Liquid Glass for Adobe: Apple's Liquid Glass effect for After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator (free plugin)
Stop faking glass. Make it real, keep it live.
Liquid Glass for Adobe (by CGSudo) is a free, open-source plugin that recreates Apple's Liquid Glass material from iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe inside After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator. Your own shapes and text become real, refracting glass in one click. Nothing gets merged or flattened, and the glass re-renders whenever anything behind it changes.
One click. Real refraction. Zero flattened layers.
Try the live demo: the real glass engine running in your browser. Drag the glass around and switch looks.
Get everything from the latest release:
| You want | Download | Works on |
|---|---|---|
| Everything, one click (Photoshop + Illustrator + After Effects) | LiquidGlass-for-Adobe-<version>-Setup.exe |
Windows 10 / 11 |
| Everything for Windows and Mac in one zip | LiquidGlass-for-Adobe-<version>-AIO-Windows-Mac.zip |
Windows + macOS |
| Photoshop only | LiquidGlass-for-Adobe-Photoshop-<version>.ccx |
Windows + macOS |
| Illustrator only | LiquidGlass-for-Adobe-Illustrator-<version>-Windows.zip |
Windows |
| Source code, Photoshop plugin | LiquidGlass-for-Adobe-Photoshop-<version>-source.zip |
|
| Source code, Illustrator plug-in | LiquidGlass-for-Adobe-Illustrator-<version>-source.zip |
Honest status:
- Tested on Windows with Photoshop 2026 and Illustrator 2026.
- The Photoshop plugin has no platform-specific code but hasn't been tested on a Mac yet. If you try it, please open an issue.
- Illustrator is Windows only for now. A Mac build is planned.
- The effect images here are renders from the plugin's own engine on test shapes.
- Setup isn't code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC": click More info › Run anyway.
- Windows (three apps): close Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects, run
LiquidGlass-for-Adobe-<version>-Setup.exeand click Install. Windows asks once for permission (Illustrator's Plug-ins folder needs it). Setup installs the supported plugins. IT admins:Setup.exe --silent. - Mac or Photoshop only: double-click
LiquidGlass-for-Adobe-Photoshop-<version>.ccx. The Creative Cloud desktop app installs it. - Illustrator only, by hand: unzip and copy
LiquidGlass.aipintoC:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator <version>\Plug-ins\Liquid Glass\.
Then: Photoshop › Plugins › Liquid Glass for Adobe, or in Illustrator select a shape and choose Effect › Stylize › Liquid Glass….
Needs Photoshop 2023 (v24.2) or newer, or Illustrator 2026, and the Creative Cloud desktop app for Photoshop plugins.
- Apply Effects ? CGSudo ? Liquid Glass to a shape, text, image, footage or pre-comp above your artwork. The layer?s alpha becomes glass; its colour is ignored and the backdrop is automatic.
- Open Glass Studio in Effect Controls. Choose a look and keyframe tint, frost, lens, light, shadow, glow, stroke or grain. Shapes merge; letters stay separate unless Liquid letters is on.
- Try Liquid Glass Brightness to build glass from a layer?s brightness.
After Effects 2026 is tested on Windows. Premiere Pro is coming; Illustrator for Mac is planned.
- "I re-did that glass five times today." The glass reads what's behind it on every change. Move the photo, edit the text, nudge the shape: the glass catches up by itself.
- "Glassmorphism always looks flat." Real glass bends light. The rim refracts what's behind it, splits it into a subtle rainbow, and catches the light like an embossed edge, the way Apple's Liquid Glass does.
- "Merging layers wrecks my file." Your shapes and text stay fully editable. Undo, re-edit, and hand the file off without fear.
- "I just want the frosted look, fast." Pick a look (Frosted, Glassmorphism, Ice, Smoked, Crystal, Bubble…), then fine-tune it with four sliders that are always on screen.
- One click, non-destructive: works on your shape and text layers (Photoshop) or any shape, group or text as a live effect (Illustrator).
- Live updates: move, resize or reshape the glass, edit the text, or change anything behind it, and the glass re-renders.
- 9 looks: Liquid Glass, Clear, Frosted, Glassmorphism, Ice, Smoked, Crystal, Bubble and Film frost. Save your own looks and use them in every document.
- Quick controls: Frost, Lens, Edge width and Shine stay on screen, with fine control at low values.
- Exact outlines: rectangles, ellipses, Pen paths, combined shapes, and the letter outlines of text. In Illustrator, strokes and variable-width profiles become glass too.
- Liquid merge: several shapes melt together, growing liquid bridges with rounded inner corners.
- Real optics: lens refraction, light dispersion (rainbow edge), frost, vividness, tint, two rim lights with a direction dial, and a bevel/emboss.
- Advanced controls: emboss, rim line, glass type (index of refraction from air to diamond) and sheen.
- Inner glow with blend modes, stroke in a solid colour or gradient, drop shadow, dim background and film grain.
- Explained in plain words: every setting has a small icon and a hover explanation; double-click a setting's name to reset it.
- Fast: the renderer is written in Rust (WebAssembly in Photoshop, native in Illustrator).
Photoshop
- Draw shapes with a Shape tool or the Pen tool in Shape mode, or type some text.
- Select those layers and click Make Glass.
