As the popularity of Sketch accelerates, the demand for plugins remains strong. This time, the author selected several popular plug-ins, introduced their core functions, and gave practical use suggestions.
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It was around 2016 that Sketch suddenly became a “popular style” in China. In the past four years, we have witnessed the popularity of this design tool from a Nordic manufacturer, and it has become the de facto standard in the domestic USER experience design industry. During this period, tool manufacturers at home and abroad have racked their brains to release rich and diverse plug-in products around it. This time, we’ve picked out some of the “hot items” and re-examined them to see if they fit into the current design landscape.
One, the past
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SketchI18N
As a Chinese plug-in, Sketch has indeed brought convenience to a large number of domestic designers who are new to it before 2018, but the serious BUG that the plug-in is prone to flash back is intolerable. With official Chinese language support for Sketch, SketchI18N can finally come to an end laden with designer memories.
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Flavor
Flavor comes from the Pxcook (Pixel Chef) team, which was very popular in China a few years ago. In addition to exporting drawings to Pxcook, Flavor also provides functions such as data filling, fast grid copying and reference lines. Unfortunately, the last update to the Pxcook platform was due in 2019, and maintenance of the plugin has stalled. Grid copying and guides are already supported in the new version of Sketch, if only for data populating rather than using some of the alternatives described below. Overall, it is not recommended to continue using this plug-in.
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Sketch Measure
Sketch Measure is a high quality design delivery plug-in that people are proud of. It can output highly interactive HTML resource packs to greatly improve the accuracy and convenience of design delivery. Those of you who have used manual Cutterman, Ps-Assistant and annotations on the Ps platform know how important “local exports” are in the days before cloud delivery.
Putting the Sketch Measure under the “yesterday’s Day” category will attract a lot of criticism. Of course, I do not deny that Sketch Measure is elegant, practical and free. It is still the best choice for exporting Sketch design package in China. However, the local delivery approach is bound to fail to solve the problem of iteration and modification difficulties. Secondly, as the product of individual developers, the cycle of maintenance and iteration is very unstable, which is obviously inferior to the products of such big factories as Zeplin and Copyer. If you are still using Sketch Measure, please try the cloud delivery method and you will be surprised to discover a “new world”.
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Craft
Craft is a foreign classic design plug-in. After being acquired by Invision, it has gradually become a connection tool, but it still retains classic functions. To use it, you must currently install a Craft Manage (similar to Adobe CC) that is resident on the status bar. Today, with highly homogeneity of functions, almost all functions of Invision have been covered by domestic manufacturers. For a plug-in that has poor Chinese support and must be used with a “ladder”, the cost performance is too low. However, designers who focus on overseas markets and are accustomed to Invision’s product ecology can still try.
Second, the backbone
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Kitchen
Who is the master of Sketch plug-in in China? I think most people would say Kitchen. Basically, Kitchen solves the usual design problems for you. In addition to the well-known Ant Financial team halo support, quality and function are quite guaranteed.
Like most plug-ins, Kitchen makes it easy to plug into your own collaborative platform. The core functions are avant-garde and practical: team Symbol library and palette synchronization, iconFONT icon library direct connection, graphic and data visualization generation, intelligent content filling and so on.
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Copy & copy design specification
Moke is the exclusive domestic design platform with complete creation + collaboration + delivery + specification. Despite the rising prices of various Internet tools in the wake of the epidemic this year, Mike is still conscientious enough to offer free use to its 100-member team.
There are two plugins for Sketch: Design Collaboration and Design Specification. The former makes it easy to sync sketches to the cloud so you can review, present, share, deliver, and more. The developer can open the link to easily get automatic annotation, cut image and even code paragraph; Designers don’t have to send or send a design resource pack, and they don’t have to worry about redelivering it after they change it (the cloud is always up to date).
The latter is mainly used for professional team design specification management, which can efficiently extract the specification elements of the design (including colors, fonts, layer styles, components, etc.) and then share and reuse them with the team. In addition, it also supports the export of PDF Style Guide and the display of variable names defined in the design specification in the code module, which greatly improves the efficiency of team creation and code implementation.
The emergence of collaborative design platforms like Mocker has quickly replaced the inefficient delivery method of individual combat like Sketch Measure, and even impacted the status of design output tools like Sketch and Ps. I believe that platform products will gradually become the next generation of design industry standard, have not used friends can be hurry!
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Rename it
Easy to use batch layer or artboard naming tool, support according to the layer name, width and height number, specific words and many other ways to combine the number to name. Many features of Sketch have been significantly improved and enhanced over time, but naming has always been clunky, and this tool fills in the blanks.
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Calendar Creator/Map Generator
If you need special elements such as “Calendar” and “Map”, you are advised to install these plug-ins. They can produce beautiful, accurate calendar or map effects. For mobile APP designers, it is highly recommended to install it for a rainy day.
Three, worth trying
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Fusion Cool / Dapollo
Both are ali-launched rapid design tools featuring ultra-high quality design templates. Dapollp built alipay, Taobao, Qianniu and other sets of Ali mini program design resources; Fusion, on the other hand, is more of a generic mid-stage design element, and also integrates many of the latest charts and visual templates, and even contains a lot of operational and e-commerce materials. Generally speaking, the application scope of this kind of products is a little narrow at present, but after the continuous supplement of high-quality design resources in the future, the value will become more and more, which is very worthy of attention of designers.
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Overflow
Overflow is a user-flow drawing tool that has exploded in foreign countries in recent years. The demand for user-flow drawing in China is not strong at the moment, but with the improvement of the professional level of the whole industry, the relevant demand is bound to usher in a wave of outbreak. While Sketch has a plugin that does a similar thing: User Flows, Overflow is clearly a step up in effectiveness and refinement. For those who want to “output higher quality interactive documents”, it is recommended to study this product carefully.
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Sketch Isometric
2.5D is an enduring style that designers often pick up and play with. How do you quickly draw this axis side shape in Sketch? This classic plugin allows designers to quickly generate elements from a 2.5D perspective, making it easier to draw less complex 2.5D illustrations without turning on THE Ai.
Four, summary
In 2018, The alignment and collation features of Sketch have been greatly improved, taking advantage of many of the benefits of previous plugins. As a result, a large number of plugins featuring related features have not been covered in this article. Sketch is really listening to users and making some of the most popular plugins “official” to make it easier for designers.
Platform products are often supported by manufacturers with stronger design and technical capabilities, such as Kitchen, Copywriter, Overflow, etc., which are more likely to bring innovative and sustainable value to users. For designers, it is suggested to pay more attention to the product trends of well-known domestic and foreign factories, so that they can always keep up with the trend in creative techniques, and constantly achieve efficiency breakthroughs, so that they can walk farther and gain more on the road of design.
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