, or they may get new ideas from it we see developed in later releases.
There were also a few questions that arose during the show, these questions (and answers) have been grouped in a section called Final Questions at the end of the three Q&A pages.
API
Do you plan to provide a plugin API to let third parties extend Aperture? Adjustment tools? Other RAW converters? Other aspects of Aperture? Adjustment tools in particular are places where people really like plugins that support powerful sharpening and noise reduction utilities.
On this question I did not get a direct answer, but did glean some indirect information - when asking about custom book sizes a number of people said things like “Third parties can provide for things like that”. That Apple is thinking about third party support for some components already implies some support for plugins eventually (though a very weak implication to be sure).
Community/Education
How soon do you plan to offer Aperture certifications?
Related, will Aperture educational classes be expanded to other Apple stores and locations?
Apple now lists some Aperture classes on the Pro Classes page. It’s been brought to my attention these were there for some time - in any case the Aperture certification track is ramping up shortly.
User Interface
In the future might there be larger type sizes for some sections (like metadata)? Aperture’s general target audience may be somewhat older that other pro apps and more in need of larger fonts for commonly read text.
Final Cut Pro already makes some allowance in this area, so we may see something in Aperture someday. Apple has had a number of requests along these lines.
It would be handy to browse into Aperture libraries from other apps - either through a mechanism similar to iPhoto, or perhaps smart export albums (as above), only available through the finder outside. Is some kind of external access mechanism underway, or will Aperture prefer to work through image export?
The new Applescript is meant to provide just such functionality, though it is a little more manual as it must be activated unlike a smart folder. It is also more direct though.
Inside Aperture
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Aperture™ PMA Q&A Responses - Vision
