Despite Adobe Photoshop’s unrivaled feature set, everyone has something they wish the software could do (especially web designers). Fortunately for Adobe, Photoshop has a rich community of third-party developers on the web that regularly churn out fantastic plugins, extensions, and other tools which add all kinds of functionality for Mac OS and Windows.
From layer organization to guide control, here are 13 outstanding Adobe Photoshop plugins you should download and install today.
1. Renamy 3
Stop getting stuck with boring patterns or having to craft your own. With Super Spray, you can turn any .png images into a spray pattern. All you have to do is import the picture with the plugin.
2. ICO Format
This indispensable (and free) plugin allows you to open and save files in the ico format. Users can design a single icon in sizes ranging from one to 32 bits. What’s more, you can save the finished product in ICO format or PNG (Vista).
3. SpecKing
Get precise measurements fast. Once installed, SpecKing gives you measurements of each layer with just one click, or if you have multiple objects on a flat layer, you can measure them with a selection tool.
4. The Zeick Photoshop SVG File Formats Export Tool
This plugin allows you to quickly export any vector shapes to the SVG file format. You simply target a single layer or any group of layers, hit a button, and you’re ready to go. If you’re looking for a solution to reduce your file’s actual size, we rounded up a great list of tips here.
5. Portraiture
Portraiture boasts best-in-industry skin smoothing algorithms and is a must-have for any professional portrait photographer. It’s hard to find a tool that has such impressive results with such little effort. It’s not cheap, but if you make your living editing photos, it’s definitely worth the expense.
6. Font Awesome
Font Awesome is one of the most popular icon fonts on the market and this plugin brings all those awesome icons into an easy-to-access Photoshop panel.
7. GuideGuide
GuideGuide is a fantastic way to quickly create a complex guide arrangement in Adobe Photoshop. Like some of the other panels on this list, Photoshop has added a similar functionality, but this free to download extension does it so much better.
8. Size Marks
Size Marks is another useful plugin for quickly placing measurement information onto your PSDs. Simply draw a box with the Marquee tool, hit a keyboard shortcut, and you’re done.
9. PNG Hat
Font Awesome is one of the most popular icon fonts on the market and this plugin brings all those awesome icons into an easy-to-access Photoshop panel.
10. Random User
If you’re a UI designer in Photoshop, you’ve come up against this problem tons of times: you’re designing your app and you need some sample avatars for your comps or ads. With the Random User plugin, great placeholder avatars are a single click away.
11. LayerCraft
LayerCraft is a great little toolkit for preparing and exporting images from Photoshop. There are a few quick scripts like for trimming and scaling, as well as export options for 1x, 2x, and 3x size graphics.
12. Velositey
This Photoshop extension will cut your time making design mockups and wireframes in half. It comes with loads of UI staples (buttons, sliders, comment boxes, etc.) in a variety of styles and colors. With just a few clicks, you can turn data into a beautiful prototype of an entire web page.
13. Layrs
Layrs is a plugin that helps your clean up your messy Photoshop PSDs with seven useful scripts. It was created by Creative Market shop owner Vadim Sherbakov.
What Are Your Favorite Photoshop Extensions?
These 13 Adobe Photoshop plugins should be enough to supercharge your workflow. Head over to this great list of tutorials if you want to learn to achieve more with this powerful tool. If we missed your favorite plugin, leave a comment below and let us know.
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