Updated June 13, 2023
Introduction to Affinity photo plugins
Affinity Photo Plugins can understand as additional software that extends the range of effects of this software for different types of purposes. We can use installed Photoshop-compatible 64-bit plugins as a plugin for this software, but some of the plugins cannot automatically work for Affinity Photo. That means we have some plugins that have auto-configuring features and install themselves into the plugins folder of Affinity Photo. Still, in some cases, we have to install plugins manually in the plugins folder of this software. Today in this article, we will discuss making Photoshop plugins compatible with Affinity Photo.
Depending on the plugin’s features, it will install automatically, or you must install it manually. So let us look at how we can have both in the plugins folder of Affinity Photo.
Automatically installed plugins
Some third-party plugins get installed automatically in the default plugin folder of Affinity Photo, and we need not make any additional settings for this.
To view auto-configured installed plugins of this software, we have to go through some steps, and these steps are:
- Go to the menu of Affinity Photo, and from the list, choose the Preferences option.
- In this Preference panel is a Photoshop Plugins tab, so select it by clicking on it.
- Then click on this panel’s Open Default Folder Finder tab to see all automatically installed plugins here.
- If you want to install any such type of plugins that are in the untested or unsupported category, then you have to go through these steps that are:
- Go to the Preferences panel of this software in the same way as we have discussed above. Then, at the bottom left corner of this panel, there is an option, ‘Allow “Unknown” plugins to be used’. Enable this option by clicking on the check box.
- After enabling this option, close the Affinity Photo software and restart it. In the list of Filters menu of this software, you can find any installed plugins of Photoshop.
Manually link plugins file
Some of your desired plugins may not install automatically in the plugins folder of this software, so you have to install them manually at the required location of this software. So for that, we have to go below-discussed steps:
- Go to the Menu of Affinity Photo and choose the Preferences option. Once you choose it, a panel of Preferences will open.
- In this panel, select the Photoshop Plugins tab by clicking on it.
- There is a Plugins Search Folders section, and at the lower right corner of this section, there is Add button, so click on it.
- Now search for the folder where you have the .plugin file. It may be in the plugins folder of Photoshop or any other location.
- Once you choose your desired plugin’s file, it will be added to the Affinity Photo plugins. You can add any plugin as per your requirement by the above-discussed method.
After installing plugins, we need to allow some of their supporting files to work on plugins properly. So let us have a look at it too.
Access to supporting plugin files
- Some plugins often need supporting files for proper work, so we must make a few adjustments. So let me tell you how you can do that.
- Go to the menu of Affinity Photo again and choose the Preferences option.
- In the open panel of Preferences, option go to Photoshop Plugins tab. Then under the Plugin support folders section box, there is Authorize Global option. So click on it.
- Here you can click on Authorize, and access for support files will be applied, or you can select the particular directory with support files and then press the Close button.
Location of your affinity photo plugins folder
Some older plugins or plugins that don’t have an installer won’t find the Affinity photo folder itself, so we have to copy them there. 8BF plugin files into our Affinity Photo plugins folder. You can find the Affinity Photo Plugins folder in the following way:
- Go to the C drive of your computer, then the ProgramData folder. Here in this folder, you will find the Affinity Photo folder.
- Open this folder and in this folder, we have a 1.0 folder, open it too, and there is a Plugins folder where you can paste copied plugins files.
- You can paste several plugin files here one by one which you want to have in Affinity Photo; after pasting your desired plugin file, restart Affinity Photo software.
- After restarting Affinity Photo go to the Filters menu of the menu bar, and you can have your desired plugin in the list.
Photoshop Plugins are not in the list of the filter menu
You may be unable to find your installed plugins in the list of Filter menus. So for that, you can go through the following thing:
- Generally, we find our installed plugins in the drop-down list of the Namesuppressed option of the Filters menu, and by clicking on our desired one, we can start to use that.
- Or you can go to Effects, then Plugin Filter, and find installed plugins in the Namesuppressed menu (It is for Paint Shop Pro).
- If you have several plugins installed, you can go to the drop-down list of the ‘Other’ option of the Filter menu in place of the Namesuppressed option.
These are some points about which you must know about working with the plugins of this software and having a good command of their parameters.
Conclusion – Affinity photo plugins
I told you how you could have plugins of Photoshop in Affinity Photo and use them for different purposes. Now you can have your desired plugins in this software without facing any difficulties while installing them and also have benefited from them for enhancing the working ability of this software in many ways.
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This is a guide to Affinity photo plugins. Here we discuss the basic concept, automatically installed plugins, and manually link plugins file. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
