BrushBox adds drag-and-drop support to brushes and tool presets in Photoshop, bringing them together in one panel. It also lets you color-code, search, and tag presets. If famous brush designer Kyle T. Webster says that BrushBox is "the organizational plug-in digital artists have been hoping for," who are we to disagree? Brushbox costs a one-time price of $19 and is available on Gumroad; it's not on the Adobe Exchange marketplace.

DXO PureRAW delivers excellent noise reduction without as many sliders and complexities as other plug-ins. Click a button to remove the noise and extract more detail from your RAW files. Additionally, the software plug-in includes bespoke distortion corrections for many different lenses and offers a streamlined workflow for Photoshop and Lightroom. The company also makes an Editors' Choice-winning workflow application, DxO PhotoLab, which you can install as a standalone app or as a Photoshop or Lightroom plug-in.

The Fontself plug-in for Photoshop and Illustrator is a game changer for designers and typographers alike. With Fontself, creating custom fonts has never been easier or more accessible. Its intuitive and user-friendly interface lets you easily convert your hand-drawn lettering, vector graphics, or other artwork into fully functional fonts with just a few clicks. The plug-in supports both bitmap and vector formats, ensuring versatility in font creation. Additionally, Fontself offers a range of advanced features, such as character set customization, kerning adjustments, and ligature support. Altogether, it gives designers complete control over their font designs. This plug-in is simultaneously powerful enough for pros and simple enough for beginners.

We couldn't leave out the Nik Collection, an assortment of seven image editing plug-ins that has been around for more than 25 years. As film costs soared and client deadlines tightened, the Nik Collection became a practical solution for film enthusiasts, arguably revolutionizing the fashion and lifestyle photo industry. While offering diverse image editing capabilities from other platforms, Nik Collection's standout feature today is its ability to replicate various film looks, including convincing grain, for your digital images. It provides exceptional effects and filters for artistic photographers, as well as modern advancements, such as U Point local adjustment technology. The latest version (9) introduces AI and depth masks, along with more color grading options.

ON1 Photo RAW includes several AI-enhanced tools. You can buy separate plug-ins or get the whole deal with Photo RAW MAX 2026.3 ($169.99). Standalone tools include Effects, HDR, NoNoise AI, Portrait AI, Resize AI, and SkySwap AI. The full app includes Brilliance AI and Keyword AI features. Brilliance AI automatically sets a photo's tone and color for a somewhat HDR-ish effect. Keyword AI analyzes the image to create keyword tags that help you search for photos in your collection. Portrait AI, which identifies faces, automatically applies smoothing and provides tools for adjusting each part of a face: eyes, lips, teeth, and so on. Loads of effect presets come in categories such as Architecture, Black & White, Color Film, Hipster, Urban, and Weddings.

The Radiant Photo plug-in offers auto-tone that goes beyond what Photoshop includes, film looks, and other image enhancements. It provides exclusive image enhancement features like non-destructive dynamic range manipulation and supports Photoshop actions. The latter ensures efficient and rapid output for many photos that require similar edits. Furthermore, Radiant Photo offers Smart Presets, which let you apply or create custom ones.

Retouch Ninja from Pro Add-Ons is a set of four plug-ins that excel at frequency separation. In other words, it creates separate layers for colors and textures to help you fix blemishes while still retaining texture. The plug-in also features color correction, dynamic masks, multiple dodge and burn options, and raw presets. Another member of this group of plug-ins, Katanas, lets you combine existing Photoshop tools with Retouch Ninja tools. Considering everything it includes, the $39.90 price is quite reasonable.

If you're a digital photographer who wants to replicate various film styles in your images, consider the excellent RNI All Films plug-in. Although many competitors offer similar film stock presets, RNI provides a more nondestructive workflow than DxO Nik Collection (though it lacks Nik's ability to stack looks and effects, as well as its U Point local editing tools). RNI lets you effortlessly create multiple versions of an image without worry. The price of $192 is on the high side for a plug-in, but a more affordable "lite" version is available for $96. The latter includes around 40 film presets but omits some fade options and other settings. Note that the company's site lists this as a Lightroom or Capture One plug-in, but the Lightroom version works just as well in Photoshop's Adobe Camera Raw helper app.

If you're interested in expanding your use of AI beyond basic noise reduction and sharpening, get Skylum Luminar's photo editing plug-in. Just keep in mind that it's more of a full photo editing application that happens to run within Photoshop. The software offers unique AI-powered features, such as depth-based relighting and a tool specifically for removing power lines from pictures. You also get layer support, a library of textures and overlays, a rich collection of filters, and sky replacement. It's a valuable add-on for both enthusiasts and seasoned pros.

Along with DxO, Topaz offers one of the best image noise reduction algorithms. This capability now comes in a bundle with other Topaz tools for color balancing, lighting correction, and upscaling. It costs more than the company's previously available standalone denoiser, but the additional tools might justify the extra cost for you.

Watermark 3 is a Photoshop script that automatically places a text or image watermark on a photo or, even more importantly, on a batch of photos for free. The paid Pro version ($34.90) adds image sharpening, preset choices, and resizing tools. Professional wedding and event photographers might find the ability to apply watermarks to a whole folder of shots all at once especially appealing.