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How To

How to: Install a plugin in Photoshop

Amber Sass

Amber Sass

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In a previous post, I highlighted some really fun and useful plugins for Photoshop. Plugins are convenient ways to add more functionality to your Photoshop experience. You can add filter options, or even help optimize your image’s appearance in other ways.

Plugins are completely useless to you if you don’t know how to install them though. They often don’t even come with installers or instructions on how to set them up.

How to: Install a plugin in Photoshop

Fortunately, it’s a fairly straightforward process. I’ll walk you through how to install your newly downloaded plugin to Photoshop in three simple steps.

1) Locate and download

The first thing you need to do is find a plugin you want to try out in Photoshop. Google search might give you some good options, or you can browse and read reviews for various plugins already up on Softonic. For the purposes of this tutorial, I downloaded Wire Worm, a plugin that allows you to erase wires and other objects from your digital photos (useful, right?).

Once chosen, download the plugin you’ve chosen to your computer. Feel free to choose multiple if more than one catches your eye! You can install them all in one go.

2) Relocate the plugin to the correct Photoshop folder

Many plugins don’t come with an installer, which means you’ll need to manually install it yourself. It’s a relatively simple process, the trickiest part being actually finding where your Photoshop folder happens to be located on your computer.

The correct folder will likely be in the Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Program Files > Adobe path, or something similar.

Locate the “Plug-ins” folder and double click on it. From there, you just need to copy and paste or drag and drop your newly downloaded plugin into that folder.

3) Test in Photoshop

If you already have Photoshop up, exit out of it and restart the program to ensure it recognizes your new plugin.

Then, just go to the Filter dropdown menu and search for your new plugin. Note that some plugins will be filed under the developer’s name, as is the case in this example.

Click on the plugin to launch it.

That’s all there is to it. Now you can tweak your photos even more to your liking with a cadre of useful plugins. What are your favorite plugins and how do they optimize your pictures? Let us know in the comments!

Amber Sass

Amber Sass

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