Photoshop plugins and extensions are an easy way to add functionality to the leading image processing app and to improve your workflow.
You can find plugins for almost anything. Some will simplify the professional skin retouching you’d expect to see on the cover of a glossy magazine, and cost hundreds of dollars. Others take care of boring, repetitive tasks. All will make your life a whole lot easier.
In this guide, we’ll take a look at 10 essential free Photoshop plugins that you should start using right away.
The best free Photoshop plugin is actually a set of seven that also function as standalone apps. The Nik CollectionHow to Get Started with Google's Free Nik Plugins for PhotographyHow to Get Started with Google's Free Nik Plugins for PhotographyGoogle made its Nik Collection plug-ins completely free. The plugins work with photo editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Here's how to get started.Read More started out as professional photo processing software that cost $500. Google bought it and eventually made it available for free, but it’s no longer in development. As a result, the software will one day cease to be compatible with your computer. But for now, it is the gold standard of plugins.
The collection consists of:
Each tool installs as its own self-contained program, with the option to add it to Photoshop or Lightroom. If you only choose one of our recommendations from this list, the Nik Collection should be it.
Pexels.com is one of our favorite free stock image sitesThe 15 Best Sites for Free High-Resolution Stock ImagesThe 15 Best Sites for Free High-Resolution Stock ImagesFree high-resolution images are hard to come by. Wouldn't it be nice if you could get free stock images that are curated for quality and resolution? You can!Read More. The free plugin the site provides enables you to access its content without ever leaving Photoshop.
Go to Windows > Extenstions > Pexels to open Pexels.com in its own panel. Here, you can browse images split by Recent or Popular, or view popular searches and tags under the Likes tab. There’s also a search option.
Just click a photo and it will download and insert itself onto a new layer in your open Photoshop file (or will create a new one if none are open). Stock photos are great if you ever need to add a texture to an image, change the backgroundHow to Change the Background of a Photo in PhotoshopHow to Change the Background of a Photo in PhotoshopWant to change the background of a photo in Photoshop? Adobe has made it quite easy to edit the background of a photo.Read More, or for countless other purposes. Having a stock library essentially built into Photoshop really helps simplify your workflow.
You can also get plugins for commercial stock photo services like iStock and Getty. These are free, but you need to pay for the images.
ON1 Effects adds Instagram-style functionality to Photoshop. It provides a massive array of presets covering generic looks like “Hipster” or “Cinematic”, to those fashioned around specific film stock. It also offers a large number of filters that can enhance the colors and tone of your image.
ON1 Effects works as a one-click panel in Photoshop, or you can open the accompanying standalone app for more granular control over how you apply the presets to your photos.
Ink is an add-on for web designers who put their layouts together in Photoshop. It converts the elements in your document into HTML and CSS code so they can be faithfully recreated on a web page.
The information Ink generates is pretty detailed. It’ll give you info on fonts used, and their size, color, leading and tracking, and so on. It’ll create code for shadows and gradients, and also pixel-perfect measurements between the various elements that make up your design.
Another tool for web developers, CSS3Ps turns individual layers into CSS code. Photoshop has some of this functionality built in, but the plugin goes further by giving you SCSS and SASS code as well.
CSS3Ps can also be quicker when you’re working on complex designs, as it’s all cloud based. It’s an excellent tool, and takes a lot of the pain out of designing buttons, especially when using shadows, glows, and other effects.
Photoshop offers support for many file formats into which you can save your images. PNG is one of them, but the options you get when saving are very limited.
You get a lot more control with SuperPNG. There are more settings to find the right balance between speed and quality — somewhat counterintuitively a lower quality image takes longer to save, due to the sluggishness of PNG compression. You can also retain transparency in an image, and keep or remove the metadata.
When you’re working with typography in Photoshop you’re limited to using the fonts you’ve got installed on your computer. There are a few plugins that can give you more fonts — — but sometimes these cost money, and you have to check the usage rights for each font.
