I have spent my whole life, or for as long as I can remember, trying to find ways to improve and streamline my ways of working, both in my professional and personal life. To give you an idea, I have over 200 apps on my phone, from shared calendars to flower care apps and even recycling guidance apps, all organised into folders to get me through the day.

This might sound like an overshare but it leads me nicely into plugins. I have a handful of Sketch plugins that have streamlined my workflow so much that I now couldn’t imagine living without them (without being too dramatic). The benefits have been endless, and if you are looking for a more efficient way of working and, let’s be honest, an easy and fast way to get things done, then read on.

Below are my 12 most used plugins for Sketch in no particular order. Disclaimer: I tried but couldn’t narrow it down to 10 and, there may be more recently released plugins that are better, but since I’ve been using them there has been no need for upgrading, so this is my list.

• Runner
• Automate
• Find and Replace
• Merge Duplicate
• Rename it
• Spellcheck Whole Page
• Stark
• Symbol Instance Locator
• Symbol Instance Renamer
• Symbol Organizer
• Craft
• Unused Style Remover

Runner

Download here
Price: Free & Paid version from £28

Think of Runner as a spotlight search for Mac users and a PowerToys Run for Windows users, but 100 times better. It is a multi-purpose plugin that allows you to create and apply Shared Styles, install and run other plugins, insert Symbols and much more by running Sketch commands from your keyboard. To make this plugin even better, it allows you to customise it so it works best for you. Try all features for free for 14 days and continue to use Run and Install features forever with the free version!

Automate Sketch

Download here
Price: Free

Automate is an all-in-one plugin with over 200 features, often described as “the Swiss Army Knife of Sketch plugins”. It is perfect for artworking with commands that make it easy to clean up your files and a real time saver that allows you to view and manage layers, styles, artboards and much more. In fact, Automate has the functionality of some of the plugins in this list but I find it easier to have some plugins specifically for one use. Some of my favourites include the library management options and the option to find and select anything based on pretty much any parameter; this really is the bee’s knees of plugins.

Find and Replace

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Price: Free

If you’ve used a text editor before, you will know how useful it is to find and replace text. This plugin has many advanced options; it enables you to search for instances of particular words or phrases in the text in selected layers (and everything contained within), then swiftly replaces them.

Merge Duplicate

Download here
Price: Free & Paid version €25

The Merge Duplicate Symbols plugin targets symbols, layer styles, text styles, and colour variables, allowing you to merge them based on three sets of criteria: same name, similar UI, and selecting either from a list or with a click. All of this happens seamlessly by replacing all other symbols and their instances with the one you chose to keep, and the most impressive part is that it will do all of this within your whole sketch file and your linked libraries! 

Rename It

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Price: Free

Keeping files organised is essential, especially when collaborating with other designers. Rename It helps keep your Sketch files organised and allows you to rename multiple layers at once by selecting them and using a single shortcut. It includes options to rename by sequence, selected layer(s) and width and height. This plugin eliminates possible errors and inconsistencies when renaming layers manually.

Spellcheck All Layers

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Price: Free

It might seem obvious, but Sketch’s lack of spellcheck makes this plugin a must-have. You can run spell check on all text layers on the page, and the panel allows you to replace the misspelt word, add it to your dictionary or ignore it. 

Stark

Download here
Price: Free and paid subscriptions starting at $60 a year

Today, developing accessible products to improve the accessibility of information on the web for people with disabilities is crucial and Stark makes it that much easier. Whether you are a designer, developer or product owner, accessibility must be at the forefront of your process. With its vision stimulator, focus order and contrast checker, Stark makes creating accessible products that bit easier. Read more on accessibility and design in our blog here. 

Symbol Instance Locator

Download here
Price: Free

This plugin is a simple one but one of my most used. It locates all instances of a selected symbol and allows you to see overrides, select all on a page, and jump to its location, making it easy to find what you are looking for. For more functionality with symbols, Automate allows you to select all instances of a symbol, to rename and replace batch symbols. 

Symbol Instance Renamer

Download here
Price: Free

Not to be confused with the functionality of ‘Find and Replace’, this plugin updates all layer names to match their master name and can be very helpful when tidying up your files, especially after the renaming of symbols and styles. It is effortless to use and has many options with exceptions, making it great for keeping your files organised.

Symbol Organizer

Download here
Price: Free

Symbol organiser is a great plugin that lets you sort your symbols by organising them based on parameters you set, such as title style, layout direction, spacing and groupings. It aligns and arranges the Symbols appropriately and can also help remove all the unused Symbols from the document.

Craft

Download here
Price: Free

Craft by Invision is a plugin that allows you to easily sync your designs with InVision and all its tools, including prototypes, freehand and the DSM. Its features include creating cloud-connected libraries to share with your team, building high-fidelity prototypes, collaborating in real-time and handing over designs to developers to produce pixel-perfect designs.

Unused Style Remover

Download here
Price: Free

A simple plugin that does what it says on the tin! Whether you are a neat freak and want to keep your files clutter-free or you are at the artworking stage of your project, use this plugin to remove any unused layer and text styles. The plugin will display all the unused styles, and you can select which to remove and which to keep.

I initially tried to narrow this down to my ten most used plugins, but with over 30 to choose from, that proved to be difficult, so to close off, I would like to mention some that did not make the list but are definitely worth checking out too Align Artboards, Lazyboards and Shared Style Finder.

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