The 25 best Photoshop plugins in 2022

The best Photoshop plugins can help you work a lot faster in Adobe's industry-leading image-editing software. Photoshop is an essential tool for many creatives, and it offers a lot of creative possibilities, but it can be made even more useful – and more efficient – thanks to the huge range of Photoshop plugins available.

Photoshop Plugins can unlock new features saving you from having to leave Photoshop and move to another program. They can also make Photoshop's existing tools easier and quicker to use. But which are the best Photoshop plugins to use? We've made a list of our favourites based on the experience of our contributors, many of whom use these plugins on a regular basis for everything from image editing to graphic design.

The list below includes both free Photoshop plugins and premium options. We've explained what each plugin does and why we recommend it. Once you've got your plugins, make sure you also see our guide to free photoshop actions for more tools. And if you don't have Photoshop yet, sign up to Creative Cloud here (opens in new tab). For more options, see our guides to the best photo editing software and the best graphic design software.

The best Photoshop plugins

Adobe Camera Raw is the best Photoshop plugin for photographers – and certainly the most essential. Despite often being considered a tool for photo editing, Photoshop itself doesn't actually support Raw image editing. For that, Adobe has Lightroom, but you might often not want to have to work across two different programs. 

The free Adobe Camera Raw (opens in new tab) plugin adds Raw editing capabilities to Lightroom so that you don't have to do that. You can use it to edit and import Raw images to Photoshop for retouching or other more detailed edits, but you might also want to use it to edit light and colour of non-Raw images that you already have open in Photoshop using the Camera Raw filter, particularly if you use Lightroom since the interface will since its interface will immediately feel familiar.

This Photoshop plugin provides a smart palette system that intelligently adapts to the colours you choose and offers a wide range of strips with functions. Chameleon Adaptive Palette (opens in new tab) can offer palette variations or lock as a static palette. It's a feature-rich plugin but shouldn't weigh on your CPU. See the helpful video above to learn how to use it.

The CSS3P Photoshop plugin (opens in new tab) is perfect for web developers since it turns Photoshop layers into CSS3. To convert your layers to CSS3, simply click the CSS3P button; it couldn't be simpler. It's cloud-based so you don't have to worry about updates and you can check your work out easily. The plugin supports a range of features including multiple layer selection, vendor prefixes, stroke, size and inner shadow, making it a very useful addition. 

It's easy to find yourself getting lost in a sea of brushes in Photoshop, but the Photoshop plugin BrushBox (opens in new tab) provides a solution. BrushBox enables you to organise your brushes more efficiently by putting them in groups, which can be colour coded (you can even add different backgrounds). You can tag your favourite brushes and you can override a brush's default settings to save you from having to make the same changes over and over again. 

This isn't the most necessary Photoshop plugin if you only use a handful of brushes in their default settings, but if you've built up a sizable brush collection, it can prove really helpful (to add to your brush collection, see our roundup of the best free Photoshop brushes). 

The AD Brutus Symmetry (opens in new tab) Photoshop plugin makes it easy to explore symmetrical designs or drawing. Just place your grid or guide on your work and see it reflected where you choose. You can flip layers or selections and also rotate your work. Saving is easy too since you can save either the active layer or a merged PNG version of the current view with just one click. It might not be the most useful plugin, unless you work consistently with patterns, but it's great fun to play around with. 

If you're on a tight budget and find yourself needing stock images, this Photoshop plugin could prove very handy. Free Stock Search (opens in new tab) lets you search for free stock images on Unsplash, Pixabay and Pexels from within Photoshop itself. You then click and the photo will be downloaded and imported directly into PS (or any of the other Adobe app). As the name suggests, the plugin itself is free, so it's quids-in. If you need something more specific, there are some more great stock image plugins further down in our list, so read on. 

Powtoon (opens in new tab) is a free Photoshop plugin that lets you turn your designs into animated video content with a single click. Choose to export all Artboards or select Artboards, then enhance your animated design with custom animation, stock footage and imagery, or add a soundtrack. Finally, you can export directly to YouTube, Facebook, MP4, Vimeo and more. It has some great reviews.

If you've ever wished Photoshop's colour picker was a little less ugly and cumbersome, Rico Holmes' Hover Color Picker (opens in new tab) Photoshop plugin might be just what you're looking for. It's there when you need it and gone when you don't, with a good-looking set of customisable sliders that give you a lot more control than the standard picker. It automatically minimises when you're done.

For professional retouching results that go beyond the default Photoshop filters, Pro Add-Ons’ Ultimate Retouch Panel (opens in new tab) is well worth a look. It’s getting a little long in the tooth, but this good-value tool features over 200 functions in one panel, including seven frequency separation methods, four fast-retouch methods, and 30 tools for local retouching.

Want to start creating your own fonts? The Photoshop plugin Fontself Maker (opens in new tab) makes that easier than you might imagine by allowing you to turn any image or vector layer into colourful fonts that you can export as OTF files. Drag and drop layers to create new characters, and capture any colour, shade or texture you desire.

 All the features can be configured and controlled, including per-character kerning, ligatures, character alternates and more. The team behind the tool are also actively developing and updating the plugin so you can expect ongoing feature enhancements. If you want to create vector-based fonts, the plugin can also be purchased for Illustrator.

Everyone needs a bit of stock imagery now and then, so why not make things easy for yourself? The Getty Images Photoshop plugin (opens in new tab) makes it super easy to search for and filter images and hi-res comps. You can also use it with Illustrator and InDesign too. Once you’ve made your edits and used comps to get client approval, you can licence a high-resolution image and retain all your edits making for a smooth workflow.

