The Xero Freeware Plugins are a free set of plugins for Photoshop or other applications that are compatible with Photoshop plugins. I've been trying out Xero's Freeware Plugins set with GIMP, the popular free image editor, but there are quite a few other apps that you could use also. If you're using GIMP and don't know how to install plugins, then take a look at my earlier article on how to use Photoshop plugins in GIMP using the PSPI plugin.
If you haven't tried them before, you'll find that plugins are a great way to extend software and add new features and tools that aren't available by default. Filters such as Xero Freeware Plugins can be of variable quality and generally the only way to find out what they're like is to install them and give them a try. It's not unusual to find, after installing a set, that some stand out while others look a bit as if they're just there to pad the set out. If you find that is the case, you can always remove those filters that you don't like from the filters folder, but with the ability to blend layers in GIMP and Photoshop, you may find that sometimes even those filters that you don't like can help you to produce striking results when used in conjunction with others.
These plugins are for Windows only and you should note that they won't function with 64-bit apps, so unfortunately you will have to use them in the 32-bit version if you're a Photoshop CS5 user.
What's on offer in Xero Freeware Plugins
Xero Freeware Plugins offers a total of 42 filter effects, so there should be something for everyone. Each one of the filters displays an options panel when selected from the Filters menu, which gives the flexibility to achieve many different effects from a single filter. That does offer a great degree of flexibility that is sometimes missing from other filters that just apply the same settings every time with no option to edit the settings. As the results of filters can sometimes vary quite dramatically depending on the size of the image, the option to change the settings in Xero Freeware Plugins can be very useful.
In many cases, the filter options also provides a Random button that you can click to see various settings applied to a preview of your image. You can at anytime click the Reset button to have the default settings reapplied and in many cases these are a good base point for your image.
What I Like About Xero Freeware Plugins
As I've mentioned, the filter options do allow you to adjust how each effect is applied and this does give a greater degree of flexibility than some free filters that are available.
The range of filters is a bit of a mixed bag and there are a few that I wouldn't rush to use, however overall I feel it's a reasonably strong and coherent set. The Improver and Tweaker filters are designed to help users quickly and easily make the most of their images with little or no understanding of how to adjust images and they do a reasonable job. They may produce slightly over-sharpened results for some tastes, but the effects can be edited.
There are a number of filters that I'd be happy to use on lazy days, including Bad Dream, Mistifier and Moonlight and even some of those that I don't particularly like could be useful when combining multiple layers.
One aspect of this set of filters that is worthy of note is the supporting online documentation at the Xero website. The list of filters has a clickable link for each one that explains their function and how to use them, which means that if you have the time, you will be able to get the most from this set of plugins.
What I Don't Like About Xero Freeware Plugins
There really isn't much to dislike about this set and we should all be grateful to developers, such as the one behind this set, for offering their products for free. The one issue I encountered while trying them out relates to the preview image in the options dialogs. I seemed unable to get a preview of the complete image and zooming out sometimes made it worse, cropping even more of the image. That said, it's not a big deal to apply a filter and undo the effect if necessary.
All in all, if you use a Photoshop plugin compatible application and are interested in adding to it with plugins, Xero Freeware Plugins is probably well worth a look. You can download your own free copy from the Xero website.