- Pick a look, fine-tune with the quick sliders, and explore the tabs:
| Tab | Controls |
|---|---|
| Glass | edge softness, dispersion, merge; Advanced: emboss, rim line, glass type, sheen |
| Light | light direction dial, brightness, vividness, tint |
| Shadow | drop shadow; dim background |
| Finish | inner glow, stroke, film grain, edge effects (Layer Styles) |
- Adding more: select the glass plus the new layers and click Make Glass, or drag them into the glass group.
- Moving: move your shapes or the whole group. Leave the
◆ glass render (automatic)folder alone; the plugin manages it. - Pixel layers can't become glass. Use a shape or text layer.
Illustrator
- Select a shape, group or text and choose Effect › Stylize › Liquid Glass….
- Pick a look and adjust it in the settings window; Preview shows changes on the artboard.
- To change it later, double-click Liquid Glass in the Appearance panel, or use Object › Edit Liquid Glass….
- Object › Refresh All Liquid Glass re-reads the background of every glass. The glass also refreshes by itself when the art behind it changes.
Liquid Glass refuses things that can't work and tells you why: pixel images, groups that contain an image, and a second Liquid Glass on the same object.
How do I make Apple's Liquid Glass effect in Photoshop? Install Liquid Glass for Adobe, select a shape or text layer and click Make Glass. Without a plugin you would blur a merged copy of the background, clip it to a shape and paint highlights by hand: a static fake that breaks the moment anything moves.
How do I make the iOS 26 glass effect in Illustrator? Select a shape, group or text and choose Effect › Stylize › Liquid Glass…. It is a live effect in the Appearance panel, so the shape stays editable.
Is it free? Yes. It is open source under the MIT licence.
Is this glassmorphism? Glassmorphism is frosted blur with a light border. Liquid Glass adds real refraction: the edge bends and magnifies what's behind it, with a rainbow fringe and rim light. The plugin does both (try the Glassmorphism and Frosted looks).
Does it work on Mac? The Photoshop plugin runs on macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) but hasn't been tested on a Mac yet. Illustrator is Windows only for now.
Does it flatten or change my layers? No. Your shapes and text stay editable, and reading the background never changes the document.
Is it made by Adobe or Apple? No. It is an independent project by CGSudo.
- Photoshop (Windows and macOS): available
- Illustrator (Windows): available
- Illustrator for Mac: planned
- After Effects 2026 (Windows): available; see aftereffects/README.md
- Premiere Pro: coming
- GPU rendering, linear-light blending, light/dark adaptive tint
core/ Rust renderer (glass_core): backdrop + shape masks → glass layer + shadow layer
photoshop/ UXP plugin: panel, live updates, vector and text outline reader, WebAssembly bridge;
looks.js (defaults, looks and icons) is shared with Illustrator and Setup
illustrator/ native Live Effect (C++, Illustrator SDK) with a WebView2 settings window
aftereffects/ native After Effects effects (C++, After Effects SDK); Premiere support in progress
setup/ the Windows Setup.exe: glass window, live tour of the looks, one-click Windows install
preview/ renders the preview images from test shapes
docs/ project website (GitHub Pages) and the full project history
- Each shape becomes a signed distance field. Several shapes join through a smooth union, which makes the liquid merge.
- A squircle bevel gives surface normals. Those drive Snell refraction with per-channel dispersion, then bevel shading, rim lights, inner glow and stroke.
- The refracted backdrop is frosted, colour-graded and tinted. The shadow and dim halo go on their own layer.
- Photoshop reads the backdrop inside a history step that it rolls back; Illustrator rasterizes the art below the glass. Your document is never changed by a read.
Working on the code, or pointing an AI coding agent at it? Start with AGENTS.md and docs/PROJECT_HISTORY.md.
Needs Rust and Node.js. Run rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown once.
npm installnpm testPhotoshop: after changing the engine, rebuild it and copy target/wasm32-unknown-unknown/release/glass_core.wasm into photoshop/:
cargo build -p glass_core --release --target wasm32-unknown-unknownPackage as dist/LiquidGlass-for-Adobe.ccx and install with powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install.ps1 (Windows) or sh install.sh (macOS). Add -NoInstall / --no-install to only build the package.
Illustrator (Windows): needs Visual Studio C++ Build Tools, the Illustrator SDK and the Microsoft.Web.WebView2 NuGet package. See illustrator/README.md.
After Effects and Premiere Pro (Windows): needs Visual Studio C++ Build Tools and the After Effects SDK. See aftereffects/README.md.
Setup.exe and every release file: powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File release.ps1 builds the plugins, Setup.exe and all downloads into dist/release.
- RGB documents only in Photoshop; Illustrator works in RGB and warns in CMYK documents.
- Photoshop updates land when you release the mouse: Photoshop doesn't run plugins mid-drag.
- Each live update in Photoshop is a history step, so undoing an edit takes two steps.
- Brush strokes in Photoshop don't trigger an update: press Refresh.
Made by CGSudo. Connect on LinkedIn. Website: cgsudo.github.io/liquid-glass-for-adobe.
MIT © CGSudo. Liquid Glass for Adobe is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Adobe or Apple. Adobe, Photoshop and Illustrator are trademarks of Adobe; "Liquid Glass" refers to Apple's design material.