10 XD Plugins using the new Plugins Panel
In the August release of Adobe XD, XD introduced the new Plugins Panel. The Plugins Panel is a new surface alongside the design canvas that plugin developers can use to display their plugin. Having plugins stay open while the user works on their designs has huge advantages for designers. XD plugins can read a user’s selection on the design canvas and react in real-time.
There are already many plugins built by the talented community of developers that are using the new Plugins Panel. Here are 10 plugins that I’ve tried in the past week and will share my experience of using each one of them:
UI Faces
by Mighty Alex
If you are a user interface designer, you know how often we need to add avatars in design mockups to make them look more realistic. Instead of going over the internet and searching, you can use UI Faces plugin for Adobe XD. UI Faces aggregates thousands of avatars which you can carefully filter to create your perfect personas or just generate random avatars.
Get it here: https://uifaces.co/plugin-adobe-xd
Icondrop
by Iconscout
Icondrop may be the most comprehensive design resources provider. It includes a database of more than two million vector icons, illustrations , and photos that you can use in your designs. When you find what you need, it’s just a click away to insert in your project.
Get it here: https://iconscout.com/icondrop/for-adobe-xd
Confetti
by Yummygum
There were many times where I quickly needed to create minimal background just to show depth (e.g. a background for chat feed). It seems easy, but I always got stuck for hours finding the perfect shapes and colours, moving them across the artboard, and trying to make them look random. Confetti makes all of that with just one click. It randomizes opacity, rotation, scale, colours and even depth of field blur. One of the most feature-rich and useful plugins.
Get it here: http://www.xdconfetti.com
App Icon Generator
If I only had this in the past when I was freelancing. It would have saved me significant amount of time creating different sized icons for every platform. With App Icon Generator you only need to create the icon design and select at which sizes you want it exported (as PNGs). It includes predefined sizes for iOS, Android, UWP and even Adobe XD plugin icon.
PhotoSplash 2
by QooQee
PhotoSplash 2 is the number one stop if you want to include stock photos in your designs. It gives you access to the Unsplash collection of over 500,000 copyright-free photos. The plugin works with all shapes, groups, artboards and Repeat Grids. You just need to enter a keyword, pick from the results, and add them to your designs.
Get it here: https://www.qooqee.com/adobe-xd/plugins/photosplash/
Layers for Developers
by Em Software
This is a must-have plugin for all Adobe XD plugin developers. It shows the selected object properties exactly how the plugin would see it. It shows the scenegraph selection, the whole document, or the current edit context root as a dynamically-updated and explorable set of nested objects, displaying the API-level properties belonging to the selected items.
Get it here: http://emsoftware.com/xdplugins/layers-for-developers/
Toolabs DSM
by Toolabs
Creating themed design systems is a cumbersome and error-prone process that can waste a lot of time. Toolabs DSM takes style management one step further with its stateful design system management, which enables you to declare all the possibilities of your design without having to copy and paste multiple artboards.
Get it here: https://www.toolabs.com/xdplugin/
Ikono
Ikono provides a search of an icon font with about 2.000 symbols, up to 9 weights, with both line and fill versions for many of them. This plugin is really useful for creating quick mockups. To work properly, this plugin needs the Ikono font to be installed on your device. At the time of publishing this story Ikono was pending approval and I have tried the .xdx file the developer shared with me.
Get it here: https://www.paolobiagini.com/portfolio/plugins-for-adobe-xd/ikono-plugin-for-adobe-xd.html
VizzyCharts
by VizzyCharts
I remember when Adobe XD plugins came out, one of the first test plugins I made was selecting a number and creating a circular progress bar around it. VizzyCharts is the same idea but on steroids. You can create line, column, and pie charts with custom typing the data or loading a .csv file. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support edits of already created charts, but you can always create new ones with different settings.
Get it here: https://www.vizzycharts.com
Arranger
Arranger is a perfect example of a dynamic plugin with real-time updates — and it’s really fun to play with. Also, I’ve seen some animations where, combined with auto-animate, this plugin creates pure magic. In essence, it lets you automatically arrange objects into circle, grid or wave layouts, but with a ton of options such as size, angle, direction, orientation , and even amplitude. Make sure you download the playground file for examples and a quick start.
Get it here: http://www.arranger.io/arranger-xd/
Final thoughts
Plugins for Adobe XD really speed up my work process. To be honest, I’m not sure how I’ve been designing without them. They’ve been around for less than a year, and although some of them need to improve, I think they almost cover every designer’s needs.
In the future, I’d like to see more crazy ideas utilizing the Plugins Panel. For example a chat box, maybe with global chat rooms or maybe a local IP based chat for teammates. What about a music player using some streaming service API and adapting the music genre and BPM according to what you are working on? Currently, audio is not supported, but if you are creative than the plugin can open a browser tab and play the music from there while in sync with the plugin.
Having that panel space in front of all Adobe XD users and a real-time connection with any API — the possibilities are endless.
