The Best Free Photoshop Plugins & Actions to Get Now

Looking for the best Photoshop plugins and actions? Enjoy a selection of over 20 free Photoshop plugins and actions!

When you think of graphic and photo editing software, Adobe Photoshop is probably the first association that comes to mind. With a rich history of over 30 years since it was first developed, this software has been the top choice of photographers, digital artists, and graphic and web designers from all around the globe.

To help you enjoy your work with Photoshop, even more, we’ve made a collection of great free Photoshop plugins (and a few paid ones), along with several Photoshop actions that will save you tons of time and help you achieve great visual results. Let’s start!

Article overview:
Free Photoshop Plugins
Free Photoshop Actions

Free Photoshop Plugins

The plugin is an extension to a particular software (in our case, Photoshop) that is meant to simplify your workflow with the program or add more features to help you achieve different results. Luckily, Photoshop supports plugins, and right now, when the visual content has totally taken over the web, it would be a sin not to take advantage of the amazing free plugins offered in this selection.

For each plugin, we’ve included a small review, of who is it suitable for, and what version of Photoshop you would need in order to run it.

1. Ink Photoshop Plugin

The easiest way to provide the design specifications to developers

A free plugin which embeds design specifications (layer styles, measures, text formattings) right into the PSD.

• Suitable for: Web designers, Front-end developers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CC 2018 / CC / CS6
• Price: Free

Ink plugin for Photoshop is a very handy extension for web designers who work with developers. The plugin provides essential PSD document specifications with which developers can achieve pixel perfect front-end outputs instead of counting on approximate interpretations. Ink plugin gives developers valuable information about layer styles, measures, and text formatting – all of this neatly stored into one folder.

Features:

• artboard support;
• automatically measures layers’ dimensions – width and height;
• provides info about text formatting: fonts name, style, size, leading, tracking, color;
• provides info about layer styles: effects, shadows, solid and gradient fills, strokes;
• stores information in one folder.

Go to Download page

 

You may be interested to read this related article: Web Design Trends 2022

 

2. Texture Anarchy Photoshop Plugin

Create unique textures for your designs and illustrations

A plugin that provides three Photoshop filters for creating all kinds of 2D / 3D textures and border effects.

• Suitable for: Graphic designers, Web designers, Illustrators
• Compatible with: Photoshop CC 2018 / CC / CS6
• Price: Free (needs registration)

Texture Anarchy is a plugin that comes with 3 Photoshop filters, as follows: Texture Explorer,  Tiler Anarchy, and Edge Anarchy. These filters help you create seamless textures in various design styles: 2D, 3D, realistic, organic, and more. Thanks to math calculations, the plugin can create infinite textures with each filter providing a different kind of procedural texture.

Texture Explorer creates seamless procedural textures based on fractal noise. Tiler Anarchy creates textures based on the repetitive method. Edge Anarchy creates various border styles: textured, distressed, ornamental.

Features:

• 3 Photoshop filters in the suite – Texture Explorer,  Tiler Anarchy, and Edge Anarchy;
• generates any kind of 2D or 3D Photoshop textures;
• textures based on fractal noise or repeated textures;
• palettes for fractal noise, layers, lighting;
• palettes for colors and gradients to generate different color combinations;
• blend modes which control the interaction between patterns and colors;

Go to Download page

 

You may also be interested in this related article: Top Adobe Photoshop Alternatives in 2022

 

3. EasyMockups Photoshop Plugin

Show how your mobile designs will look live on iPhone

A free plugin for Photoshop which provides 10 impressive mockups for presenting app designs.

• Suitable for: App and Mobile designers, App developers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CC 2015 and up
• Price: Free (needs registration)

EasyMockups is a free plugin for Photoshop with the help of which app designers and developers can fast and easily present their mobile previews in appealing mockups. The plugin is very easy and intuitive to work with. Its panel is considered to be one of the most advanced and functional Photoshop panel designs on the market. You can easily toggle previews on and off, change mockup background colors, connect interface groups to their position in the mockup, and more.

Features:

• 10 attractive high-res predesigned mockups;
• advanced panel design;
• artboard support;
• toggle previews on and off;
• change mockup’s background color;

Go to Download page

 

4. CSS3Ps Photoshop Plugin

Convert your design elements to CSS3

A free cloud-based plugin for Photoshop which converts PSD designs into CSS3.

• Suitable for: Web designers, Front-end Developers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CS3 or later
• Price: Free (needs registration)

CSS3Ps is a very handy and time-saving plugin for Photoshop which web designers and developers will find extremely useful. The plugin exports Photoshop layers as CSS3 and supports an array of styles – text layers, size, border radius, stroke, gradient overlay, inner shadow, inner glow, outer glow, drop shadow, and more. The plugin is cloud-based which makes it very light and fast.

Features:

• a cloud service
• a selection of multiple layers
• SCSS for Compass, SASS for Compass
• vendor prefixes
• border radius
• stroke
• size
• text layers,
• gradient overlay
• inner shadow, drop shadow
• inner glow, outer glow

Go to Download page

 

You may also be interested in 10 Web Design Secrets and Tips That No One Ever Tells You

 

5. Skeuomorphism

Convert your designs/graphics to the modern flat style

A free useful plugin for Photoshop which lets you transform gradients into a flat design.

