Photoshop plugins are a great way to enhance your Adobe Photoshop software and tailor the experience to your needs. Plugins are designed to unlock new features, optimize your productivity and save you time, but it can be difficult trying to find the ones that suit your workflow. Luckily for you, we've assembled a list of all our favorite Photoshop plugins (free and premium), and provided a little explanation of what they do, just to make sure you are choosing the right plugins for you.
Also Read: RASTER VS VECTOR GRAPHICS
1. ON1 Effects
ON1 Effects is an easy one-click panel in Photoshop, which can also work as a standalone app. Essentially, it functions as a viable alternative to Adobe’s collection of graphic design software offerings. This Photoshop plugin allows you to add effects to your images and comes with a diverse selection of filters (including some that feel a lot like Instagram), including adjustable contrasts and an HDR effect.
Users can choose from the classic filters, like vignette and cinematic styles, and add them on
different layers. Filters can be easily stacked together and adjusted for quick customization.
Pexels.com is an awesome resource when it comes to free stock images. The website also offers designers a free plugin for your Photoshop installation, granting easy access to its photo library without requiring you to open a new window or a need to download images you’ve got your eye on.
By adding this plugin to Photoshop, you can browse images according to their popularity, images that have been recently added to the website, or by using specific tags and search terms, depending on the needs of your projects.
RH Hover is easier to use and arguably better than Photoshop’s standard picker—a tool that many describe as being too complex and all over the place. There are Photoshop plugins that allow you to have a clean, light, and fast color picker. This particular tool allows you to easily customize your color sliders while giving you a lot more control compared to what you can do with the standard offering.
When working in Photoshop, designers need easy access to a wide range of color, which is why Adobe includes a color picker as part of their standard interface panel. However, users also want the option to see a full, unobscured view of the project they’re working on. RH Hover Color Picker only shows when you hover over its minimized version. When you go back to designing, it will automatically hide. Out of sight, out of mind!
There are many free fonts available online but many designers prefer to have a unique and original typeface for their project. If you want to create your own fonts, Fontself Maker for Photoshop CC is a plugin worth checking out.
Fontself works with both Photoshop and Illustrator CC. This Photoshop plugin allows you to easily turn your lettering into OpenType fonts.
Just simply drag and drop layers to create characters, get colors, textures, or shades.
Nik Collection is one of the most popular Photoshop plugins in the design industry. The Collection is made up of seven amazing Lightroom and Photoshop plugins that each work independently. Here is a look at what is currently included in this particular collection of Photoshop plugins:
Analog Efex Pro: Allows you to explore the classic look of analog cameras, film stock, and lenses.
Color Efex Pro: A collection of filters for color correction, retouching, and effects.
Dfine: Allows you to process your image with noise reduction.
Sharpener Pro: Sharpening tool that allows you to bring out the hidden details of your pictures.
HDR Efex Pro: Process your images and turn them into artistic HDR photos.
Viveza: Allows you to adjust tone and color of the image without the use of masking or selection.
Silver Efex Pro: Turn your photos into stunning black and white images with darkroom-inspired controls.
6. Luminar
The tool functions as another Lightroom offshoot and comes with over 300 powerful tools: including filters, a long list of one-click presets, and the Accent AI filter. What’s really cool about Luminar is that it offers built-in workspaces equipped with a guided workflow that can help you get your projects done more effectively: with less blood, sweat, and tears.
Some of Luminar’s notable features include:
Easy sky replacement
Object removal
Customized workspace
Masking and presets
If you’ve used Photoshop at all, you know that for better or worse, layers play a major role in the design process. Sometimes you create so many layers within your project that organizing them becomes a project in and of itself.
With Layrs Control 2, you can easily manage your layers through a variety of actions accessible through a simple panel.
Here’s a quick look at the features offered by the Layrs Control 2 Photoshop plugin:
Layer name editor
Flatten all layers
Delete empty layers
Rasterize smart objects
Remove unused effects
Find similar files or folders
Convert smart objects
8. CSS3Ps
If you’re a web developer, this Photoshop plugin is for you! CSS3Ps allows developers to translate individual Photoshop layers into CSS code.
Photoshop does already have this feature, but the CSS3Ps plugin offers other features that level up the standard offering, such as the ability to provide SCSS and SASS codes. The Photoshop plugin also allows you to work a lot faster, especially when dealing with more complicated designs.
If you want to transform your ordinary photo into the one with the Double Exposure effect, you should have a closer look at this universal bundle consisting of 26 cool actions. There are tools producing Color Double Exposure, Dispersion, Splashes, Silhouette and Advanced Double Exposure effects in a matter of seconds. To get even more flexibility while editing your pictures, you can use any of 13 Photoshop brushes included in the pack.
10. Texture Anarchy
If need to include rich textures into your designs, Texture Anarchy will help you to get the job done. In addition to the wide range of filters that you can use for your designs, it also enables you to create fractals.
There are certainly many Photoshop plugins to choose from, depending on what type of design you do and what effects you’re trying to achieve. The point is that you’re not limited to using Photoshop’s stock tools for all of your editing needs. Sometimes, a little outside help is just the thing you need to get the job done right.
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jolibet