Adobe Photoshop is known as professional-level, widely-acclaimed photo editing software. Using Photoshop, you can edit layered photos, design logos, and posters, and create your own pieces of art. Photoshop includes over 100 different editing tools from a hex color picker to image blurring to 3D tools. And for tools that aren’t available within the software, there are hundreds of photoshop extensions available that can be integrated with the base tool. Many Photoshop plugins come free of charge–an important thing, considering Photoshop users are already paying a minimum of $20.99/month for the app. As such, to get the most out of Photoshop without paying even more, you should use the best free Photoshop plugins.
However, with so many free Photoshop add-ons available, it can be difficult to identify the best ones for your needs. This is why we have compiled a list of the 10 best free Photoshop plugins. Using these extensions is sure to bring your Photoshop experience to the next level. So, without further ado, here is our list of the best Photoshop plugins for 2022 that you can integrate for free.
Top 10 Free Photoshop Plugins
1. Pexels
Website Pexels provides a collection of over 30,000 free stock photos and videos that can be downloaded and used for non-commercial use. Pexels’ Photoshop plugin lets you search through this collection directly on Photoshop and use them in your creations. Additionally, you can browse through suggested categories, popular photos, recent photos, and previously liked photos. Any photos you like on the Pexels website will automatically sync with Photoshop and vice versa, making the Photoshop Pexels plugin one of the best free Photoshop plugins for marketers and graphic designers.
2. Ink
Ink is a free Adobe Photoshop plugin that lets you add more information to mockups before you hand them off to a developer team. The plugin documents your layers by recording which effects, text formatting, and measurements you used for each of your layers. Ink is a vital plugin for any designers who use Photoshop.
3. Tych Panel 2
Tych Panel 2 is an open-source Photoshop extension that automatically diptychs and triptychs pictures. In simple terms, it divides a Photoshop creation into 2 or 3 panels, as shown above. Tych Panel 2’s Photoshop triptych plugin supports many different layouts of rows and columns and includes an easy-to-use panel interface. You can find the Tych Panel download on GitHub.
4. Texture Anarchy
Texture Anarchy provides a set of free Photoshop filters for creating textures and borders on your images. This free Photoshop filter plugin includes a number of preset textures and borders as well as tools for editing and creating your own. These tools include palettes for lighting, layers, fractal noise, and color gradients, color wells, blend modes that let you combine colors and patterns with one another. Texture Anarchy can create both 2D and 3D textures, making it a perfect Adobe Photoshop filters set.
5. Pathfinder for Photoshop
Pathfinder for Photoshop is an extension available on Adobe’s Creative Cloud app store that can merge shapes. Based on the PathFinder Panel of Adobe Illustrator, this plugin’s toolbar lets you click on two separate shapes and merge them together to form a new shape on your image. Pathfinder Photoshop is a very simple yet useful plugin.
6. PixelSquid
PixelSquid contains a library of over 114,000 3D objects that can be overlayed on design projects. You can manipulate these objects to find the right angle and downloaded them with a transparent background. PixelSquid’s free plugin lets you add these objects and manipulate them directly on your Photoshop creation. Though PixelSquid does include paid features, the entire catalog and Photoshop plug-in are available for free commercial use. Simply make an account and download the PixelSquid Photoshop 3D plugin for free.
7. Composer
Composer is a Photoshop plugin that updates multiple layer comps in Photoshop with just one click. You can use Composer to update the layer style, position, or visibility (or all three at once) for multiple layer comps. To do so, simply select the layers you want to be changed, then select which layer comps you want those changes to apply to, and then click the update command you want to occur on the Composer ribbon.
8. Camera Raw
Camera Raw is an Adobe product that can be integrated with Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, After Effects, and Bridge. Adobe Camera Raw lets you import and enhance raw images directly from your camera. Camera Raw supports camera models from 29 different brands.
9. EasyMockups
EasyMockups creates app design mockups for iOS from Photoshop creations. To present your design, simply choose from one of 10 predesigned mockups, select a background, and choose your artwork layers. The plugin then automatically generates a high-resolution mockup for the perfect presentation or your design. Overall, EasyMockups provides the best Photoshop prospective mockups plugin with a free download.
10. Chroma Palette
Chroma Palette is a free Photoshop chroma key plugin hosted on GitHub that allows you to create and store colors with hotkeys. The plugin can store up to 20 colors across 9 pages for up to 180 colors total. These colors can be accessed through their assigned hotkey while switching pages and toggling separate Background/Foreground color palettes can be accessed using the NumPlus/NumMinus and NumMultiply keys respectively.
How To Install the Best Free Photoshop Plugins
Learning how to install Photoshop add-ons is as easy as going to the plugin’s website or page on the Adobe Creative Cloud app shop and clicking download. To integrate the plugin with Photoshop, first, download the plugin onto your device. Then, open up your Photoshop folder in your Program Files folder, then click on the Plugins folder nestled inside the Photoshop folder. You can simply drag your plugin for its current location on your device and drop it into the Plugin folder. To access your new plugin from within Photoshop, find it under Filters in the drop-down menu.
If you’re still having trouble installing your plugin, you may need to set Photoshop to accept new plugins. Open up Photoshop and select Edit > Preferences > Plugins from the dropdown menu. Then check the “Additional Plugins Folder” box so that the software will accept new files. If you have any further trouble, be sure to contact either Adobe or your plugin’s distributor.
Using The Best Photoshop Plugins
Adobe Photoshop plugins are useful tools that help make an already incredible app even better. Free Photoshop add-ons are especially useful for designers, illustrators, and advertisers on a budget. Be sure to check out any of the above Adobe add-ons that interest you so you can begin taking your Photoshop experience to the next level. If you want to check out even more Photoshop plugins, then you can read our article 10 Best Photoshop Plugins That Anyone Can Use.
If you’re a Droplr user, then be sure to check out our Photoshop plugin so you can send your edited images directly from Photoshop to Droplr! This way you can easily share your Photoshop image using a Droplr short link. Simply copy and paste the tiny URL into Gmail, Slack, or whatever app you use to communicate with co-workers and clients, even if they don’t have a Droplr account. Droplr’s plugin makes it easy to share your Photoshop creations online with cloud sharing, making it one of the best Photoshop plugins available.