Software & Apps > Apps 46 46 people found this article helpful Free Photoshop Filters and Plug-Ins Customize Photoshop with hundreds of plug-ins and filters By Stacy Fisher Stacy Fisher Technology Educator Emporia State University Stacy is a professional technology educator with over 25 years' experience. She has published hundreds of articles, co-authored a book, and has appeared on national and local TV. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on January 17, 2023 Reviewed by Kayla Dube Reviewed by Kayla Dube J. Everette Light Career Center Kayla Dube has 4+ years' experience in videography and filmmaking. She frequently works in production with indie film companies. lifewire's editorial guidelines Apps Best Apps Payment Services Trending Videos Close this video player Change the look and feel of your images with free filters, and improve your working environment with plug-ins. Filters and plug-ins are a great way to quickly customize your Photoshop experience. Filters are image effects or settings used to change the way a picture looks, and plug-ins are extended features like rulers or guidelines that aren't included with Photoshop by default. 10 Best Sites for Free PSD Templates There are directions at the bottom of this page for installing plug-ins and filters if you need help. 01 of 05 Adobe's Free Photoshop Plug-Ins What We Like Many are rated, from one to five stars. Easy to search for and find what you need. Enormous variety. Large previews. What We Don't Like Requires the (free) Creative Cloud program. Must create an Adobe account if you don't have one. What better place to get free Photoshop plug-ins than Adobe's own website? You can sort the hundreds of free resources by rating or popularity, as well as by newest added. These plug-ins are installed differently than the others on this list. You must have a free Adobe account and the Creative Cloud program installed to use the plug-ins. To find only the free downloads, be sure to choose Free from the left menu. Visit Adobe 02 of 05 Mehdi's Free Photoshop Filters What We Like Thorough explanation of each plug-in with examples. Dozens of plug-ins available. FAQ page and the ability to contact Mehdi for support. What We Don't Like Dated but useable interface. Windows only, not macOS. Mehdi offers dozens of free Photoshop filters. Each download page has a thorough explanation of the filter as well as screenshots. Kaleidoscope, Projection, Sorting Tiles, Blots, Weaver, Fine Threshold, and Contrast Balance are just some of the filters you can get here. Visit Mehdi Plugins 03 of 05 The Plugin Site's Free Photoshop Filters What We Like A single download saves time. Fast access without layers of menus. Easy to use. What We Don't Like Must provide your email address. Harry's Filters (formerly VideoRave) is a download at The Plugin Site that lets you get around 70 image effects for Photoshop in one download. There are other downloads as well, including Photoshop actions. On the download page, scroll past the commercial downloads to find the free options. When you're ready to download something, fill out the download form to get the download link in your email. Visit The Plugin Site 04 of 05 Lokas Software's Free 3D Shadow Filter What We Like A broad range of shadow effects. Easy to use. What We Don't Like Windows only. Site design is difficult to follow. Lokas Software has only one free Photoshop filter, called 3D Shadow. We include it in this list because while Photoshop has a text shadowing feature, we find this one to be more useful. Use it to adjust the blur, axis and offset angle, zoom, and color, as well as select a preset shadow effect, such as Cast in Front, Flat Faint, and Rear shadow. Visit Lokas Software 05 of 05 RichardRosenman.com's Free Photoshop Plug-Ins What We Like Easy to browse through available plug-ins. Thorough explanation of each plug-in's function. What We Don't Like Windows only. No new releases in years. RichardRosenman.com has one page of free Photoshop plug-ins, including Diffuse, Box Fitting, Pinch, Pixelate, Solid Border, and Evaluate. Each plug-in includes a short description and a sample picture to show you what it does. All downloads are direct links to ZIP files. Visit Richard Rosenman's Freeware Archives How to Install and Use Photoshop Filters After you download a filter, copy the 8BF file to the Photoshop Filters folder to install it. On Windows, it's usually here: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop (version)\Plug-ins\Filters\ However, if putting the filter in that folder doesn't work, try this one: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Plug-Ins\CC Access your installed filters from the Photoshop Filter menu. Some filters are installed through an EXE file so that it installs like a regular program. In those instances, you don't need to copy any files into any program folder. Instead, open the EXE file like you would any application, and follow any prompts. How to Install and Use Photoshop Plug-Ins Some Photoshop plug-ins are ZXP files. Depending on your Photoshop version, these are installed using either Adobe Extension Manager or Adobe Unified Plugin Installer Agent (which comes with Creative Cloud). After installation, access them from Window > Extensions. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit