The 15 best free Photoshop Scripts
Guest Contribution
Photoshop is well known for its support for filters and actions, click more about but there’s a third way to increase the functionality of Adobe’s image editing tool: scripts. Photoshop scripts are a little like actions, find but rather than simply being able to replay a series of steps, scripts can make conditional decisions during processing, which means they can be more intelligent.
They also have access to the whole set of Photoshop functionality, including elements not easily accessible to mere actions, so they can do things that are not possible with actions alone.
In fact, many of the features you already use in Photoshop are actually Scripts – take the Image Processor function, for example (‘File > Scripts’), which allows you to quickly convert an entire folder of images from one format to another, resizing as you go and adding meta data.
So, with all that in mind, check out our selection of the top scripts to add functionality to Photoshop, and let us know if you’ve found any useful scripts we haven’t mentioned in the comments section!
01. Corner Editor
This handy little script makes it simple to round the corners of any polygonal shape. It allows you to set different options per corner, so you can generate complex shapes quickly and efficiently.
02. Black & White Variations
This script from Trevor Morris converts and saves an image to black-and-white using 20 different approaches. Once the 20 variations have been saved, they can be automatically reopened in Photoshop for comparison. Plus, you can add your own variations to the mix to increase the comparison options.
03. Split to Layers
This useful Script simply isolates contiguous groups of pixels on a layer, and promotes each group to a new layer. it’s very handy for situations where you’ve got multiple elements on a single layer, and need to separate them out.
04. Adobe Paper Texture Panel
Russell Brown offers a good variety of scripts and extensions on his website, as you might expect from one of Adobe’s ambassadors. This particular script allows you to quickly grab a texture to use in your open document.
05. Eliminate Copy
This super-useful script from Mike Hale allows you to remove the word copy from the layer name of duplicated layers inside Photoshop. It can apply the removal across multiple layers simultaneously, or just the currently active layer.
06. Create a Calendar
This script allows you to generate a calendar for any given month. Simply run the script, choose your month and year, and it will generate everything for you.
07. Stack-a-Matic
Another of Russell Brown’s scripts, this one allows you to combine multiple exposures into one completed image. It’s ideal for astro-photography, where details need to be extrapolated from multiple captures rather than just one.
08. Sprite Generator
If you use sprites for your background images, you’ll love this script. It allows you to automatically generate a sprite and all the associated CSS required to use it, simply by choosing a folder of images.
Next page: more free time-saving Photoshop scripts…
09. Super Export
This script allows you to easily export individual parts of a PSD document as separate, cropped files by naming layers according to the filename you’d like to save with. For example, name a layer ‘background.jpg’ and run this script to save that one layer out, while hiding all other layers.
10. Scale patterns to 100%
When scaling a document in Photoshop, pattern layers and layer styles get scaled at the same time, which can lead to less-than-perfect results when using noise or texture-based patterns. This script resets all patterns to 100 per cent scale, saving you the hassle of hunting them out and resetting each one individually.
11. Export text to file
This is a helpful little script that parses your PSD document and grabs any text content, before saving it out into a text file for ease of copy/paste into other formats. Ideal for web designers migrating a static mockup into an HTML template.
12. Offset all layers
If you use Photoshop to generate repeating pattern tiles, you’ll already be familiar with the offset filter. With this, you can wrap the pixels from one edge of a document around to the opposite edge, revealing the join, and allowing you to make a perfectly seamless pattern. The problem is the offset filter only works on one layer at a time. This script solves that issue!
13. Textparser
This excellent script from Justin Marsan generates CSS styles for text inside a Photoshop document. It includes information automatically picked up from your document for colour, font-size, text-transform, text-decoration, line-height and more. Perfect for web designers working with mockups produced in Photoshop.
14. Google Maps Tile Cutter
This script allows you to automatically carve up a large image for use with Google Maps. This is ideal when you’re creating a web app that uses Google Maps to create custom mapping or bespoke overlays on map content.
15. Parametric Curves
This script allows you to generate mathematically-defined curves adjustment layers, useful for generating organic patterns and textures. Read Davide Barranca’s explanation of why you might want to for full details, but in summary these are especially handy when generating displacement maps and depth maps.
Related articles:
- Free Photoshop brushes
- The best Photoshop plugins
- Download free textures: high resolution and ready to use now