A simpler choice is Fontea, which gives you access to Google FontsHow to Use Google Fonts in Adobe PhotoshopHow to Use Google Fonts in Adobe PhotoshopTired of downloading fonts only to test them and realize that they aren't exactly what you need? With this Photoshop plugin, you can test and use over 800 fonts provided by Google.Read More. They’re all free and open source, so there’s no issue with usage. Just browse through the fonts, filtering down to the styles that you’re after. Each font will download automatically when you need it, and you can remove them just as easily.
Some of the most essential Photoshop plugins and extensions are the ones that simplify common tasks. That’s certainly true of Long Shadow Generator 2, which does exactly what its name suggests.
The options are deliberately sparse. You can adjust the angle, length, and darkness of the shadow you want. You can also choose between a flat shadow or one that fades the further it travels. And you can produce white shadows when your text or objects are on a dark background. But if you prefer, you can do it all with just one click.
Layers are an integral part of Photoshop10 Must-Know Introductory Photoshop Skills for Beginner Photographers10 Must-Know Introductory Photoshop Skills for Beginner PhotographersIn this guide, we take a look at some Photoshop features you can dive straight into, even if you have little or no previous photo editing experience.Read More, but once you’ve got a lot in your document managing them becomes a tedious task.
Layrs Control 2 makes the process a lot easier. It makes seven common layer management actions accessible through a single panel. They are:
You’d usually have to do all these tasks manually, or find or create your own scripts to handle them. That’s no longer the case with this plugin, which is a real time saver.
If you ever need to drop a Twitter or Shopping Cart icon onto your website you probably use Font Awesome to do the job. With Font Awesome PS you can now use the same iconic font in your Photoshop designs as well.
There are 675 icons to choose from. They’re added to your image as vector shapes, so they can be resized, colored, and edited with no loss of quality.
Plugins and extensions install and work in different ways. Some are installed just like regular programs. Some download in ZIP files and need to be copied manually to the Photoshop plugins or extensions directory — check the website for instructions in these cases.
If the add-on is in the ZXP format, try the app ZXPInstaller, available for both Windows and Mac. This replaces the now defunct Adobe Extensions Manager, which used to be used to install these files.
You can access the add-ons in one of a few different places. You’ll normally find them under Windows > Extensions. Sometimes you’ll find them in the Filter menu. In the case of SuperPNG, above, you’ll find it as a file format in the Save As… menu.
All the plugins work non-destructively. Any edits they make to your images go on separate layers, leaving you free to experiment to find the ones that best suit how you work. Plugins, among other advanced features, make Photoshop one of the most essential resources for graphic designers7 Essential Tools, Software, and Services for Illustrators7 Essential Tools, Software, and Services for IllustratorsWorking as an illustrator can be a daunting task. However, these essential tools for illustrators will help keep you on track.Read More of all stripes.
Explore more about: Adobe Photoshop, .
I know that the Nik Collection plugins work in Photoshop Elements, but what about the rest of them?
The link for Long Shadow Generator is throwing a 403 error..
Photoshop is a powerful image editing tool that is available for web designers and photographers to create desired effects in the images. It is no rocket science to create wonderful designs but then not all tasks can be done manually instead they need handy extensions or we may better call them plugins. Yes, you heard it right plugins as in Photoshop plugins! Creative skills of the designers and these cool plugins together do the trick. With the help of Photoshop plugins any designer or photographer can create desired effects on their images.
Photoshop Plugins are add-ons that promise to help designers attain additional image effects or performing some difficult tasks thereby enabling them create superb designs. The cool handy Photoshop plugins make a complicated tasks much easier as they help create effective designs that are visually appealing. These days there is the availability of an immense range of free Photoshop plug-ins that help designers a great deal.
This article focuses mainly on designers who keep looking for best free Photoshop plugins that genuinely promise to make their task easier and effective. So, here we present a list of useful Photoshop plugins that are available for free download.
This plugin helps generates blots to obtain nice textures that are seamless .
