Free Photoshop Plugins to Improve Your Creative Workflow
Oh Photoshop. Between all of the site designs, logos, and typography projects, you spend enough time working in that application to call it a digital home. And just like any home, while Photoshop is a wonderful tool all on its own, sometimes it’s nice to add a few customizations to really make it your own.
That’s where Photoshop plugins come in. These pieces of software can extend its capabilities to help you achieve your wildest design dreams and streamline your process. So, ready to improve your creative workflow? Start with these free Photoshop plugins!
Bounce
Calling all members of the Dribbble team! Bounce is a plugin that integrates Dribbble directly into Photoshop. It allows you to take a look at the latest shots and stay up to date with the activity feed without ever leaving the app. If you don’t mind multitasking and want to stay inspired while you work, this plugin was made for you. You never know, it just might help you find the inspiration you need to knock your next design out of the park! Download it here.
Craft
Not only is Craft a free plugin, it’s actually a suite of plugins created by Invision to help you design better and faster with your team. The suite includes tools to help you share assets via the cloud, import photos right into the design you’re working on, generate relevant filler text (instead of just using boring Lorem Ipsum), and much, much more. Plus, they’re not done building it – some sweet prototyping tools are coming to Craft soon. Download it here.
Flaticon
If you’ve ever searched the web for free icons, you’ve probably discovered Flaticon. With the help of their Adobe extension, you can quickly access their vast collection of icons directly within Photoshop. And since you don’t have to deal with switching screens, downloading assets, and uploading them back into Photoshop, it’s a huge time-saver and a must-have for anyone working with lots of icons. Seriously, this is gauranteed to speed up your workflow. Download it here.
Fontea
Tired of downloading and uploading individual fonts to your machine? Fontea completely streamlines this process by giving you access to 700 Google fonts right in Photoshop. If you know what you’re looking for, you can search for a specific font, or you can easily preview all of them to find the perfect match for your next project. If you’re a little overwhelmed by the idea of 700 fonts in your library, don’t be – you can also sort by category, so it’s super easy to navigate your options. Download it here.
Ink
Mockups are great, but they don’t always convey the detailed information that developers need to build out your ideas. This plugin allows you to document your layers with specific project specs so everyone is always on the same page when looking at the file. It’s a great tool for improving communication and speeding up the process to take your design from idea to production. Download it here.
Layrs Control 2
If you’re the type of designer who thrives with an organized list of layers, this plugin has your name all over it. Layrs allows you to take full control of your Photoshop layers and increase your efficiency when navigating around the file. Working on a large project with lots of pieces? You can even search for similar files and folders. With Layrs, you can easily remove unused effects, flatten all effects, delete empty layers, and much more. Download it here.
Oven
Working on assets for mobile devices? Oven will help you generate image assets super quickly and efficiently. Think of it like Adobe Generator, but without having to rename all of your layers for it to work. With just the click of a button, you’ll have perfectly sized assets for iOS or Android devices, in either .png or .jpg formats. It’s incredibly easy, and allows you to skip exporting everything one at a time, so you can just keep designing beautiful assets. Download it here.
What other Photoshop plugins do you use to streamline your creative process? Help us grow our list by sharing your favorite tools in the comments!
