{"id":5467,"date":"2026-04-08T16:44:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/?p=5467"},"modified":"2026-04-08T19:11:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T02:11:30","slug":"starts-today-through-4-11-free-license-for-filter-forge-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/starts-today-through-4-11-free-license-for-filter-forge-9\/","title":{"rendered":"STARTS TODAY THROUGH 4\/11: Free license for Filter Forge 9!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Filter Forge<\/a><\/strong>, a standalone app and Photoshop plugin, currently offers over 14,000 editable image filters in many categories as well as over 7300 seamless hi-res textures with thousands of randomized variations! This week the developer is giving away free licenses for version 9<\/a><\/strong> with upgrade options to the current version 15.<\/p>\n\n\n

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I’ve been using Filter Forge<\/a><\/strong> as an imaging crucible since at least 2009. Nowhere else do you find so many mild-to-wild options for creatively enhancing your images and making realistic textures to use for many purposes, including games. Here is a list of what is included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texture Filters:<\/strong>
Building (885) \u2013 Textures found in architecture and building, such as bricks, pavements, tiles etc.
Frames (119) \u2013 Picture frame textures.
Misc (2186) \u2013 Abstract textures or textures that do not fit into any other category.
Organic (732) \u2013 Organic textures such as meat, skin, flesh, leaves, etc.
Patterns (2042) \u2013 Textures with regularly repeated shapes, colors, motifs, etc.
Snippets (345) \u2013 Filters that illustrate ideas or techniques of interest to the filter development community.
Stone (536) \u2013 Stone and rock textures, natural and processed.
Techno (526) \u2013 Any textures related to industry and technology, such as circuits, rusty metal, diamond plates etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Effect Filters:<\/strong>
Creative (1285) \u2013 Effects that modify images in various creative ways.
Distortions (915) \u2013 Effects that distort, deform or reshape the original image.
Frames (295) \u2013 Effects that create a frame around the original image.
Misc (2400) \u2013 Effects that do not fit into any other category.
Patterns (730) \u2013 Effects that produce patterns based on the original image.
Photo (921) \u2013 Photo enhancement operations and effects.
Snippets (239) \u2013 Filters that illustrate ideas or techniques of interest to the filter development community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s review a number examples from each set, with Textures first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a screenshot of the Filter Forge<\/a><\/strong> 15 GUI showing me working in Textures>Stone mode. The particular texture chosen is “Ore Mineral” and its first of nine presets, submitted by user Sylex:<\/p>\n\n\n

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A peek under the hood into the Filter Editor<\/strong> shows the type of control you have over even preset textures:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Or, on a simpler level, you can choose from among multiple presets for each texture, then adjust the available Settings<\/strong> parameters:<\/p>\n\n\n

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This is a small section cropped out of a full render from the “Ore Mineral” preset (view in a new tab or window at 100%):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some more examples of Stone and (usually gross!) Organic Textures in context, beginning with “Malachite”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Nugget Rock”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Brains” (I told you!):<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Dragon Skin”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if the seamless texture-creating capability wasn’t enough on its own, Filter Forge<\/strong> also works as an image filter. I have to admit, I use what I call the “piggy” mode to download and install EVERY filter offered in the online Filter Forge library so I can have as many creative options as possible on hand (14,155 items to be exact!). (Filter Forge also offers a proper service to accomplish this with less effort, called “Filter Library Backup”.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can use Filter Forge as a standalone photo editor or as a plug-in for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Corel PHOTO-PAINT, Paint.NET and Affinity (depending on your computer platform).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is my source image, a color slide shot in Europe in 1985 (reduced). What fun things can we do with it?<\/p>\n\n\n

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I’ve tried to pick a wide range of effects and am showing them in context within Filter Forge<\/strong>. Pretty much anything you need for your project or can imagine is possible very quickly with even a single-click. We’ll begin with “Old Photograph”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Neon Nights”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Shark Tank”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Blueprint 3 Colors Plus”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Watercolor Frame”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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For our last example we’ll use an AI-generated image (sourced from only a close-up of my 1970s face!) and see what we can do. The original Nano Banana render, reduced:<\/p>\n\n\n

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I tried to pick some out-of-the-ordinary image effects you would not normally achieve with an image editor, starting with “Extremely Low-Fi”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Frozen Solid”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Foxxee’s Caveman’s Art”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Fake Bokeh”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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“Cartoon Stone”:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Now you’re beginning to see what is possible with Filter Forge<\/a><\/strong>! Be sure to grab your free version and get started exploring this wild world of endless effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Filter Forge, a standalone app and Photoshop plugin, currently offers over 14,000 editable image filters in many categories as well as over 7300 seamless hi-res textures with thousands of randomized variations! This week the developer is giving away free licenses for version 9 with upgrade options to the current version 15. I’ve been using Filter Read more about STARTS TODAY THROUGH 4\/11: Free license for Filter Forge 9!<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,25,31,7,1],"tags":[1388,1416,324,1418,197,1415,435,870,867,1417,871,8,868,154],"class_list":["post-5467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discounts","category-general","category-photography","category-post-processing","category-software","category-uncategorized","tag-affinity","tag-corel-photo-paint","tag-creative","tag-distortions","tag-effects","tag-elements","tag-filter-forge","tag-frames","tag-organic","tag-paint-net","tag-patterns","tag-photoshop","tag-stone","tag-textures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5467"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5531,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5467\/revisions\/5531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}