NorthPoint Blog: November 2019

Graphic Designers have been long-time users of Adobe products. Their powerful programs can do about almost anything. And where they fall short, third-party add-ons in the form of Plug-ins or Scripts can be added to make any designer unstoppable. Here are some useful addons that will help make your workflow a bit easier and faster.

1. GuideGuide

This plug-in creates grids in a snap! Never drag out a guide again, all you need to do is enter a few numbers and instantly get what you need. This is compatible with Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe XD, and Sketch.

2. Fontself

This extension for Illustrator and Photoshop allows you to make OpenType fonts in literally minutes. Just drag and drop your characters into place and you’ve got your own custom font! This is compatible with Photoshop and Illustrator.

3. Super Magic Eraser

This useful script crops out everything outside your artboard. Ever feel like you have way too much going on, or need to reduce your file size? More than a clipping mask, this cuts off and removes any extra paths and shapes outside the artboard. It’s a real magic eraser!

4. Gold Rush

Quoting one of the most profound songs of our generation (All Star by Smash Mouth), “all that glitters is gold.” That’s the case with the next add-on for Illustrator (Photoshop also available). Gold Rush adds in some gold texture swatches to give your design some sparkle. You’re not limited to just gold, you get silver, rose gold, copper, and black -- plus the ability to apply the swatch to any color you choose.

5. Vector Press

This hybrid add-on uses a combination of Graphic Styles and Actions to create some great distressed effects. This add-on is super useful and saves you time in the end.

6. UberPlugins

UberPlugins offer a bunch of plug-ins that can help make your life easier inside Photoshop. With UberColumns you can quickly divide your paragraph of text and set the gaps spacing. UberSpacer helps you set the same distance between objects instantly. UberMapper helps you place a Google Map snippet into your document. UberFrame helps you mockup your design inside a browser window or video player. And they offer much more!

7. Astute Graphics

Astute Graphics takes the cake for the most helpful tools you can add to Illustrator. VectorFirstAid helps you convert outlined text back into editable text, plus other recovery and clean-up tools. VectorScribe can help you remove and simplify the number of points on a path while keeping your shape, plus other useful vector editing tools. SubScribe can help you create and arc between two points, and create perpendicular and tangent lines! This offering will bring your Illustrator game to the next level.

8. WhatFont

Okay, so this last one doesn’t deal with a design program, but it’s so useful it had to be included. This Chrome browser extension allows you to identify fonts on a webpage. I know this saves me a lot of time searching through code to try and find what the font in question is.

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