What a filter gallery plugin is
A filter gallery is a browser for effects: you see the options side by side, pick one, tune it and apply it. Photoshop's own lives under Filter > Filter Gallery and groups its effects into Artistic, Brush Strokes, Distort, Sketch, Stylize and Texture (Adobe's overview).
A filter gallery plugin works the same way but brings its own filters. Filter Archive opens as a panel from the Plugins menu, shows its filters as a wall of thumbnails, and previews the one you pick on your actual image while you drag its settings.
What's in the gallery
Filter Archive has 35 effects: 26 photo filters and 9 background generators, with 166 presets between them. They fall into a few families:
| Family | Filters |
|---|---|
| Halftone, Dither, Stipple, Threshold, Photocopy, Emboss | |
| Screen and video | CRT, VHS, TV Glitch, ASCII Art |
| Glitch and distortion | Datamosh, Chromatic Aberration, Melt, Glass Refraction |
| Drawing | Ink Drawing, Line Art, Contour Line, Wireframe |
| Light and colour | Thermal Camera, Star Filter, Acid Blur |
| Backgrounds | Op Art, Speed Lines, Guilloche, CRT Screen Texture |
Built-in Filter Gallery or a plugin?
You don't have to choose. The built-in gallery stays under the Filter menu and the plugin sits in the Plugins menu. They cover different ground:
| Photoshop Filter Gallery | Filter Archive | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Filter > Filter Gallery | Plugins > Filter Archive |
| Looks | Painterly and sketch classics: watercolour, coloured pencil, glowing edges | Print, screen, glitch, drawing and background generators |
| Preview | Inside the gallery dialog | Live, in the panel, while you drag settings |
| Combining | Stack effect layers inside the dialog | Stack filters like layers, reorder them, save the stack |
| Keeping the original | Apply to a Smart Object to keep it editable | Every result goes on a new layer above the original |
| Other apps | Photoshop only | Photoshop, Affinity and Figma on one licence |
If the built-in gallery is what you're trying to get away from, the Filter Gallery alternatives guide maps its effects to modern replacements one by one.
Install it
- Buy Filter Archive. An email arrives with a download button for Photoshop.
- Double-click the downloaded file. Creative Cloud installs it under the Plugins menu.
- In Photoshop, open Plugins > Filter Archive.
- Sign in with the email you bought with and enter the 6-digit code we send you.
It needs Photoshop 2024 or newer on Mac or Windows. A licence covers three computers.
Use it
- Select the layer you want to work on.
- Pick a filter from the wall and start from one of its presets.
- Drag the settings while the preview updates on your image.
- Add a second filter on top if you want, and save the stack to use again.
- Press Apply. The result lands on a new layer and your original stays untouched.
