Adobe Photoshop is a very popular graphics editing program that comes with a ton of features – way too many to name. It’s hard to imagine that anyone could even need more features. Yet Photoshop supports extensions, which allows you to add even more useful features to the program. Some extensions add a single feature, while others add a multiple amount of new features.
It’s not necessarily used by just web and graphic designers but can also be utilized by any creative out there, ranging from photographers to bloggers, as it’s quite a handy tool to have. Have a look at our list featuring 18 of the best free Adobe Photoshop extensions that will be useful for all creatives.
Recommended Reading: 10 Sites To Get Useful Photoshop Actions
Creative Market
This extension gives you instant access to free and premium design content from Creative Market, which is a large community for independent creatives around the world. Each week you can get free graphics, templates, fonts, brushes and more.
BlendMe.In
With BlendMe.in you can browse through thousands of icons, vectors and other assets provided for free under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. When you find something you like, you can easily drag it into your Photoshop composition for use.
Flaticon
Flaticon gives you quick access to over 25,000 vector icons right from within Photoshop. A search bar is included, which makes it really easy to find just the icon that you’re looking for.
Boundary Noise Reduction
It’s often quite a challenge removing noise, such as unwanted dots and unnecessary pixels of color, from images. This extension simplifies that task by removing noise from DSLR (digital single-lense reflex) images and film scans. It’s basically a filter that you can add to Photoshop, and it comes with Smooth Area Detector.
Fonts.com Web Fonts
Photoshop comes with a large selection of fonts by default, but with the addition of the Fonts.com Web Fonts extension you can get access to thousands more. The extension lets you preview and try out Web fonts within your Photoshop projects. You will need a Fonts.com account to use this extension.
Natural Media Toolkit
Natural Media Toolkit gives you access to a versatile collection of natural media, texturing and product tools. You can do things like create documents that you look like real paper, use realistic watercolor brush and blending tools, add dimension with texturing tools, add guides to your projects, and much more.
White Balance / Highlight Recovery
This extension is good for photographs that have a lot of white in them as it helps to balance out the white level. As said by the creator, “…highlight recovery offers the possibility of increasing dynamic range compared to no highlight recovery.”
Composer
This easy-to-use extension lets you update multiple layer comps in just one click. First select any layer(s), then select any layer comp(s), finally use one of the four commands to update the selected layer comps. The four commands are: update layer style, update position, update visibility and update all.
Web Font Plug-in
Here’s another Web font extension. It gives you access to thousands of WebINK Web fonts from foundries like MoreType, OurType, TypeTogether and more. You can also connect to Google Fonts and get access to 1100+ more font families. You will need a WebINK account in order to use this extension.
CSS3Ps
If you use CSS3 in your designs, you’ll love this cloud-based extension. It lets you convert your layers to actual CSS3 code right from Photoshop. All you have to do is select the layer(s) and click a button to convert them. It’s extremely easy to use.
Tint Plug-in
Sometimes changing something as small as the tint of an image can make a huge difference. This extension does just that. You can add artistic effects using sepia tone, warm/cool filters, bleach bypass and more. You can also convert images to black and white and there are sliders that let you manually change things like the tint strength, tint hue, brightness, contrast and saturation.
VirtualPhotographer
VirtualPhotographer is the ultimate extension for applying professional looking styles and effects to your images, in just one click. You can also make adjustments to the color, film grain, focus, brightness, ambiance and contrast. Plus, it lets you add high quality effects, convert images to black and white, create stunning portrait effects and more.
Perfect Effects 4
Similar to VirtualPhotographer, Perfect Effects 4 lets you enhance your images with styles and effects. You can choose from over 70 effects, textures, borders and more. This tool can actually be used as a standalone program, as well as an extension for Photoshop. In just one click, you can add any effect, and you can even combine effects to create unique looks.
GuideGuide
If you like to use guides in Photoshop (ie. for wireframing or tables) this extension is for you. You can use it to create columns, rows, midpoints and baselines. You can also save frequently used guide sets for easy access.
Cut&Slice Me
Cut&Slice Me is an advanced extension that you lets you cut and export your assets to different devices in png format in the size of you want. In addition to exporting to your computer, you can also export to iOS and Android devices.
Mr. Stacks
The Mr. Stacks extension is a script that can create layer comp storyboards, stacks and PDF files in seconds. This is great for client presentations since it provides a single banner for them to look at, as opposed to you having to switch between multiple items.
Photoshop Tones Action
Photoshop Tones Action is a simple Photoshop extension that can take a single color and create tones (shades and tints) from it. This is really useful for creating color palettes or for finding different variation of colors for a design scheme.
Read Also: Easily Find HEX Code For Color Shades With 0to255
Long Shadow Generator
Long Shadow Generator is a Photoshop extension that can create extremely long shadows in a single click. You can play around with it to create really neat effects. The plugin allows you to customize the length and opacity level, choose black or white, change the angle, and choose flatten or gradient.
Did we miss something? Let us know in the comments any other free Photoshop extensions that you think should be on this list.