The plugin Projection provides a collection of interactive perspective effects; it tiles image in infinite space or to repeat edges. Also, it creates bilinear distortion.
Gradient Smithy is a plugin that allows you to create what Photoshop calls the gradient map effect. It allows users to create complex gradients, quite easily.
The Harry’s Filters is a series of filters that comprises of up to 69 different image effects. The main effect categories are called Color, Artistic, Gradients, Patterns, Warp, Noise, En/Decrypt, Other and Nature.
Flat Median is a median-like effect which have some advantages over the regular median filter. With this plugin you can control the level of flatness. At low level of flatness the result would look like a regular blur, while at high level the result would look more contrasty. You can check out the image pinned below to understand what exactly i am talking about.
The plugin Curves 2,enables you toapply a curve with easily controllable shape characteristics.
Icon Plugin for Photoshop promises to enhance Adobe Photoshop with an ability to export and import Windows icons With the help of this plugin users can create compelling icons directly in Adobe Photoshop, using its large arsenal of creative tools and a convenient and familiar design environment.
The last airbender 2 movie tamilyogi. Julia ‘s curves are a family of mathematical curves well known for their beauties. This plugin simple to track down an interesting curve.
Color MegaMix is a plugin that modifies the colors of any image. It is based on two rows of colors viz 8 source colors and 8 target colors.
Chalkaholic is a Photoshop Plugin that provides uniquely effective artistic rendering options. It is a cool option for those who want flexibility and control in their designs.
Kaleidoscope is a plugin that proceeds to multiple symmetries to obtain beautiful patterns.
Unlike the traditional threshold command of Photoshop, the Fine Threshold plugin allows you to get quickly, anti-aliased and sharp shapes without any fuss.
HSL Plus 1.1 plugin has better color integrity improved control over luminosity and you also have the option of making an automatic contrast then of re-adjusting.
Local equalization is a plugin that can be used to enhance the aspect of a given texture. It can also be used to analyze and optimize an image certain details are barely viewable.
Dreamy Photo gives images a soft romantic feel which gives superb effect for enhancing stock photography, digital camera photos and any image you want to add a warm feel too.
Local Contrast Enhancement brings out detail by increasing the contrast between a pixel’s value and the mean value of the adjacent pixels in a local area of the photo. Users can control the amount of contrast, the size of the local area and the amount of blending with the original photo.
Xpose is an exposure adjustment plugin that offers quick adjustment of highlights and shadows with a rapid preview feedback and a simple, intuitive interface.
Jama 3D is a freeware Adobe Photoshop compatible plug-in filter. It’s the simplest way to create corrugated and cellular like patterns from 2D images.
Water Ripples is a freeware Adobe Photoshop compatible plug-in filter. The highly realistic water ripples effect designer has number of options in an impressive 3D quality. There are random setting generators that produce unlimited variations of rippled surfaces.
This plugin lets users create diptych (double), triptych (triple) and ntych (quadrule+) panels within Photoshop. Choose the alignment, number of rows and columns or hybrid layouts and Tych Panel 2 that will help you create the layout for you.
SuperPNG is a free Adobe Photoshop plug-in for using PNG files. It has more comprehensive support for the format than Photoshop’s included plug-in and provides control over alpha channel handling.
Its a freeware Adobe Photoshop compatible plug-in filter that effectively designs grids and nettings. It has the ability to produce a variety of weave patterns, fabric textures, body art tattoos and skeleton simulations.
It is a Photoshop script that rapidly generates storyboards, stacks, and PDF(s) for CD check-ins, presentations, and whatever else it is you do.
Retro Dots is a free Photoshop plugin that generates dot grids which can be based on selections. This cool plugin is the idea conceived by William Christenson.
virtualPhotographer is a plugin that lets you instantly apply high quality, professional photographic styles to your digital images with just one click.
Its a cool plugin based on a hue wheel subdivided into 6 sectors of 60 degrees. Users can choose a selector color segment and it will restrict the tints of the image for that color.