• Suitable for: Web designers, Graphic designers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CC
• Price: Free

A simple but very handy extension for Photoshop with which you can convert any design with gradients to a completely flat design. The whole transformation takes seconds and all you have to do is click on “Work the magic” button.  Moreover, if you don’t like the result, you can quickly undo the flattening with the Undo button. Have this plugin in mind the next time you are making flat or material design.

Go to Download page

You may be interested to read this related article: Beautiful Minimalist Website Designs to Inspire You

 

6. Chroma Palette Photoshop Plugin

Speed up your workflow with hotkeys

A free plugin for Photoshop which allows you to save up to 180 specific colors to recall at any time.

• Suitable for: Web designers, Graphic designers, Photographers, etc.
• Compatible with: Photoshop CS5+
• Price: Free

An extremely useful plugin for everyone who uses colors. This plugin allows you to adjust your Numpad or Keypad as a color gamma and save up to 20 colors for up to 9 pages, making a total of 180 different colors on just a click away.

Chroma Palette requires Razer Chroma device in order to work which can be highlighted as the single con of the plugin. Setting this condition aside, Chroma Palette will help you easily recall and display needed colors by just pressing the assigned keyboard button.

Features:

• A capacity to save 180 colors in total – 20 colors per page for maximum 9 pages;
• Switching between pages with NumPlus and NumMinus;
• Toggling between Background and Foreground color palettes via NumMultiply button;
• A button that captures color from Photoshop to any color palette button.
• Toggling Extra buttons for additional palettes.
• Photoshop hotkey highlighting.

Go to Download page

 

7. Long Shadow Generator Plugin for Photoshop

Create long shadow effects in seconds

A free and simple plugin for creating long shadow effects on your Photoshop designs fast and easily.

• Suitable for: Web designers, Graphic designers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CC 2015
• Price: Free

Just like the name suggests, with this free plugin for Photoshop, you will be able to apply long shadow effects to each of your design elements. Extremely suitable for icons and illustrations, the plugin comes with various options for modifying the shadow and creating different shadow effects. Just play with the sliders for Length and Opacity, choose shadow color and texture, and click on Generate to apply the long shadow effect to a chosen element.

Go to Download page

 

8. Pexels Plugin for Photoshop

Find images for your designs within Photoshop

A free plugin for Photoshop giving you access to over 30k photos available for an instant import.

• Suitable for: Web designers, Graphic designers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CC
• Price: Free

The Pexels free plugin for Photoshop will save you tons of time of browsing photos on the web, downloading and importing them in Photoshop. With Pexels plugin for Photoshop, you will have access to over 30 000 photos available for instant import in Adobe Photoshop. This means you will be able to test different photos in your designs fast and easily without having to find and download each one separately.

Features:

• a library of over 30 000 high-quality photos;
• all photos are free for personal and commercial use;
• 3 000 fresh photos added each month;
• search by categories, popular photos, most recent uploads;
• automatic sync between Pexels website and plugin;

Go to Download page

 

9. Composer Plugin for Photoshop

Change multiple layers at once

A free plugin for Photoshop which allows you to make changes to multiple layer comps at once.

• Suitable for: Web designers, Graphic designers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CS5, CS6, and CC
• Price: Free

A very handy plugin for graphic and web designers, purposed to improve and facilitate your work with layer comps. With Composer plugin for Photoshop, you can easily apply changes to multiple layer comps you’ve saved. The process is quite simple: you select the layers whose changes you want to apply to layer comps, then select the layer comps you want to apply the changes to, and use Composer with its four different commands.

Features:

• Update Layer Style – changes layers’ style, opacity, blending mode;
• Update Position – changes the position of selected layers;
• Update Visibility – changes the visibility of selected layers;
• Update All – changes the layer style, position, and visibility of selected layers.

Go to Download page

 

10. Parametric Curves Plugin for Photoshop

Add 3D effects to your textures and graphics

A free plugin for Photoshop with which you can plot mathematically defined Curves Adjustment layers.

• Suitable for: Graphic designers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CS6 and CC
• Price: Free

A plugin for Photoshop you can play a lot with! This very useful plugin provides graphic designers with various options to modify patterns, gradients, layers, and as a result transform these graphics into totally different graphics. The plugin allows you to write custom functions in Javascript, mix Parametric Curves on top of Gradients, apply Curves to Gradients to serve as a source for Displacement Maps or Depth and Bump Maps in order to recreate 3D effect.

Go to Download page

 

11. Harry’s Filters Plugin for Photoshop

Add cool effects to your images

A free Photoshop plugin for photo editing providing 69 photo effects divided into 9 categories.

• Suitable for: Photographers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CS4+
• Price: Free

Harry’s Filters is a free plugin for Photoshop containing a set of photo effect filters that every photographer would find useful. The 69 photo effects are conveniently divided into the following categories: Color, Artistic, Gradients, Patterns, Warp, Noise, Encrypt/Decrypt, Other, and Nature. With this free plugin, you can easily experiment with different photo looks.

