I recently worked on a design sprint, creating a prototype in Sketch and Flinto. My work colleague was curious about all the 'nifty Sketch tricks' (Sketch plugins) I had been using to design the UX/UI.
I promised that I'd share a list of plugins with him so he could try them out. So here it is, 24 Sketch plugins that will help him and any other UX/UI Designers wanting to improve their design workflow and productivity.
1. Sketch Plugins For Workspace Management
Runner
If you've ever used Spotlight Search on a Mac as an app launcher, then you'll find Sketch Runner very familiar. You can launch Runner with a hotkey combo (CMD+'), and then use it to quickly access other plugins, navigate to pages, insert symbols and even install new plugins. It is a massive time-saver.
Download: https://sketchrunner.com/
Artboard Manager
Artboard Manager really intrigued my colleague. He had been wondering how my artboards snapped into place every time I moved them around. This plugin is super handy for keeping your workspace neat and tidy. Give it a try, you'll never have to manually align or worry about equal spacing between artboards again.
Download: https://github.com/bomberstudios/artboard-manager
Distributor
Distributor allows you to select two or more layers and equally distribute them by specifying a value.
Download: https://github.com/PEZ/SketchDistributor
Organise Artboards
Having nicely aligned artboards is fine, but that's just not cricket if they're not consistently numbered. The Organise Artboards plugin will allow you to automatically number your artboards.
Download: https://github.com/mochang/Sketch-Organize_artboards
Rename-It
Keeping your artboards and layers properly named is important if you plan to transfer your artwork to an external application for prototyping (such as Flinto or Framer). This plugin lets you batch rename layers and artboards quickly, you can even use regular expressions.
Download: http://rodi01.github.io/RenameIt/
2. Sketch Plugins For Symbol Management
Library Symbol Replacer
Library Symbol Replacer allows you to replace symbols within the current document with those in an external library (Sketch 47 and above).
Download: https://github.com/zeroheight/library-symbol-replacer
Merge Duplicate Symbols
Sometimes when working on multiple documents you end up duplicating symbols. This plugin enables you to merge duplicates symbols into one.
Download: https://github.com/oodesign/merge-duplicate-symbols
Move to Library
Move to Library lets you move document-specific symbols into a shared, external library.
Download: https://github.com/ahmedmigo/Move-to-library-sketchplugin
Symbol Instance Locator
Before you decide to delete a symbol, this plugin allows you to check if it has been used in the current document (and avoid unnecessarily detaching your beloved symbols and creating groups and layers).
Download: https://github.com/sonburn/symbol-instance-locator
Symbol Instance Sheet
Symbol Instance Sheet automatically generates a new page in your Sketch document and populates it with all your current symbols. Handy if you are generating a style guide/pattern library.
Download: https://github.com/sonburn/symbol-instance-sheet
Symbol Organiser
This plugin is a lifesaver. Your symbols page can quickly become a mess if you aren't careful. This plugin automatically arranges your symbols into groups (vertically or horizontally).
Download: https://github.com/sonburn/symbol-organizer
Batch Create Symbols
Batch Create Symbols allows you to select one or more layers and convert into multiple symbols. A real timesaver when you are setting up a pattern library.
Download: https://github.com/demersdesigns/sketch-batch-create-symbols
3. Sketch Plugins For Typography & Shared Styles
Golden Line Height
Golden Line Height allows you to automatically adjust the line-height of your text using Golden Ratio.
Download: https://github.com/lorenzwoehr/Golden-Ratio-Line-Height-Sketch-Plugin
Shared Style Finder
Shared Style Finder isolates any shared or text styles that you've applied to layers or text. Useful if you are cleaning up a Sketch document and you want to ensure you don't delete any styles that have been used already.
Download: https://github.com/sonburn/shared-style-finder
Style Libraries
Currently, Sketch only supports symbols as part of external libraries, text and layer styles won't get synced if you change them across your documents. This plugin allows you to keep your text and layer styles synced with your external libraries.
Download: https://github.com/sigtm/sketch-style-libraries
Style Master
This plugin allows you to better manage your text and layer styles with the ability to bulk rename styles and even use regular expressions to change the naming hierarchy.
Download: https://github.com/aparajita/sketch-style-master
Unused Style Remover
Pretty much as it says on the tin. Removes unused styles from your Sketch document to keep things neat and tidy.
Download: https://github.com/sonburn/unused-style-remover
4. Sketch Plugins For Colour
Alembic
Ever wanted to generate a colour pallet from an image? Well, now you can, all in about 5 seconds without leaving Sketch.
Download: https://github.com/awkward/Alembic
5. Sketch Plugins For Charting
Chart
The Chart plugin lets you to create popular chart types from dummy or real data.
Download: https://github.com/pavelkuligin/chart
6. Sketch Plugins For Icon Management
Sketch Icons
This is a MASSIVE timesaver when you need to create a whole icon set for your design. It automatically generates your icons as symbols from external SVG files and allows you to specify a colour mask.
Download: https://github.com/AMoreaux/Sketch-Icons
7. Sketch Plugins For Exporting Assets
Pages to Folders
If you are like me and suffer from mild OCD, then this will be right up your street. Automatically export your artboards and pages to folders with this plugin.
Download: https://github.com/ivanbozic/sketch-pages-to-folders
SVGO Compressor
Automatically ensure your SVG output is clean and optimised for use outside Sketch with SVGO Compressor.
Download: https://github.com/BohemianCoding/svgo-compressor
Sketch Image Compressor
Inspired by ImageOptim, this plugin is like a simplified 'Save-For-Web', offering lossless image compression for your bitmap images.
Download: https://github.com/BohemianCoding/sketch-image-compressor
Artboard Framer
Automatically add common device frames to your artboards, useful for design presentations when you need a device mockup.
Download: https://github.com/sonburn/artboard-framer
Final Thoughts
So there you have it, 24 Sketch plugins that should improve your productivity and design workflow. Let me know on Twitter if you have any suggestions for plugins that I might have missed out and please share this post if you found it useful.
Photo Credit
Hero photo by Arthur Lambillotte on Unsplash
