Plugin, plug-in, add-on, add-on, adding or add-in is being developed to add a particular component/feature to a computer program.
Purpose of plugins
Plugins can be used for many purposes; some of them are:
- to create the abilities and extend an application by enabling third-party developers
- new features can be added easily through plugins
- it helps developers to reduce the size of an application
- developers can use plugins to separate source code from an application
Plugins for Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is a very useful image editing tool. However, there are some tasks which Adobe wasn’t able to complete without plugins. Basically, plugins are add-on programs which help adobe by providing additional effects for images or by performing tasks that are impossible or hard to perform on adobe photoshop alone.
There are several types of main plugins which are compatible with photoshop:
- .8bf (filter plugins)
- .8ba (import plugins)
- .8be ((export plugins)
- .8bi (file format plugins)
- .8ly (automation plugins)
- .8bs (selection plugins)
- .8by (parser plugins)
Adobe is the only one who created these types of plugins. Also, photoshop is the only one which fully supports all plugin types available.
Best Photoshop Plugins
There is a very large variety of plugins available for photoshop which includes free plugins and paid/premium plugins. You can find some of the best photoshop plugins at Skylum.com like:
- Luminar: You can use Luminar as a plugin or as a stand-alone application itself.
- Aurora HDR: This tool can deliver you the best quality HDR images. You don’t have to worry about chromatic aberration, halos or noisy artifacts.
- Photolemur: This tool is the world’s first photo enhancement tool which is fully driven by an AI.