Designing grid-based layouts in Photoshop is usually a headache as it takes time to calculate and position many vertical + horizontal guides.

GuideGuide is a free Photoshop plugin which simplifies creating grids in Photoshop with only a few clicks.

After defining a few variables (number of rows/columns, gutter width, etc.), it instantly generates the grid using Photoshop guides. And, for any active selections in the document, the plugin sets the grid within the limits of the selection.

Also, any frequently-used grid settings can be saved for later use.

P.S. Smashing Magazine has a very nice article on the usage details of the plugin.

Mr. Stacks is a Photoshop script for quickly and automatically creating storyboards, stacks, and PDF(s) to be used in client presentations, CD check-ins. etc.

Just take any normal sized banner, define few options like the name, background color or "numbering to be printed over them" and your storyboard is ready. Afterward, they can be exported into various files types including PDF

Simply, it helps a lot in accomplishing one of the most monotonous tasks in art direction.

Modular Grid Pattern is a website which enables you to create customizable grids in several ways.

The first one is a free Adobe Photoshop extension (CS5 compatible) provided which makes creating the grid directly inside the application possible.

Also, there is an online generator where you can mention baseline, gutter, module width/height, number of modules and the width of the layout where the application creates:

• PNG pattern (for GIMP)
• Photoshop pattern
• transparency mask (for Adobe Fireworks)

accordingly.

foxGuide is a firefox extension that can display both horizontal and vertical guides on web pages.

The guides can be moved or removed just like the ones in Photoshop. Also, you can set the transparency and color of them for a perfect fit.

The extension has a memory which remembers the guides created per website. Even if the browser is closed or the URL is changed, the guide for that web page is stored.

foxGuide also works well for pages that have huge width/heights (supports up to 10,000px).

Filter Forge is a professional and paid Photoshop plugin that comes as a pack of filters to generate textures, create visual effects, enhance photos and process images.

The better part is, it enables you to create your own filters with a visual node-based editor. So, there are unlimited possibilities.

You can share the filters created with the community (it is possible to get a free license by doing that.) and also download the 7500+ ready-to-use ones.

Most filters of the plugin support seamless tiling with a click(the ones you create as well), even for non-square textures.

Every filter generated is resolution-independent. They can be rendered in any resolution without losing any details.

Compared to old-style point lights, Filter Forge uses HDRI lighting which end up in more realistic outputs.

Besides formats like JPG or BMP, works can be saved in high-precision image formats such as OpenEXR or PFM which allows to retain every single bit of precision.

And, another great feature is: it can works as a standalone application as well.

To sum up, Filter Forge is pretty different than the traditional plugins by not sticking to several effects but makes possible creating almost every type of filter.

Divine is a fresh & free Photoshop plug-in for converting Photoshop files into WordPress themes.

It works by selecting spots in design files & marking them as WordPress variables like:

• post title
• post text
• author link
• etc..

It produces valid XHTML-CSS code & themes are automatically widget-ready.

Divine has an integrated FTP-client & it is a very ideal plug-in for anyone who is not that into coding and/or WordPress theming.

Photoshop plug-ins are the add-ons that power a Photoshop user.

They make a complicated task much easier & help creating amazing effects, designing faster & better.

There are lots of free Photoshop plug-ins which can fire your skills. This post aims to present  most of them (150+) in a comprehensive way.
 

How to install Photoshop plug-ins?

Photoshop plug-ins are .8bf files. After downloading a plug-in, simply place it in the presets>plug-ins folder of the Photoshop's installation folder (creating a folder with a name defining the plug-in & placing the plug-in files inside the folder will make it more organized).

Here they are:

AlphaWorks – Transparency Effects

A free Photoshop plugin for easily removing black or white values and making the region transparent.

It provides 6 different filters to match any photo type.

ColourWorks – Colour Modification

It has 20 effects to modify image colour values in several ways.

The plug-in can be used for digital-photo color correction or any other transformations.

EdgeWorks – Cool Artistic Styles

It has 20 effects to create dramatic edge and colour modifications.

This Photoshop plugin is handy for photo transformations for a highly stylized look & creating interesting texture effects

ScreenWorks

Easily create screen/mesh patterns with 30 options.

In one step, you can add small detailed and repetitive texture overlay effects to areas of your image.

Read the rest of this entry »

Every web designer pushes the "Print Screen" button few times a day to work on the screenshot or just to find the color codes of a specific area.

When the whole webpage screenshot is needed "Print Screen" may not be enough.

Screengrab! is a Firefox plugin which helps you to get the entire page screenshot (visible area or selected area too), copy it to clipboard or directly save it.

It saves you so much time once you get used to it. You don’t need to plan for the perfect screenshot all the time, just get the whole and play with it using your image editing software.

Creating icons (.ico files) inside Photoshop is not supported by default.

With this small yet easy to use plugin it is possible to import and export them with Photoshop.

In addition to Adobe Photoshop, the plug-in can work with Elements, AfterEffects, Premiere, PhotoDeluxe, Corel PhotoPaint, PaintShop Pro, Painter, and Photo.