Ultimate Photoshop Design Resources

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There's no doubt that I like to design. Next to coding, I also love to edit photos, designing websites etc. My personal favorite tool to achieve this, has to be Adobe Photoshop. Next to a good tool, you'll need some good resources. Fonts, Plug-ins such as Brushes and Textures, Stock photos can help you tremendously when designing. Here's a list of my personal favorite photoshop design resources.

Fonts, Stock Photos, Patterns, some Textures and Inspiring sites do not require Photoshop. Also, always check the compatibility of the plug-in with your software; Don't download Photoshop CS3 brushes when you're using Photoshop 7. The other way around (Photoshop 7 plug-in using in Photoshop CS3) can be possible.

If you think that there's a top-source missing from the list, share it with us by posting them in the comments. The sites listed here offer their services for free and are placed in random order.

Jump directly to:

Fonts	Brushes	Textures	Patterns
Plug-ins	Stock Photos	Tutorials	Inspiring sites

Fonts

The standard fonts on a PC are really boring and just created to read. You want fonts that just look nice on your artwork. Download fonts from the following sites to give your text a nice look.
To install, place the downloaded TTF-file (or other Font-file extensions) in the Fonts folder on your PC. This can be found in C:\WINDOWS\Fonts.

Dafont Personal Favorite
Great website, huge amount of fonts. Excellent details on each font. Ordering by name or category. Also check the top 100.
Exljbris
Free quality font foundry. Has only 7 fonts atm, but their beautiful.
1001 Free Fonts
Name of the website is self-explaining. Ordering by name or category.
Ace Free Fonts
Huge collection of fonts. Ordering on name or category.
Die Gestalten
A couple of experimental display fonts.
Fonts 500
The web's top 500 fonts.
Urban Fonts Personal Favorite
Great website, huge amount of fonts. Excellent details on each font. Ordering by name or category. Also check the top 100 and favorites.
DDfont
Listing fonts that have been collected from around the web.
Font Freak
Freeware, shareware and commercial font site.
Fonts For Flash
Website that has some freebies fonts. Created for Flash, but can be used in Photoshop.
Simply The Best
Nice website with huge amount of fonts. Ordering by name or category.
Abstract Fonts Personal Favorite
Great website, huge amount of fonts. Excellent details on each font. Ordering by name or category.
Grunge Fonts
This archive specializes in Grunge fonts. Website does contain a lot of advertations.
007 Fonts
Hundreds of Freeware and Shareware fonts. Order alphabetical.
Font Files
Nice colletion of fonts. Order alphabetical.
Font Garden
Archive of fonts and dingbats. Especially look at the handwriting fonts. Order alphabetical.
Font Village
Nice collection of fonts. Website does contain a lot of advertations.
Fontreactor
Perfect site to download fonts. Nice preview font system. All fonts are sorted by alphabetical order and by themes.
Fonts101
Another website with a huge amount of fonts. Browse by category.
Acid Fonts
Good website with big collection of fonts. Browsing by name or category.
All-free-fonts
Small collection of fonts. Alphabetical ordering.
Dingbat Depot
Not an archive for fonts, but for dingbats. Ordering by name or category.
Lotsa Fonts
Nice amount of fonts. Website does contain a lot of advertations.
Sharkshock
Big collection of famous company fonts.
FontFace
FontFace is always adding fonts to this archive. Unlike many other sites, FontFace does not exist to be a massive archive of every font available.
Fontasy
German website with fonts. Order alphabetical at bottom of the page.
TypeNow
Big collection of famous fonts from bands, tv programs, games etc.
PsyOps
A couple of fonts
ShowFont
Big collection of fonts. Heavy pageload because of the thumbnails on the left.
Fontz
Nice website. Ordering by name or category.

Photoshop Brushes

One of my favorite tools in Photoshop has to be the brush tool. Download brushes from the following sites to make your artwork look better.
To install, place the downloaded ABR-file in the correct Presets folder of Photoshop. With default install-settings, this folder can be found in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop\Presets\Brushes.

VBrush
Old site with Photoshop 7 brushes. Still worth mentioning.
Appendixsquared
Website with a couple of brushes. Brushes will work on Photoshop CS2 or higher.
Brusheezy Personal Favorite
Great website with a huge amount of brushes. Easy browsing and nice previews.
In Obscuro
Another site with Photoshop 7 brushes. Still has some nice brushes in the collection.
DaviantART Personal Favorite
Great website with a huge amount of brushes, created and submitted by other designers. All kinds of styles.

Photoshop Textures

If you want a little bit more depth or relief in your images, than textures can help you out. Take note that Textures can also be images which you must add to your photoshop file, instead of it being a plug-in.

TextureWarehouse
Free, High Resolution Textures to Designers and 3D Artist. Textures are updated frequently.
Amazing Textures
Texture library, with hundreds of free textures to download, high-resolution textures, images, backgrounds, wallpapers and texture maps.
TextureKing Personal Favorite
Great website containing loads of high resolution textures. Browsing in categories.
In Texture
Here you will find a free texture to suit every need, with a wide range of surface, mapping, bump mapping and skinning illustrations to name but a few.
Mayang
Texture library has over 3400 free to download, free to use, high-resolution textures.
Texture Archive
Nice website with good patterns. Nice previews available.
Image*After
Next to a great stock-photo archive, this website also has a nice amount of texture images.
AppendixSquared
Small website where you can download a couple of texture packs.
Grunge Textures
Growing collection of quality images ready for you to download. All of our images are high resolution JPG's.
DaviantART
Great website with a huge amount of textures, created and submitted by other designers. All kinds of styles.

