Photoshop is known as one of the best professional-level photo editors available. It is used by professional photographers, graphic designers, and marketing teams to create eye-popping images, logos, and posters. Though Photoshop includes hundreds of editing tools, innovators are always creating new plugins that can be integrated into Photoshop to add even more features. If the base Photoshop experience isn’t providing everything you need, consider adding these 10 best Adobe Photoshop plugins that anyone can use on a variety of projects.
The Best Photoshop Plugins
1. Portraiture 3
Portraiture is the perfect Photoshop add-on for retouching portraits. The plugin lets you retouch blemishes, smooth skin, add makeup, and adjust lighting and texture. You can retouch all skin at once or choose sections to edit. You can also use presets to automatically adjust multiple elements at once. The newest version, Portraiture 3, lets you make your own custom presets as well. You can compare the “before” and “after” of an image to determine if the adjustments made reflect what you were going for.
Portraiture costs $199.55. It can also be purchased in a bundle with other Imagenomic products, Noiseware and Realgrain, for $299.95 total.
2. Chameleon Adaptive Palette
Ever found yourself frustrated with Photoshop’s built-in color palette tool? Chameleon Adaptive Palette may be the solution. Chameleon Adaptive Palette is a smart palette/swatch system that adapts according to the color that you’re selected. After you select a color, the palette presents a range of related colors and shades so you can adjust by tint, brightness, saturation, and more! Palette presents all of these swatches on one pop-up panel, making it easy to quickly switch between different shades and hues.
The Chameleon Photoshop plugin can be purchased for $22 on Adobe Exchange or $16 on Gumroad. Do note that if you purchase the plugin on Gumroad, you will have to manually install and update it.
3. ON1 Resize
ON1 Resize provides one of the best apps for resizing images. With it, you can enlarge images without loss of sharpness or detail. You can enlarge photos up to 1000%, process multiple photos at once, and create canvas wraps that stretch or reflect the edges of your photo. Finally, you can print photos from within the plugin and make adjustments right before printing.
ON1 Resize 2022 costs $69.99. You can purchase the full ON1 plugin bundle including Resize, NoNoise AI, Effects, Portrait AI, and HDR for $129.99.
4. Droplr
Need a way to quickly share your Photoshop creations? Droplr‘s Photoshop plugin has you covered. Droplr is a screenshot and file sharing app that saves your file uploads to the cloud. With Droplr’s Adobe Photoshop plugin, you can upload your images directly to the cloud from within Photoshop. From there, you can share them via short link, as Droplr generates a unique short link for each file uploaded to it. Droplr images are previewed in a number of work apps, such as Slack and Intercom, so your co-workers and clients will be able to view your Photoshop image without leaving their messaging platform. As such, Droplr makes it easy to quickly share your Photoshop creations with anyone!
Droplr pricing begins at $6/month for individuals and $7/month for teams. All Droplr plans include file uploads, cloud storage, a screenshot and screen recording app, and all integrations. Learn more about Droplr here.
5. Filter Forge 11
Filter Forge is a Photoshop filter plugin with a collection of over 13,000 photo effects and textures, and over 30,000 variations of them. You can also create your own effects or modify existing ones. It also includes a before/after wipe that you can use to compare your original image with the edited version.
Filter Forge offers three different pricing plans starting at $59 for the basic edition, which only includes filters from the filter library. If you want to edit and create your own Photoshop filters, then you will need to purchase the professional edition at $139 or $438 with lifetime upgrades. The $259 studio edition includes 2 seats per license as well as a Filter Forge document format for project files. You can also purchase a lifetime upgrade to all future versions with a studio edition for a total of $818.
6. Fontself Maker
Fontself Maker is an extension for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator that lets you create your own fonts! With it, you can convert any shape into a character, or glyph. From there, you can edit your glyphs, provide alternates and ligatures, and define your font’s spacing and kerning. You can even create color fonts! Once you create your font in Photoshop, you can export it as an OpenType font (.OTF).
