Work Smarter - Top 13 Sketch Plugins Netguru Designers Can’t Live Without

Have you ever wished for a time or life-saving function of your choice existing in Sketch?

Well, the good news is you are not the only one, and your desired feature probably already exists as a plugin.

Over the past couple of years, Sketch App became one of the most popular apps among digital designers mostly thanks to its useful features, a simple and intuitive interface, and its strong emphasis on UI design. That’s why it has endeared a huge community of developers that constantly deliver tons of new plugins.

Plugins have the power to transform the way designers work. They extend Sketch’s functionality and automate a lot of processes. And smart usage of plugins results in a huge productivity boost, workflow improvements, and a faster design process. Imagine automatically responsive layouts or inserting a custom map with just one click.

Since the number of available plugins is growing at a tremendous pace, how to find the most useful ones, which ones to install, and how to get started with them? If you want to rediscover Sketch App’s possibilities, continue reading this article and enjoy a list of plugins selected by more than 40 of Netguru’s designers working for clients all over the world.

How to start

First of all, make sure you have already installed the golden trio of plugins that every professional designer should use on a daily basis:

Runner

Runner is definitely the king of plugins. It speeds up your work as it’s basically a Sketch spotlight. We start with this one, as it lets you download and upload other plugins with a single click. What is more, it allows you to run, find, jump and insert from a single window. In a nutshell it’s an extremely useful tool, which helps you get around Sketch easier and quicker.

Shortcut: cmd + ‘
http://sketchrunner.com/

Zeplin

Zeplin is a standalone app with its own plugin for Sketch. It’s probably the best tool for collaboration between designers and developers ever created. It lets you automatically export your designs and style guides with accurate specs, assets, and code snippets. It ensures that, however complex your work might be, it will be implemented pixel perfect and developers will be grateful for such a smooth handoff forever after.
Shortcut: cmd + control + E
https://zeplin.io/

Craft by InVision

Sync your designs with an InVision prototype with just one click - and that’s just for starters. What is more, it lets you create with real data. Say goodbye to Lorem Ipsum and quickly generate specific content - add random names, headlines, articles, addresses, and lot more. Craft also lets you directly upload pictures from Unsplash, use different stocks, or simply your private folder or Dropbox. Download it - it’s pure gold!

https://www.invisionapp.com/craft

Must-have for pros

If you’re done with the basics, let us take you further. Get ready to make your Sketch a lot more powerful, your workflow more efficient and smooth, and your life as a designer a lot easier. Here’s an ultimate list of top 10 Sketch plugins for pros, one of whom I’m sure you will become soon.

Paddy

Paddy gives you automatically adjusting, consistent paddings and spacing between and within elements. If you’ve ever dreamt about creating dynamic buttons and other UI elements that change size automatically, download this amazing plugin.

https://github.com/DWilliames/paddy-sketch-plugin

Animaapp (Launchpad for Sketch)

Anima plugin (previously Autolayout) steps up Paddy’s game. It’s a UI designer’s dream come true - it makes the paddings and elements responsive. It lets you automatically generate designs for different screen sizes. It allows you to animate your designs and preview them on the web, live and responsive.

https://animaapp.github.io/Auto-Layout/index.html

Sketch 2AE

This plugin lets you get live After Effects layers straight from Sketch artboards with a simple copy and paste. It also imports type metrics, transforms data, images, symbol hierarchy, groups, and much more. All that’s left is to create this beautiful motion you have in mind.

https://google.github.io/sketch2ae/

Measure

If you need to quickly handoff specs for your designs and you don’t want to have developers, teammates or a client download specific tools for it, Measure will save you a lot of time and nerves. With this plugin you can measure everything, add captions with CSS attributes or mark specific dimensions. When you’re ready, you can generate a HTML file that contains the whole design, so everybody can easily have access to it.

Shortcut: Control + Shift + B

http://utom.design/measure/

Rename It

Keep your Sketch files organized. With Rename It you can quickly rename multiple layers and artboards at once. What is more, you can sequentially rename them in either ascending, descending or alphabetical order. This plugin also lets you automatically add a layer’s dimensions to its name. If that’s not enough - there are keywords to help keep things in order.

Shortcut: Control + Command + R

http://rodi01.github.io/RenameIt/

Symbol Manager

It’s a paid plugin ($9.99), but it’s worth every penny. It helps you organize and tidy up your symbols and keep them this way, no matter how messy they are right now.

https://gumroad.com/l/sketch-symbols-manager

Sketch Palettes

Maybe one day this will be an integrated Sketch feature, but for now we’re blessed with this plugin. As simple as its name - it allows us to create, save and import sketch palettes. So little and so much at the same time. Color lovers - you’re welcome! https://github.com/andrewfiorillo/sketch-palettes

Clipboard Fill

Never download images again! Copy any image (including web images) to your clipboard and paste it as a fill into any element in Sketch.

Shortcut: control + alt + v

https://github.com/ScottSavarie/Clipboard-Fill]

Map Generator

Never screenshot maps again! With this plugin type in location, choose a zoom level and the chosen shape will become a map. You can pick default styles from Google maps or Mapbox, or paste in custom code and the Map Generator will do the rest for you.

https://github.com/eddiesigner/sketch-map-generator

Midnight

We know that a native dark theme is coming to macOS, but until then we encourage you to download the Midnight plugin. It lets your eyes rest while working - which is especially useful during those late night design marathons that happen from time to time to all of us.

https://midnightsketch.com/

This list could go on and be twice or even three times longer as there are so many great Sketch plugins and a lot of new ones come out every single day. But we believe that this list will help you get started with the plugin world without getting overwhelmed. At Netguru we use all of them on a daily basis, which helps us grow our design team internally and also improve work for all of the clients - both local businesses and international companies. We hope you’ll make the most out of the plugins too. Try them and let us know in the comments how your designer life changed.