The beta test for our new Penpot Plugin System wrapped up a while ago, and we’re happy to say it exceeded our expectations. We got tons of valuable feedback, which helped us implement key improvements, and most importantly, it validated the whole proposal!
The best part? We had the chance to experiment with the first-ever community-made Penpot plugins. Here are a few highlights:
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All Icons by @Belar
Quickly access a huge library of icons from different sources. Sneak peek
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QR Code by @thierryc
This plugin lets you generate QR codes directly within Penpot. You can go and leave kudos at this community post.
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Day & Night by @Christoph
Set up color palettes for light and dark modes, and easily switch between them. Watch a video or check out the repo here. -
PDF Viewer by @girafic
A simple way to view PDFs in Penpot. Community post.
Key learnings and improvements
We also learned a lot about what needed fixing and how to make the developer experience not just good, but great. While feedback showed that the overall experience was solid, we found that getting started with creating a plugin was trickier than we anticipated. Here’s what we improved:
- Documentation: We realized that when it comes to docs, there’s no such thing as “too obvious.” Our first version assumed too much knowledge from newcomers, and it was way too brief. We’ve since made it more detailed and beginner-friendly. Check out the current version (provisional URL).
- Plugin Examples: We received requests for more diverse templates and examples, including some using plain JavaScript. We also noticed the existing examples were hard to find, so we created a dedicated section for them.
- Naming for API Calls: Naming things is always a hot topic, right? We made more than a few tweaks there, too.
Oh, and we addressed about 50 other smaller issues and improvements along the way!
Question from the satisfaction form: How did you find the overall experience of creating plugins at Penpot? (1 being “very dissatisfying” and 4 being “very satisfying”)
What’s Next?
We’re planning to launch the official plugin system at design.penpot.app soon – just a matter of weeks 
Along with that, we’re working on a simple space (aka website) where you can share Penpot plugins with the community.
This first version of the plugin system focuses mainly on the creator experience. But we’re already working on updates that’ll make things better for end users too, especially around searching for, installing, and using plugins. Stay tuned!
Wrapping Up
We’re confident the plugin system is much better now than when the beta started, and we owe that to nearly 100 awesome volunteers who took part. To close this out, we’ll leave you with some final words stolen from our amazing beta testers. Such a great community!
I’m impressed by how far the plugins can go. Great work!
I really enjoyed that the process is simple and straightforward. I also loved the versatility of being able to use different tools, so you can tailor the experience to your needs. It’s great that you can deploy and maintain your plugin independently and easily connect it with your Penpot files.
I like the wide variety of support of frameworks, and it’s quite easy to configure after a little fix.
Thank you for the amazing work. I love where Penpot is going and would love to support the team in any way I can.
Keep at it. The plugin system is really solid, I’m excited to see what creative tools people will build with them.
