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Inspiring
December 17, 2023
Question

Where can I download the Photoshop plugin SDK?

  • December 17, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 3024 views

I've been looking for the Photoshop plugin SDK for Windows (for making things like 8BF filter files, and 8BI image loading plugins, etc), but Adobe seems to have hidden those SDKs outside of Google's ability to find them with its web crawlers. I can't find any link via Google that even gets me to an Adobe downloads page that would let me download the SDK. The closest thing I get is the webpage for the Photoshop CS plugins SDK, which requires I do stuff in Javascript (not C++ like standard Photoshop plugins), and it seems to not be so much a Photoshop plugin as it is an Adobe ecosystem plugin (even requiring me to have an API key to make a plugin). It seems to be more of a "connected" thing (interfaces with the internet, more than interfacing with Photoshop). Even the file extension isn't the same anymore. Now it seems to be UXP too. I know for a fact this has nothing to do with classic Photoshop. This is some new thing for Photoshop CS, which I don't have. I have quite an older version of standard Photoshop, so all this UXP stuff is useless to me. Where can I download one of the old legacy Photoshop SDKs? I ask this here, because it seems Google can't find it.

2 replies

Jeff Arola
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 17, 2023

As far as i can tell, Adobe has removed links to all the older sdks from their website.

 

Use the wayback machine and search for

www.adobe.com/devnet/photoshop

 

Some of the olders sdk for ps7 and earlier might be tough to find because one had to sign in and go through a form in order to download and in some years had to pay for the full sdk.

Benhut1Author
Inspiring
December 17, 2023

I can't edit my above post. But I need to make a corretion. Every instance of me saying Photoshop CS was INTENDED to say Photoshop CC. My problem was that all the plugin SDK stuff on the Adobe site here now seems to be releated exclusively to Photoshop CC. What I need is to find the older SDKs for Photoshop classic (versions up through PS7 )and Photoshop CS (versions up through PS:CS6), and NOT what the SDK Adobe seems to be offering currently (which is only for PS:CC).

Inspiring
December 17, 2023

You can grab PS SDK from > https://developer.adobe.com/console/servicesandapis
The links seems to be "meh"... so :
1. Click on link
2. You will see a menu bar with All Apis Events etc etc, 
3. Click on Downloads
4. Click on Photoshop at bottom middle (as of 2023/12/17)
5. View Downloads
6. Download your C++ SDK 

If you want to support old PS... then not quite sure, it "should" work but I never tried... 

I'm not sure if old sdk is still available tbh...