A Question about Freebies and Plugins

[Markie Jordan-Madden]

So here's another newbie question that might maybe be on the minds of some others new to PS. I have located numerous different free mockups and seen a few free Plugins for PS. This thought never really occurred to me before I was a published author; I just assumed if it was marked free that meant that the author/developer intended for it to be free. After finding several of my books (as well as those belonging to friends) listed online as free, I realized that piracy was a concern in my line of work.

So, are there "trusted" places we can get free/low cost mockups or plugins, and are there sites we should be leery of?

 

[gedstar]

You could take a look here
https://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum/photoshop-tutorials-and-resources/

Free mockups
https://www.mockupworld.co/all-mockups/
http://graphicdesignjunction.com/2015/06/100-best-free-psd-mockups/

 

[Markie Jordan-Madden]

Thanks! I'm on my phone at the moment, but I bookmarked one site to check out later. It's all about layer styles, which I'm not really sure what those are. But I'm working through some photoshop tutorials so I'm sure I'll eventually figure it out.

 

[fredfish]

As you rightly suggest there are loads out there (some better than others)

A couple I use are

http://www.photoshopfiles.com/ - User submitted files so of varying quality - but there are some gems there if you are prepared to look.

https://creativemarket.com - A commercial site, but if you sign up for their news letter they release a number of files free each week usually a couple of fonts, a mock up and a few clip art files.

For things like fonts I use http://www.dafont.com/ amongst other sites.

For brushes a good starting place is https://www.brusheezy.com/

Cheers

John

 

[Markie Jordan-Madden]

Hey Thanks Fred, I'll check those out! I actually am signed up with Creative Market, as I've gotten a few stock photos from them in the past. But it's good to know where to go so I don't accidentally go somewhere I shouldn't!

 

[Markie Jordan-Madden]

Okay, I'm about to post a link, and I hope it's okay. If not, I'll edit it. I'm looking at this: http://www.photoshoplayerstyle.com/horror-photoshop-styles/ because my youngest daughter is an author of zombie fiction (she's a teenager, what ELSE would she write about? ) and I'm looking to spice up her next book cover. So what, exactly, is a layer style, and how would you go about using it?

 

[fredfish]

Layer styles are a set of layer fx that you can apply to a layer (often very good with a text layer).

To use / add them do the following:

Open your fx panel (either by double clicking on the layer or by clicking "fx" at the bottom of the layers panel)
Click on the word "Styles" at the top of the dialogue box.


Click on the "Settings" icon



Select "load Styles" from the menu



Navigate to and select your downloaded Styles file (should have the extension .als)

Now the new styles should appear in your styles box.

This set of styles might be a good place for you to start https://dribbble.com/shots/1270660-FREE-Halloween-Text-Effects-Photoshop-Styles

Just like any other fx you can tweak the settings to your hearts content!!

Cheers

John

 

[Markie Jordan-Madden]

Thanks Fred, I will check those out! I've seen the styles but haven't played around much with them yet.

 

[Markie Jordan-Madden]

John, that is awesome! Once I got my (slow) high-speed internet to download it, I loaded it with no problem!