Painter is a long-established digital art favourite among illustrators, but, thankfully, Corel also offers its brush technology for Photoshop with ParticleShop (opens in new tab). Brushes can make a huge difference to your creativity and productivity, and this powerful Photoshop plugin offers non-destructive brushstroke layer support and updated brushes, including Debris, Fabric, Fine Art, Fur, Hair, Light, Space, Smoke and Storm.

ON1 Resize (opens in new tab) allows you to enlarge images taken on your DSLR or smartphone by up to 1,000 per cent. The plugin uses genuine fractals’ powerful algorithms to optimise clarity and detail enhancement. But it's more than just an image resizing tool, however. Featuring a full file browser, it also offers batch processing, image compression and a host of built-in presets and manual controls.

Most of Topaz Labs’ products could happily make it into this list, and its Photoshop plugins are among the best for any serious digital photographer. Whether it’s providing texture effects, making masking easy, or turning your photographs into impressionist paintings, there’s not much you can imagine that Topaz hasn't developed a tool for. 

It's most known for its Denoise software, and it incorporates noise reduction into Topaz Studio 2 (opens in new tab). It can sharpen while removing noise and also has tools to add precision contrast and detail, plus a unique B&W conversion engine that emphasises tone and texture can help you create B&W images that really pop.

Luminar (opens in new tab) is a little bit like having a photo editor inside your photo editor. While the concept may sound strange, it’s a focused tool that does a great job at making the most of your images without any of the non-photography stuff that Photoshop includes. Using an AI routine alongside over 60 preset effects, the plugin simplifies masking, sky replacement, object removal and more. It's available for both Photoshop and Lightroom and is well worth a look if you regularly edit raw photographs. 

The Filter Forge (opens in new tab) Photoshop plugin offers over 14,000 effects and textures, covering a diverse range of use cases. Filter Forge is now on version 10, but version 11 is due by the end of 2021 and will be available for free for those who purchase version 10 now. 

One handy feature allows users can now load any image or filter into separate tabs, and compare them or fine-tune their settings. There's also a handy backup tool. If you need to move from one computer to another, you can use this to compresses your filters and settings into a single archive file that you can restore later on another computer, another version of Filter Forge or even another platform.

Alien Skin’s Eye Candy (opens in new tab) is one of the most well-known Photoshop’s plugins, and has been around for well over a decade. Version 7 provides a huge range of effects ranging from fire to chrome, glass to extrusions. While we found many of the effects to be rather cheesy initially, we've actually been surprised by how many scenarios they can be useful for, especially for freelance designers working to tight deadlines. Dialling down the effects from the default settings will often make them less cheesy and more useable.

The Nik Collection (opens in new tab) suite of Photoshop plugins offers eight great photographic plugins in one package, including Silver EFEX Pro and Viveza, which provide a huge range of high-impact photographic effects. One of the best parts is the non-destructive mode, which allows you to export images as TIFF files and tweak any edits made (keeping the originals nice and safe). It includes 250 presets and comes with DxO PhotoLab ESSENTIAL for Raw editing.

Naming your layers right is the first rule of Photoshop etiquette. But sometimes you find you need to rename layers retrospectively, which can be a real drag. Renamy (opens in new tab) takes the pain out of that by allowing you to rename multiple layers at once. There's even a cool autocomplete function to help save your typing fingers. There's a basic free version available so you can try before you buy.

If you can forgive or overlook the gratuitous swearing on the Perspective Mockups (opens in new tab) site, the plugin is definitely worth checking out. Essentially it's a great way to make perspective mockups for your designs. The plugin sits within your Photoshop tools palette and includes a range of different layouts to choose from. Simply click to set. It’s a quick way to add some punch and lift to your artwork.

The last stock imagery plugin in our list, this tool from Shutterstock (opens in new tab) provides direct in-app access to the huge range of stock imagery available in the Shutterstock library. Search inside Photoshop, click to select and insert, and license directly for an easier workflow. This is especially useful if you commonly licence royalty-free images for use in your designs. It works across Adobe's creative suite.

Blow Up (opens in new tab) allows you to create pin-sharp enlargements without compromising on quality. The algorithm is more advanced than Photoshop's own bicubic filters, which allows the plugin to produce accurate images without artefacts. This makes it a great tool for designers where clients send over images that aren't of a high-enough resolution.

PhotoMatix Pro (opens in new tab) is a high dynamic range (HDR) processing and toning tool that integrates with Photoshop either standalone or as a plugin (depending upon which version you go for). This tool goes beyond Photoshop's built-in HDR processing capabilities, especially with the toning aspects and allows for the creation of extreme HDR images with relative ease.

ON1’s Effects (opens in new tab) is a handy tool for adding a quick effect to an image, whether it's a colour treatment, addition of texture and noise, or creative borders. This plugin features an effects library (a bit like the filter gallery in Photoshop) and allows you to stack multiple effects to achieve interesting new results.

Exposure (opens in new tab) is a creative tool that allows you to simulate film effects on your digital images either as a plugin for Photoshop or Lightroom or as a complete standalone raw photo editor. Now on version X7, it offers refined grading tools for total control of image colour, advanced selection tools for speedy adjustments of any area and adaptive smoothing.

GuideGuide (opens in new tab) is a simple Photoshop plugin that makes it easy to create a grid system in your document, hijacking the built-in guides system to create a pinpoint accurate grid according to your chosen settings. You can use negative margins for special hanging columns, separately define individual margins and gutters, and save your preferred options for quick access in the future. Perfect for anyone using a grid to help them create their layouts. 

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