Hey there fellow designer, are you constantly on the hunt for tools and resources that make your life easier and help you work more efficiently? We all want to spend less time on repetitive tasks and have more time for creativity, right?
In this article, we’re going to talk about 4 of the best Sketch plugins:
Plugin #1 – Anima: Effortlessly Turn Sketch Designs Into Code
As a designer, what’s the point of creating gorgeous designs if developers have a hard time implementing them? With Anima for Sketch, you can easily turn your Sketch designs into code that developers can use.
Anima lets you choose elements in your Sketch design and translate them into HTML and CSS code. Things like shapes, text, images, and more can be exported with a single click. You’ll get clean, semantic code that’s ready to use on your website or app.
Forget specs—with Anima, developers get code. This means no more confusion over how to build components or what font sizes and colors to use.
The code Anima generates is always up to date with your Sketch file, so if anything changes in your design the code updates instantly too.
Anima supports the latest Sketch features like Symbols, Overrides, and Constraints. Your designs stay organized, and so does the code. Anima takes care of all the CSS class names, IDs, and HTML structure for you.
Bottom line: Anima is a must-have plugin if you want to streamline the handoff process and make developers happy. Your beautiful designs deserve beautiful code, and Anima delivers just that.
Plugin #2 – Sketch Measure: Add Dimensions Without the Hassle
Sketch Measure is a plugin that lets you quickly add dimensions to shapes, text, and images in your designs. No more fussing with the line tool or text box to indicate sizes—this plugin does it for you automatically.
When you install Sketch Measure, a new “measure” option will appear in the Sketch menu bar. To add dimensions to an object in your design, simply select the object and choose “measure”.
The plugin will instantly add the width, height, and position values for that object. It really is that easy!
Sketch Measure supports:
- Pixels, points, inches, and centimeters so you can use whatever unit of measurement you prefer.
- Adjusting the font, size, and color of the dimension text to match your design.
- Placing the dimensions inside or outside the object, and selecting the offset distance.
- Adding dimensions to multiple objects at once. Just select all the objects you want to measure and choose “measure”.
- Removing dimensions with a single click.
This plugin will save you valuable time when creating designs that require precise measurements. No more manually inputting values or switching between tools—with Sketch Measure dimensions are just a click away.
Plugin #3 – Flow: Auto-Generate Diagrams to Visualize Workflows
As a designer, conveying complex ideas and workflows in an easy-to-understand manner is key. The Flow plugin for Sketch allows you to quickly create diagrams to visualize how a user moves through a system or process.
Once you install the Flow plugin, a new “Diagram” option will appear in the Sketch toolbar. Select it and a blank diagram will open, giving you a canvas to add shapes like rectangles, diamonds, and arrows to represent steps, decisions, and paths.
- Simply click and drag the shapes onto your canvas, then double-click each one to add text labels explaining what that step represents.
- Connect the shapes by clicking on the dots that appear around the edge of each shape. Arrows will automatically appear showing the path from one step to the next.
- Use the Inspector panel to customize things like shape color, line thickness, and arrowheads.
- Re-arrange shapes and paths easily by clicking and dragging. The flow will automatically adjust arrow positions and connections.
The Flow plugin utilizes a simple drag-and-drop interface, so you don’t need to know any code to create professional-looking diagrams.
Whether you’re designing user flows, sitemaps, process charts, or any other type of diagram, Flow helps you map it out in a highly visual way that’s easy for stakeholders and clients to understand.
Plugin #4 – Sketch Palettes: Color Management Simplified
Sketch Palettes lets you save and reuse color palettes to keep your designs consistent. As a designer, you know how important cohesive color schemes are to a successful project.
However keeping track of hex codes, RGB values, and color names can be tedious and time-consuming.
Sketch Palettes solves this problem by allowing you to curate palettes of your favorite colors and save them for reuse in any sketch file. You can import colors from an image, create palettes from scratch, or browse thousands of premade palettes. Once you’ve created a palette, simply drag and drop colors onto layers, shapes, and text in your Sketch design.
This handy plugin eliminates the need to remember specific color values or dig through a sea of swatches to find the right shade.
With your customized palettes at your fingertips, you can quickly apply color themes, ensure color consistency across artboards, and make changes on the fly.
Plugin #5 – Slazzer: AI Background Removal
Background removal is a tedious task, but the Slazzer plugin makes it a breeze.
This nifty little plugin uses artificial intelligence to instantly remove the background from your layers and shapes in Sketch.
How It Works
Once you install the Slazzer plugin, you’ll notice a new option in the right-click menu of your layers called “Remove Background”.
Select that option on any layer and Slazzer will automatically detect the edges of your main subject and remove everything outside of it, leaving you with a transparent background.
With a few clicks, you can refine the selection by adding or subtracting from it. Slazzer will then re-detect the edges and update the transparent background. This back-and-forth allows you to quickly get a perfect cutout of your subject.
Why You Need It
Manually erasing the background of an image in Sketch can take ages and often results in a messy, uneven cutout.
Slazzer eliminates the tedious parts of background removal so you can focus on the creative parts of your design work. Some ways designers use Slazzer include:
- Isolating product photos to place on background scenes
- Creating transparent PNGs for websites or social media posts
- Extracting people or objects to use in composites
In just a few clicks, Slazzer can save you hours of time removing backgrounds.
For any designer working with lots of images, it’s an essential plugin for your Sketch workflow.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, finding the right tools and plugins can make your design workflow so much easier and help you become more efficient.
Happy Editing.