Craquelure 3D filter creates a wide range of well known craquelure effects that is useful in designing various abstract patterns, decorative surfaces and construction materials.
Sinedot 2 helps generate abstract, random wave patterns for use as background art. It’s phenomenally complex, and has been around for at least a decade but still does the trick and creates some really amazing patterns.
The Oilpaint effect that with the free Pixel Bender plugin for Photoshop CS5 allows users to transform their photographs into images with the visual appearance of oil paintings.
Weaveras the name hints gives a weaving to the images making them look like weave.
The Photoshop Web Font plug-in enables you to design with the same web fonts you will use to ‘go live’. This Photoshop plugin is one of a few solutions that are arriving, allowing you to instantly install and use Google Web Fonts inside Photoshop.
This is an amazing free Photoshop plugin that provides a new panel in Photoshop CS5 and above, enabling you to quickly access real-media preset effects to generate documents with natural paper backgrounds, realistic water color brush strokes and much more.
This Photoshop plugin cuts the image in several blocks does the sorting of colors and they are redistributed as patterns.
The plugin Fur 2 disperses a simple figure line or circle, configurable dimensions/thickness over the whole image. The image below explains what exactly this cool plugin does.
Add a heavy dose of excitement or a subtle amount of elegance to your photos with Perfect Effects 4 Free. You can choose from over 70 effects to enhance and stylize your images including effects to create the popular HDR and vintage looks, textures to add depth and dimension and borders to add a finishing touch.
FREE AAA 8bf plugins for Photo Editors is available for Windows only. Users can download your filter and unzip it into your plugin folder in a subfolder called AAA. Thereafter the plugins will show up under the categories of AAA Filters.
High Pass Sharpening Photoshop plug-ing sharpens images with the high-pass method thereby producing less halos.
While using Photoshop, sometimes using saturation causes some parts of the the images to be over-saturated. To handle this, the selective saturation plug-in can be used as it can define a saturation zone and apply a saturation to a particular area.
Dealing with grids in Photoshop is a big fuss. GuideGuide is a free Photoshop plugin that simplifies creating grids in Photoshop with only a few clicks. It lets you pixel accurate columns, rows, midpoints and baselines that can be created based on your document or selection with the click of a button.
CSS3Ps is a free Photoshop plugin that allows you to convert shapes in a PSD file into CSS3-powered elements.
Cut&Slice me is a great and free Photoshop plugin that can export your assets to different devices in seconds thereby improving your workflow.
Give a soft focus effect to images by setting focus softness, blending mode of the overlayed blured image.
Contrast Mask is a Photoshop plugin that decreases the overall contrast of the image, helps bringing out details in highlights and shadows.
It is a stereogram maker plug-in that enables users to generate Hidden Image Stereograms right in their Photoshop, which is quite convenient. This filter is available for free and can be used both for commercial and non-commercial purposes.
Pano Wrap is a plugin that lets you perform pixel transformations used in panorama stitching.
Photoshop black-white conversion plugin with powerful features enables users to manage tones of every color and there are ready to use popular presets, an option to simulate the effect of color lens and much more.
Mosaic Photoshop plugin is part of the DreamSuite Series product line. It makes your photos look as if they were created out of a mosaic tile. Besides, photo-realistic depth, variable tile size and color options give this effect an infinite number of looks.
Magic Enhancer lets you improve your photos by adjusting its lightness, contrast and color balance. Backuptrans serial. All in all it enhances images that lack lightness or uneven illumination, silhouetted images on dark backgrounds.
Wire Worm is a little plugin that will help you remove wires and other unwanted objects from your images.
Fractalius is a plugin that uses fractal patterns, apparently hidden within the source image to generate procedural effects that are reminiscent of pencil sketches, or stylized light glow streaks.
There are lot many of the Photoshop plugins available for free but we have selected the best ones we came across to let you all make your pick. If you know any of the useful Photoshop plugin that you feel deserve to be the part of the list of best free Adobe Photoshop plugins then we request you to spare some time let us know in the comments below.
More Resources: