Installation Guide
Choose your preferred installation method below. Each section walks you through the process step by step.
Close Adobe applications. Quit Photoshop and/or Illustrator if they are currently running. Installing while the host app is open may cause the installation to fail.
Download & install a ZXP installer. Any of the following will work: Anastasiy's Extension Manager (recommended — supports drag-and-drop, managing, and uninstalling extensions), aescripts ZXP/UXP Installer (free, lightweight), or ZXPInstaller (supports drag-and-drop, but does not support managing or uninstalling extensions).
Load the .zxp file into the installer. First, make sure the correct host application (Photoshop or Illustrator) is selected in the installer. Then drag the .zxp file into the installer window, or use the File menu to browse and select it (depending on which installer you chose). Each plugin has separate .zxp files for Photoshop and Illustrator — be sure to install the one matching your selected host.
Launch Photoshop or Illustrator. Open the host application. The plugin should now appear under Window > Extensions. If it does not appear, try restarting your computer.
macOS with Apple Silicon (M-series chip) — Photoshop only: In the Applications folder, right-click Adobe Photoshop and select Get Info. Check Open using Rosetta, then relaunch the app. This step is not needed for Illustrator or for Intel-based Macs.
Enable developer mode for CEP extensions (one-time setup). Manual installation places unsigned files, so Adobe requires developer mode to load them.
Windows (quick): Download EnableCEPDevMode.zip, extract it, double-click the EnableCEPDevMode.reg file inside (DisableCEPDevMode.reg is for closing the developer mode.), and click "Yes" when prompted.
Windows (manual): Press Win+R, type regedit and press Enter. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\CSXS.11 (create the key if it doesn't exist), create a new String Value named PlayerDebugMode and set its value to 1. Repeat for CSXS.9, CSXS.10, and CSXS.12 to cover all versions.
macOS (quick): Download EnableCEPDevMode_macOS.zip, extract it, open Terminal, drag the EnableCEPDevMode.sh file into the Terminal window and press Enter. (DisableCEPDevMode.sh is included for closing the developer mode.)
macOS (manual): Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and run the following commands:
defaults write com.adobe.CSXS.9 PlayerDebugMode 1
defaults write com.adobe.CSXS.10 PlayerDebugMode 1
defaults write com.adobe.CSXS.11 PlayerDebugMode 1
defaults write com.adobe.CSXS.12 PlayerDebugMode 1
Rename and extract. Change the .zxp file extension to .zip, then extract it with any archive tool. Make sure the extracted folder contains the CSXS folder (with manifest.xml inside) at its top level, not nested in an extra subfolder.
Copy the folder to the extensions directory.
Windows:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions\ (system-level, may require administrator permission)
C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CEP\extensions\ (user-level, no admin needed; create the folders if they don't exist)
macOS:
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/ (system-level, may require administrator permission)
~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/ (user-level; create the folders if they don't exist. To access the user Library folder, hold Option and click Go > Library in Finder)
Launch Photoshop or Illustrator. The plugin should now appear under Window > Extensions.
macOS with Apple Silicon (M-series chip) — Photoshop only: In the Applications folder, right-click Adobe Photoshop and select Get Info. Check Open using Rosetta, then relaunch the app. This step is not needed for Illustrator or for Intel-based Macs.