Patterns

Patterns can be used to give a nice pattern on an image. Make sure you use them wisely; They can make your artwork beautiful.

Brusheezy
Next to their archive of brushes, this website also lists nice patterns.
DaviantART
Great website with a huge amount of patterns, created and submitted by other designers. All kinds of styles.

Not much more over here since I don't use patterns much, but you can create patterns yourself.

Photoshop Plug-ins

Plug-ins can change the way that Photoshop works for you. Filters, automated actions etc. can make life a little bit easier. Make sure you install the plug-in in the right directory.

About Personal Favorite
This website contains a lot of plug-ins. You just have to check it out youselve.
Free Photoshop
Pretty old website (2003), listing plug-ins for Photoshop.
Adobe Photoshop Exchange Personal Favorite
Official exchange website from Adobe for Photoshop. Registration required.
Angelfire Filterz
Another old website containing a couple of Photoshop filters. No previews.
Photo-plugins
Nice website listing many photoshop plugins. Previews available.
RedField Plugins
This site contains a couple of plugins. Some are really nice to use. Previews available.
The Plugin Site
Small collection of very effective plugins can be found here.
Telegraphics
Another small collection of plugins. Type of plugin can be different.

Free Stock Photos

Stock Photo sites contain a lot of high resolution pictures by people around the world. You can use them in your artwork, but some pictures are copyrighted or CC'd.

MorgueFile
A place to keep post production materials for use of reference, an inactive job file. This morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use.
Image*After
Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image from our site and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial.
Stock.xchng Personal Favorite
Whether you just want to browse our huge image gallery or want to share your personal photos with others, this is the site for you. Registration needed.
PhotoGen
The Photogen free stock photo gallery is constantly being updated with new photos and images.
Flickr Creative Commons Personal Favorite
One of the great Web 2.0 website with a huge amount of high resolution photos taken by users all over the globe.
Stockvault
Nice looking website containing lots of stock photos. Browsing by category, newest and popular.
FreePhotosBank
Medium size website with a couple of very nice stock photos.
DesignPacks
Small website where you can download category type photos in one archive.
DigitalBook.it
Not free, but is a photographers Sell Portal, Stock Images, High Quality Prints.
Free Pixels
Another nice website with stock photos. Browsing like forum-style category types.
Every Stock Photo
Website collecting all kinds of stock photos around the net.

There are a lot of stock-photo websites out there, but I found these worth mentioning.

Photoshop Tutorial sites

The best way to learn Photoshop is following tutorials to learn from others. Improve your skills by doing new tutorials each time.

PSLover
Big archive containing listing many tutorials from other websites.
Good-Tutorials Personal Favorite
Great website containing many links to photoshop tutorials.
Tutorial Outpost
Another big archive listing many photoshop tutorials.
Photoshop 101
Small website with links to photoshop tutorials. Updated weekly.
Lombergar Personal Favorite
This site has a couple of self-made video tutorials for Photoshop. Watch and learn.
Effectica
Nice forum with a good photoshop tutorial community.
Photoshop Lab
Website with good Photoshop tutorials. Has great explanations.
Photoshop Cafe
Small website with tutorials. Categories: FX, Text, Photo, Texture, Web and Misc.
Marcofolio Personal Favorite
Also on this site are a couple of nice tutorials listed.
Team Photoshop
Nice teamwebsite with a couple of Photoshop tutorials.
Total Tutorials
Huge website collecting all different kinds of tutorials on the web.
Fresh Tutorials
Another website containing lists of tutorials submitted by other websites.
EZPhotoshop
Great website with new tutorials, so keep a close watch on this one. Pretty darn slow website though.

Inspiring sites

To get a little design-spark, let yourself be inspired by the following sites.

Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine delivers useful and innovative information for web-designers and web-developers. Especially take a look at this post.
Worth1000
Don't let the design of the website fool you. It has photoshop contests with real nice entries.
Web Designer Wall Personal Favorite
Web Designer Wall is created by the same person who made N.Design Studio. This site serves as a public blog where design ideas are posted, tutorials, and talk about modern web design trends. Also take your time to read Photoshop Secret Shortcuts.
Go Media Personal Favorite
Absolute must see website. Don't forget to check out the Go Mediazine, the blog from Go Media.
deviantART
The largest art community of the world. Get inspired by looking at what other people made. Huge collection and different kinds of art.
Deziner Folio
Great blog about all kinds of designing stuff.
The Best Designs
The Best Designs recognizes the best Flash and CSS web sites from around the world.
Tutorial Blog
Another blog containing design articles from around the world.
Brand Nu
Take a quick look at the work of artist Radim Malinic to get some nice new ideas.
Veerle's Blog
Great blog with nice articles about design from a co-designer living in Belgium. Absolute worth looking.
CGTalk
Forum with different kinds of artists, both 2d and 3d. Some of those artists are real professionals.
Marcofolio Personal Favorite
Yes, this site can give you some creativity sparks too. With posts like this I'm sure you'll get a whole lot of nice new ideas on what to design.