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.
There are directions at the bottom of this page for installing plug-ins and filters if you need help.
Adobe’s Free Photoshop Plug-Ins
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.
Many are rated, from one to five stars.
Easy to search for and find what you need.
Enormous variety.
Large previews.
Requires the (free) Creative Cloud program.
Must create an Adobe account if you don’t have one.
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.
Mehdi’s Free Photoshop Filters
Mehdi offers dozens of free Photoshop filters. Each download page has a thorough explanation of the filter as well as screenshots.
- Dated but useable interface.
- Windows only, not macOS.
Kaleidoscope, Projection, Sorting Tiles, Blots, Weaver, Fine Threshold, and Contrast Balance are just some of the filters you can get here.
The Plugin Site’s Free Photoshop Filters
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.
A single download saves time.
Fast access without layers of menus.
Easy to use.
Must provide your email address.
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.
Lokas Software’s Free 3D Shadow Filter
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.
A broad range of shadow effects.
Easy to use.
Windows only.
Site design is difficult to follow.
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.
RichardRosenman.com’s Free Photoshop Plug-Ins
RichardRosenman.com has one page of free Photoshop plug-ins, including Diffuse, Box Fitting, Pinch, Pixelate, Solid Border, and Evaluate.
Easy to browse through available plug-ins.
Thorough explanation of each plug-in’s function.
Windows only.
No new releases in years.
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.
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.
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