To get the Fontself Photoshop plugin, you have to buy the $78 bundle that also includes the Illustrator extension. Students and educators can receive a 50% discount.
7. Nik Collection 4
Nik Collection 4 is a collection of 8 plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom. This collection includes Color Efex Pro (photo filters and image recipes), Viveza (precise color editing), Silver Efex (monochrome filters and effects), Perspective Efex (photo correction), DFine (de-noising tools), Sharpener (photo sharpening), Analog Efex (vintage effects), and HDR Effex (tone mapping for HDR images). Nik Collection 4 includes a Selective Tool in Photoshop that lets you easily access each plugin. It also saves your favorite filter presets as well as your edits, so you can quickly edit photos in your own style with the best Photoshop filters.
Nik Collection 4 costs $149 and includes all 8 plugins. You can also sign up for a 30-day free trial to try out the collection before committing. The collection includes a lifetime subscription, so you can upgrade to any future versions at no cost.
8. RH Hover Color Picker
RH Hover Color Picker provides a hovering color swatch in Photoshop that makes it easy to pick new colors. The color picker remains minimized over your image until you click on it to select a new color. It also includes sliders along the bottom of the panel that you can use to toggle huge, saturation, brightness, and RGB. The color picker takes no CPU from Photoshop, so you don’t have to worry about your system slowing down.
You can buy the RH Hover Color Picker plugin for $16 on Adobe Exchange.
9. Exposure X7
Exposure X7 is an all-in-one photo editing solution that provides presets, a RAW photo editor, 3D color masking, black-and-white processing, non-destructive layers, and portrait retouching. It includes over 500 customizable presets that replicate film looks from throughout the history of film. It also includes unique tools such as realistic film grain, lens focus, and tilt-shift effects, and numerous overlays such as light effects, textures, and borders. You can apply effects selectively to certain areas of your image or change the entire image.
Exposure X7 costs $129. Exposure also offers a bundle for $149 that includes Snap Art natural media and Blow Up photo enlargement. Upgrading from a previous Exposure version costs $89 or $99 for the bundle. You can try Exposure X7 for free with a 30-day free trial.
10. GuideGuide
GuideGuide is an extension for Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, and Adobe XD that lets you quickly create grids with a consistent UI. Using GuideGuide, you can create grid-based designs with guided edges, midpoints, and more! You can also create your own custom grids so your designs appear consistent. Finally, you can save your favorite grids and save them with others.
GuideGuide costs $36/year or $5/mo for installation on two machines. You can also try GuideGuide out with a free trial for 14 days. GuideGuide is completely free for students and teachers.
How to Add Photoshop Plugins
Now that you’ve picked out your favorite Photoshop plugins, you’ll want to know how to install them on the platform! First, go to the plugin’s website or to its page on the Adobe Create Cloud app store and download the plugin onto your device. Then, go to your device’s Program Files folder, find and open the Photoshop folder, and then find and open the Plugins folder nestled inside of it. To add your new plugin, drag and drop it from its current location on your device into the Plugin folder. After you do this, you should be able to find your new plugin from within Photoshop under Filters in the drop-down menu.
If you can’t find it, you may need to set Photoshop to accept new plugins. While in Photoshop, select Edit > Preferences > Plugins from the dropdown menu. Then check the “Additional Plugins Folder” box; this will tell Photoshop to accept new files. If this doesn’t work, contact either Adobe or your plugin’s distributor for additional assistance.
Learn More About Photoshop
If you’re looking for more information on Photoshop and Photoshop plugins, we have you covered! Are you interested in integrating some of the top Adobe Photoshop plugins into your platform, but can’t afford the add-ons in this list? Then check out our article on the 10 Best Free Photoshop Plugins. If what you’re looking for is a more general overview of Photoshop, then check out our app review that goes over the basic features of Photoshop.