Play your designs like a guitarist 🤘🏻🎸
Sketch plugins to make your life easier.
I am lazy ! I am lazy ! I am lazy !I am lazy ! I am lazy ! I am lazy !I am lazy ! I am lazy ! I am lazy !I am lazy ! I am lazy ! I am lazy !I am lazy ! I am lazy ! I am lazy !I am lazy ! I am lazy ! I am lazy !I am lazy ! I am lazy ! I am lazy !
There, I said it. Now, it gets pretty difficult for you when you are lazy and you have to micromanage between different projects. It gets even tougher when client asks for changes 15 days after approval of the design.
So, here’s the list of some of the best plugins I have ever used while working on Sketch.
1. Runner
Every sketch user’s best friend. Ofcourse, this one tops the list. You can tell Runner to do pretty much anything (obviously within the bounds of sketch 😅) from creating a new layer to running an installed third party plugin command. Press (⌘ + ‘) to open up the interface and type your command.
Neat trick : You can install other plugins by searching for it over the ‘install’ tab.
2. Automate
Developed by Ashung, this one’s a swiss knife for Sketch designers. It provides you with a load of commands ranging from layer operations to setting utility functions related to script and plugin editor. Paste and Replace command under the layer operations is life-saver. You can just forget all the micromanaging like copying a layer, then pasting it elsewhere and centering it with preexisting layer.
Neat trick : You can upgrade/degrade your sketch file to older/newer versions ! 🤯 (Available under Development menu)
3. Butter
This one helps to space and distribute layers evenly in rows or columns. Simpler than the grid or distribute tool. Imagine yourself free from manually attaching layers to each other. A massive time saver! ⏱
Neat trick : You can even butt fractional layers (just a cool name to a layer with fractional width/height) ! Sketch distribute is helpless over there.
4. Paddy
A very simple tool to apply automatic padding or spacing between specific layer. I use it to create dynamic buttons. You no longer have to worry about button sizing while changing the text. With paddy, you can just change the text and it’ll automatically apply padding between text and button to resize it dynamically. With new update, paddy can now work with even symbols !
Neat trick : Creating responsive tables is easier than ever ! Read this guide by Nick Morrison
5. Rename It
Rename It helps you with batch renaming of artboards or layers. You just have to select all the layers and Rename It will do the rest for you. It also gives you options to add characters to the current name of the layer. It really helps during handoff by renaming layers along with its size.
6. Sketch Maps
No more of cropping maps from Google Maps screenshot. Sketch Maps gives you images from Mapbox along with 12 different styles. You can also specify custom Mapbox style of yours.
7. Segmented Circles
Huge relief while designing complex UI related to analytics. Easily create pie charts and clock-like structure with the help of Segemented Circles. Before Segmented Circles, I used to create segments manually on bordered oval layer. Kind of gets difficult when you are supposed to have some angle for the pie.
Check out this awesome tutorial on designing for analytics by Ivo Mynttinen.
8. Swatches for Sketch
While designing for Material UI, I often used to check for material colors over the web. Well, this another awesome plugin by Ashung provides you with swatches for 11 design systems at your fingertips !
9. Paste Direct
Paste Direct is a set of tools made by Yudiz Solutions to make your workflow even faster. Ever been in such a hurry where you just wish to copy color code by clicking on layer ? Or pasting clipboard text just by clicking on text layer ? Or change your layer’s fill from first documented color to second one ? Well, this one’s the keeper for you. Play your guitar at lightning speed with this one. You won’t be able to lift your hand off the keyboard while using this one.
Now start rocking !
If you like this post, remember to recommend it and also don’t forget to share your Sketch plugins in the comment.