• 69 photo effects in 9 categories;
• over 130 presets;
• blending modes;
• brightness slider;
• applicable to RGB and Grayscale images;
• create random effects with the Jump button;
• options to save effects for later use;
• an Instant Preview check box;
• a Play feature that demonstrates animations with random parameters.

Go to Download page

 

12. Plug-in Switch for Photoshop

Optimize your plugins

A free plugin with which you can easily switch Photoshop plugins on and off.

• Suitable for: Everyone
• Compatible with: Photoshop CS
• Price: Free

If you use too many plugins, you will fall in love with Plugin Switch! This extension lets you turn plugins on and off, therefore activating certain plugins only when you need them. From a user experience perspective, this means a lighter Photoshop and easier navigation across plugins.

Go to Download page

 

13. LunarCell Plugin for Photoshop

Create your own 3D planets

A premium Photoshop plugin which lets you create ultra realistic planets and moons.

• Suitable for: Graphic designers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CS
• Price: Free Trial | $29.00
• OS: Windows, Mac OS

This plugin for Photoshop allows you to create realistic or fantastic planets and moons, as well as animated 3D maps. This extension for Photoshop offers powerful tools for creating different textures, land and cloud effects on the planet surfaces. The plugin comes with a user-friendly interface, so it will be quite easy for you to experiment with various planet looks.

Go to Download page

 

14. FX Box Plugin for Photoshop

A huge collection of FX tools

A free Photoshop plugin which lets you manage your FX Tools in the form of a library.

• Suitable for: Graphic designers
• Compatible with: Photoshop CC 2014 and higher
• Price: Free

A useful plugin which is necessary in order to work with FX Tools. Such tools are HDR Sharpener, Oil Paint, Photo FX, Polar Projection Generator, Pixel to Vector Generator, Seamless Texture Generator and Isometricon Generator and have to be downloaded separately. FX Box plugin allows you to load all FX tools in the library and easily manage them – switch between tools, add or remove them without having to restart Photoshop.

Go to Download page

 

A few paid Photoshop plugins worthy of mentioning

 

You may be interested in this related article: 300+ Free Illustrations For Your Next Design Project

Free Photoshop Actions

Photoshop actions are a widely used sort-of extension of the software, allowing you to automate specific actions in order to achieve a desired effect faster and effortlessly. The following suggestions for Photoshop actions are completely free to download and about to change the way you edit your photos.

1. Reduce Motion Blur Photoshop Action

A must-have Adobe Photoshop Action for photographers. Say goodbye to blurred photographs with this free and useful action which reduces the camera shake and motion blur with just a single click.

Go to Download page

 

2. 5 Skin Retouching Actions

A set of Photoshop retouching actions developed specifically to edit skin: heal, mattify, airbrush, remove redness, brighten eyes, increase contrast, etc. Once you choose an action, click on Play and paint over the desired areas. The 5 actions included in this set are as follows:

• Mattifier;
• Skin Airbrushing;
• Brighten Eyes;
• Redness Reducer;
• Clipping Free Contrast.

Go to Download page

 

3. HDR Photoshop Action

A free HDR action for Photoshop that will make your photos even more impressive. The action creates a high dynamic range of the images’ light and dark color nuances, therefore encompassing both ends of the color spectrum.

Go to Download page

 

4. Glitch Photoshop Actions

If you are a fan of grunge and retro photography style, then you should definitely give this action a try. With this Glitch Photoshop action, you can easily make corrupted and retro VHS effects. The download file contains 1 PSD file, 1 Image slicers, and a Readme File.

Go to Download page

 

5. 100+ Free Pro Photoshop Actions Bundle

A free bundle of Photoshop actions which can be applied to all types of photography. Some of the filters included in the pack are HDR filters, black and white filters, cinematic filters, vintage filters, wedding filters, winter filters, and more. This mega bundle will help you achieve awesome effects on your images.

The actions are compatible with the following Adobe Photoshop versions: CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6, and CC.

Go to Download page

 

6. Free Oil Painting Photoshop Actions

A free Photoshop action suitable for photographers and graphic designers. This action turns your photos into beautiful oil paintings, keeping everything layered, so you can still have control over your image.

Go to Download page

 

7. Free Insta Filter Photoshop Actions

Give your photos a professional look with just a single click! This set of 3 Photoshop filters will make your images look trendy and save you lots of time. Suitable for all types of photography, this is a plugin that professional and non-professional photographers will love.

Go to Download page

 

8. Free Cinematic Photoshop Actions

A set of 3 free Photoshop actions specifically developed to make your photos look more professional. Each action allows you to modify its particular settings. In other words, the visual opportunities with this bundle of cinematic Photoshop actions are endless.

Go to Download page

 

That’s it!

We hope that all of you, Photoshop lovers, have been able to find a gem or two to add to your collection of free Photoshop plugins and actions. Developers out there are creating amazing add-ons to make your (and our) work easier and flawless. All we have to do is make the most of it.

We hope you enjoyed this collection of free Photoshop plugins and actions. If you have a favorite one we haven’t included here in the article, feel free to share it in the comments below.

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